Thursday, June 10, 2010

From the WTF Files


Tip O' the Hat to Lars Larson who mentioned this on his show.

Just a few miles north of where I live, the people of the oblast of Washington are attempting to protest the high taxes imposed by the politburo. They have somehow managed to place on the November ballot a piece of legislation that is simply hilarious in the manner that it demands truth in politics. Measure 1069 states:

"This measure would require the Seal of the State of Washington to be changed to depict a vignette of a tapeworm dressed in a three piece suit attached to the lower intestine of a taxpayer shown as the central figure. The seal would be required to be encircled with the following words: “Committed to sucking the life blood out of each and every tax payer.” The illustration would be selected from submissions submitted by taxpayers."

At first I thought this was a joke, and a funny one at that, but then I went to the Washington Secretary of State's website and confirmed the authenticity. I have to admit that at this point, I laughed so hard that my sides hurt. I told a few friends at work about the initiative, and actually had to prove that I was not making it up, or that it was a big joke. While we were talking about it, one of my friends asked how many signatures are required to get an initiative on the ballot. I tossed out one hundred thousand, a number I thought was at least in the ball park. Through my research for this post, I found out that I was far short. According to the laws of the state of Washington, the number or registered voter signatures needed to place a ballot initiative is in fact two hundred forty one thousand one hundred fifty three. Every one of these signatures must be from a lawfully registered voter, and as many signatures are duplicates or not from a registered voter, an overage of twenty percent is recommended. Basically a quarter million Washingtonians want this beast to pass. At this point it took nearly five minutes to catch my breath, and now my sides really hurt

James Vaughn of Orting, WA. obviously put much effort, and probably cash, into getting this initiative on to the ballot, and several of my friends in that neck of the woods intend to vote for it. Despite the entertainment factor, I know that this ballot measure will never pass in the Worker's Paradises of Seattle, Olympia or Tacoma, and will therefore not die stillborn, but it is still highly entertaining, Later, as I continued my work day, it occurred to me, the flag of the State of Washington is a green banner with the Washington State Seal on it. Depending on how the state flag code is written, this could potentially mean that the State Tapeworm would grace the flag in lieu of George Washington. If the flag code details every element, then it would not change. If however it simply details the seal on a green banner...... With great glee I looked up the flag code which reads:

RCW 1.20.010 State flag. The official flag of the state of Washington shall be of dark green silk or bunting and shall bear in its center a reproduction of the seal of the state of Washington embroidered, printed, painted or stamped thereon.

Now I am on the floor wetting myself.

2 comments:

Right Truth said...

That's interesting. My first thought would be it's a joke also.

Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

Right Wing Extreme said...

Total truth, honest injun.