Yes, I know. But so many public TVs are annoying that I really wish I could turn them off. Like I said, I know people are going to abuse it, and there's going to be a specific law banning it and imposing penalties on its use in no time. But just like we all wish we had a device with which to banish the slow driver in front of us to some limbo where deadlines don't exist and nobody's in a hurry to get anywhere, it would be so satisfying to turn off that annoying TV and get away with it even if it bothers other people... and like the inventors said, they tried it in a number of places where nobody was paying attention to the screen and never got a complaint about it. (Maybe they're glossing over some details.) Using it in a sports bar would be pretty dumb. But I just don't go to that kind of place.

*proudly* Nope! But this is the sort of thing I point out when people get in my face about voting.

Actually, if we used "one person, one vote" voting, I think the impact of this sort of thing would be minimized. The net effect of cheating would be the aggregate sum of the extra votes cast by the cheaters. In a population of millions, that's probably not much. In the plurality system we use, a small amount of cheating can swing a large proportion (an entire state) in a small pool of electoral votes. This sort of thing is serious in our current system.

Xellos is my original icon, from before I had the Mint one. I only added that one a few months ago or so, shortly before I bumped into your post about (I believe) bipolar disorder. I've enjoyed seeing the many faces of Ed as well. What was it... Edward Wong Hao Pepelu Tivrusky the Fourth? I can never remembed the whole thing. Easier than Johann Gambleputty de von Ausfern Spenden-schlitter Crasscrenbon Fried-digger Dangle-dongle-dungle Barstein von Knacker-thrasher Applebanger Horowitz Ticolensic Grander-knotty Spelltinkle Grandlische Grumblemeyer Speltwasser Kurstliche Himble-eisen Bandwagen Gutenabend Bitte Ein Nuremberg Bratwurst Gespurt Mitz Weimacher Luber Hundsfut Gumberaber Schonedanker Kalbsfleische Mittleaucher von Haubtkoft of Urm, anyway. I can never remember that name. No idea why.

I have personal grudges against baseball in addition to the fact that I find it generally boring and hate when it pre-empts shows I want to watch. But I won't go into those. At least I understand the general rules of baseball, while its partner pitch-hit-and-run sport, cricket, eludes me to this day. I think it's meant to be the sport that everyone BUT Americans can enjoy. At least in most sports, everyone contributes about an equal part to the game. If a team has a good enough pitcher and the opposing team doesn't have good enough batters, the rest of the defense may never end up doing anything. And players on base are more or less helpless to watch as batters step up and strike out or foul. They can't always try to make a heroic play as the clock ticks down and their team is just a bit behind. Not that I really like sports like basketball or hockey either. And I like playing badminton, but I have no intention of watching it on TV.

Names are hard to come up with, especially outside Japanese. Japanese names are pretty easy. And for a cocaine addict, probably even harder... I maintain the position, controversial it may be, that one must be of exceedingly low intelligence to use a substance like that enough to become addicted to it in the first place. I'm aware that there are exceptions and see little reason to let that sway me.