Bill McKinley described the rites that go along with the Australian democratic process:
>In an Australian context, the ritualistic elements in an election include:
[PM driving to see the GG, cake stall run by the oldies, etc.]
It may be of interest to note that our electoral process is a *compulsory* rite of passage, a HQ everyone except the very aged, the insane and those in gaol, and the Governor-General*, is expected to take part in as voting here is compulsory. If you don't vote, you will be fined, and if you don't pay, you go to gaol. An anarchist friend of mine got banged up in the chokey for this very offence a few elections back. There are excellent reasons for making the vote compulsory. Is Australia the only country in the world where it is a crime not to vote?
*the GG as HM The Queen's representative is not allowed to vote.
Because he gets no say in who runs the country, he also doesn't
have the privelege of paying tax (the lucky bastard!)
_________________________
Although I thought I made it very clear in my post on the matter, some people seem to have totally misinterpreted what I said about handing over distribution of Tales of the Reaching Moon & assorted products to my good buddie Andrew Bean.
For the record, I have not either a. left the Megacorp in a state of high dudgeon or b. been thrown out by my other good buddie, David Hall, evil genius though he is. Quite to the contrary, I am probably doing more for the Megacorp now than before, which, combined with the fact I have recently changed jobs, is one reason why I arranged for Andrew to take over as Our Man in the Antipodes. I continue to serve as Associate Editor of Tales, and have my fingers in the pie on many Megacorp projects from G:tG to RMM's LoM.
Cheers
MOB P.S. RE: Vain attept to stave off further flame wars (V3 #160)
As someone who has dished out and received his fair share of virulent abuse over the myriad editions of this digest, I for one don't mind an occasional bout of, shall we say, more-vigorous-than-normal debate! Livens things up, and sometimes shows us what's going on deep in the minds of the protagonists.
What I *do* hate though, is when people resort to those lame :) thingoes to say something offensive and back out, pretending they're not really being serious. Those :) thingoes remind me of the laugh track in feeble sit-coms, telling us when to laugh because the jokes ain't good enough on their own to make it obvious.
Of course, all this could just be me joking! :0 ;] :>) 3+) !/0
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