We got two types of replies from readers. From our American readers, we got replies expressing appreciation that our company has a sense of civic duty. My most cherished was the letter I got from TIME Magazine with very positive of comments. But from our international readers, we got replies that asked us why we insisted on involving them in our domestic affairs. Some were downright insulted that we'd waste their time, and they accused us of being American and therefore arrogant.

The honest truth is that we sometimes forget that we've got so many international readers. We live our lives right around Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, and it's often very easy to get caught up in our own local affairs. Yet the Internet is a world without nationalistic boundries, and pressing the Send button is often the trigger-pull on a shot heard 'round the world.

What we're seeing here, now, in America, is the business of the entire world. For better or worse (although, I'd like to think better), America is the world's most powerful nation. Our economic actions affect everyone. If our stock market drops or the dollar gains in value, everyone, everywhere will feel it.

This event, this electoral stalemate between two parties and two ideologies, is big. Really big. It will affect everyone. And in it can be a lesson for everyone, those here in America, as well as our friends in faraway places with strange sounding names.

You see, there are no tanks in the streets. There is no military coup. There is an epic battle for control of the most powerful nation in history, the most powerful arsenal in the world, and the most powerful economy ever seen, and there is no national violence. Just a lot of lawyers yelling at each other, a bunch of judges with an excess of stomach acid, two spoiled old white guys, and a highly amused (and a bit annoyed) electorate and fourth estate.

We've had a cataclysmic political earthquake and the ground hasn't opened up, bridges haven't fallen, and highways haven't collapsed. Business and life go on as usual.

And therein lies the beauty that always, always seems to trump the beast that's inherent in our American way of life.

My best wishes to both camps. Grow up. Set an example. Don't slide into irrelevancy. If you don't start acting as if you deserve the jobs you crave, the next four years will be a really big bummer for you guys. For us, the voters, life will go on regardless of how silly you behave.

We're Americans. And we're high maintenance. I wouldn't have it any other way.

-- David

PS: So, why am I writing this in PalmPower, a technical publication? Mostly, it's something I need to say. I'm a writer and a political sports fan. This is the real deal, and it's something I have to get out of my system. But secondly, and not to be discounted, this is also a battle over the perception of technology. Are machines really more accurate? Is it a good thing to give up the human touch? Are we, in Y2K, really saying that we want to trust more in machines? You're all a technical audience. You all know that machines, like their makers, are fallible in the extreme. Let's not lose sight of that. Y2K isn't over yet. It's not the two digits, it's the single piece of chad.