America, Home of Required Freedom and Land of the Poorly created Govermental Forms. No, I'm not whining about tax forms, it's a given that those are ridiculously complex. Nope, I'm talking about the Selective Service! Yes, that happy little green and white form of basic info that all males between 18 and 25 must fill out or be charged with a felony punishable with "$250,000 in fines, up to 5 years imprisonment, or both." Scary, no? Well, what is getting to me is the registering website's first question, check it out for yourself at https://www4.sss.gov/regver/register_nc.asp
is gender, followed quickly by a note stating that "current law does not permit females to register." So I'm sitting here wondering why they even ask the damn question in the first place if there is only one legal answer. Sigh. I also got my Voter Registration Card today, so now I can participate in elections which may, or may not, be a good thing; for further info please reference the long discussion had by Mr. Gray, Michelle Li, and Julie Ceigler in Mr. Gray's car on the way back from Academic Bowl at Ezell-Harding. Anyways, back to the selective service. The second question is First/Middle Name. Ambiguity is apparently the Goverment's strong point here. Plus, the draft is kinda common knowledge. At least the date is better than the example on the Mailed card; January First 1998, which becomes 01-01-1998. But 01 for Month could easily be the 01 for date. Sometimes I get really worried by the idiots behind our Government, then I see Bush on TV and things just go downhill from there. Note the bottom question: "How did you find out about this registration?" Well, considering that it's a manditory service and they mail you this happy green and white card with a PIN number, which doesn't seem to be used either, I don't see why that question is there either. Notwithstanding that arguement, I'm debating what answer to put there, I can rule out common sense cause it's not there, so I think I'll go with parent to humor them. There, I'm done and my PIN was never used. How not suprising. Say hello to 84 - 0962048 - 4, aka: me. This was so sad, I think I'm going to go cry. But remember, it's never the smart people who do politics.