Pump the water, build the pressure, the coffin's lowered, and the lunches get packed

1. You know, I think Tori Amos' song "Happy Workers" (or is "The Happy Worker"?) could totally have been an XTC song. There's just something XTC-ish about it. Sort of akin to "Across This Antheap" and "Day In Day Out," maybe.

2. I had a dream last night that I was driving down the turnpike while sitting in the passenger seat. Not something I would recommend, even in a dream.

3. I got a free sample of the Schick Quattro. It really DOES seem to provide a closer shave than my triple blade razor. I have to wonder how many blades they'll be able to put on a razor, though. Is there some kind of upper limit?

4. I also got the label to send back that phone I don't need. Of course, I got it AFTER the post office closed, and I won't be able to get to an open post office until Tuesday at the earliest. No big deal, though. I should probably mail out Button-Bright of Oz while I'm there.

5. I was all set to go out to Best Buy and use a coupon to buy a Game Boy Advance, but then I noticed that the coupon wasn't good for video game hardware. I remember that, back when I worked at the toy store, I couldn't use my employee discount on video game systems either. Something about the stores selling them at cost, or something like that. So I guess it makes sense, but I'm still annoyed. I probably will buy one in the near future anyway, but no point making a special trip when I'm not even going to save any money.

6. Now HERE'S a quiz result I can live with:

( Yes, it's another quiz result )

Expect another entry from me in the near future, regarding politics in general (not Bush/Kerry-specific stuff). I just wanted to get these unrelated things out there.

Hooray, I bet you can't wait to vote for President Kill instead

All the recent presidential election stuff has gotten me thinking about politics in general. The idea behind a republic, that people elect leaders to represent them, is kind of ridiculous when you think about it. We're supposed to assume that, once these guys get into the government, they're going to do what we want, and not what THEY want. I mean, I understand that, if they don't do what the majority of the voters (or the majority of the electoral college, in the case of the President) want, they won't be re-elected. The problem is, while the next guy who gets voted in might not be as bad, they're probably still not going to do what I, as a citizen supposedly being represented by this leader, want. So do I think we should go to a direct democracy, where everybody votes on every issue? This is probably more logistically possible than it was back in the days of the Founding Fathers, but I still don't think it would work too well. We need SOMEONE to represent the country (or state, or whatever) when dealing with the rest of the world. Besides, a lot of people are stupid, and do we really want these stupid people contributing directly to the decision-making process? Well, maybe. I mean, ideally, that's what a democracy is, right? The idea still makes me kind of uncomfortable, though. Maybe if people thought their votes actually mattered, they'd be more likely to do research into the issues, but there's certainly no guarantee of that. For that matter, while I don't consider myself stupid (who does? {g}), I'm not knowledgeable about everything that's going on in the country and the world. There are many areas in which I don't trust the government, but I suppose they at least keep things running smoothly. Of course, that's pretty similar to the people who said Mussolini made the trains run on time, so I don't know. I guess that, ideally, I'd vote for someone who holds my opinions, but is a better statesman and more intelligent in dealing with problems, but I can't recall seeing anyone like that running for office. Maybe more frequent elections and a gradual (not overnight, obviously) end to the two-party system (and the party system in general, for that matter) would help. And, while it's not strictly related, the electoral college needs to go.

I was thinking of putting in Winston Churchill's quote about democracy being a bad form of government, but still the best one we had. The thing is, a Google search gave several versions of the quote, so I'm not sure what the right one is. Or maybe he said the same thing in different ways on different occasions. I don't know.

Have I been making too many entries as of late?