title: Can I make decode(errors="ignore") the default for all strings in a Python 2.7 program?
body: <p>I have a Python 2.7 program that writes out data from various external applications. I continually get bitten by exceptions when I write to a file until I add <code>.decode(errors="ignore")</code> to the string being written out. (FWIW, opening the file as <code>mode="wb"</code> doesn't fix this.)</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to say "ignore encoding errors on all strings in this scope"?</p>