Comparisons of incompatible types

[TomF]

I'm aggravated by this behavior in python:

x = "4"
print x < 7    # prints False

The issue, of course, is comparisons of incompatible types.  In most 
languages this throws an error (in Perl the types are converted 
silently).   In Python this comparison fails silently.  The 
documentation says: "objects of different types *always* compare 
unequal, and are ordered consistently but arbitrarily."

I can't imagine why this design decision was made.  I've been bitten by 
this several times (reading data from a file and not converting the 
numbers before comparison).  Can I get this to throw an error instead 
of failing silently?

Thanks,
-Tom