I have a colleague (code name: Virginia Slim) who is quite obsessed with the election. As soon as I came in this morning she asked if I voted and I said I didn't want to tell her. She said "I bet you won't vote. I bet you saw the long line and turned tail." I tell you, is that anyway to speak to someone? The question used to be whether you voted Democratic or Republican and based on your answer people made assumptions about you. Now the question is simply whether or not you're voting, but those same assumptions are still made. It seems to me the whole point of democracy is that you don't have to participate. In fact, it's the eligible voters who don't go to the polls who underscore the basic tenet of American freedom. Why, they're more American than the Americans who do vote.

Virginia Slim, by the way, is the same person who insisted on buying me a birthday present (which I thought was quite unneccesary), then later said, "I'll only buy you something if Kerry wins." It's not that I even care about a present, but I don't think you can offer something to someone and then put a condition on it that's really got nothing to do with the person at all.