Revenue raising

They're at it again. Tonight, the ad for Today Tonight on Channel 7 showed a story about police being made to fill quotas for speeding fines and the like. A very indignant voice-over stated that the government is revenue raising and they're after you! Well, here's the thing. There is only one way the government can raise revenue in relation to vehicle fines. It's not putting more police with radar guns on the road. It's not hiding them behind bus stops or underpasses. It's not mobile units following us. It's not giving the police quotas to fill. Are you ready for it? The only way the government can raise revenue is ...

IF YOU BREAK THE LAW.

That's right. If you drive within the speed limit, wear your seat belt, don't talk on you mobile phone, don't get distracted by the stereo or your passengers, don't road rage, you won't get a fine and the government CANNOT raise revenue from you.

And you know what? There's a couple of added bonuses that the tv shows usually leave out of their sensationalised stories. Driving safely not only helps you avoid fines; it also increases your chances of getting to your destination in one piece. Imagine if everyone drove like that, everyone would get where they wanted to go. No more death knocks on the door. The other bonus is the government would not need to raise revenue - revenue that goes to our hospital and rehabilitation centres, where the victims of idiots end up - because those costs would decrease. Win-win in my opinion.

The only time I want to hear someone griping about a ticket is if a genuine mistake has been made. I'm sure it happens, no system (or person) is infallible. Then, and only then, do you have the right to complain. Otherwise, shut the hell up, get a clue, and do the right thing. It might just save your life.

Twitter

I started a twitter account months ago and then promptly forgot about it. Last week, I found the username and password, typed it in, and found that I had 3 followers! Following what? I haven't sent one tweet yet! So, I decided to find some people to follow and started with Dave Hughes from The 7pm Project. Then I looked at who he follows and added a few of them. And so on and so forth. Suddenly I had 45 people I was following, from all over the world. All of them verified accounts of celebrities. Over the last week, I have been reading the pearls of wisdom these celebs have been tweeting - wow, there's minutes of my life I'll never get back. I still haven't posted a tweet myself, not even a retweet or a reply. I must do that though, see if the celebs really do write back. Interesting experiment at least.

I realise I haven't ranted about this topic, so here it is. I have no interest in tweeting anything, and I really don't care about what these people have to say. But, I can't stop reading them!! There's something appealing about being a 'fly on the wall', so to speak, in these people's lives. Why can't I stop? What is so fascinating about 140 characters of misspelled (due to lack of space, I'm sure), inane, and let's face it, totally uninteresting tweets? I can only hope that this is as far as the obsession goes. I don't know what I'll do if I start sending tweets of my own!