{ derryl w. carter }

Well actually, that statement might be misinterpreted. I do, in fact, quite enjoy the ability to influence the selection of government officials. After all, that’s what democracy is all about.

What I mean to say is that I detest the behavior that elections bring about. Nearly everyone I know has something to say about one candidate or another, and none of it is particularly nice. I think it’s quite safe to say that elections bring out the worst in people - though I suppose that arousing hatred within somebody is better than nothing at all.

In my various stumblings today, I came upon a website that I’d completely forgotten about, although had discovered sometime earlier this year at work. It’s called Anxiety Culture, and it’s very interesting (and useful, I think) for a number of reasons.

It seems to me that Americans have three main goals in life:

1. Work their butt off in order to obtain a respectable job.
2. Work their butt off at that job to collect as much money as possible.
3. Spend that money, hoping it will assuage their mental insecurities.

Just stumbled across this guy named Shad - he’s currently putting out new music, but he retains that old-school, early 90’s flavor that I just can’t get enough of. Check out his video below for The Old Prince Still Lives at Home (the rap he busts at the end is one not to be missed):

If you want to see more of his stuff, you can check out his Myspace!

I’ve been feeling, for quite a long time, that America’s bipartisan system has got to go.

I was reading Scott Adams’ blog today (he’s the guy that draws Dilbert), and I rather like his idea for a new political party. It would be a party based purely on economic logic, and I feel it would definitely push us in a better direction. If you’re interested, read his article before continuing.

I know this is a few days after the fact, but I’m still reeling from the fact that the massive governmental bailout bill actually passed. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, along with help from others, has effectively drawn up a $900 billion check - a check that is addressed to large financial firms, and must be paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

So I haven’t updated this thang in a while - I guess life just zooms by sometimes. Anyway, here are a couple of songs for your listening enjoyment.

This first one is an hour-long mix by DJ ZTrip, who is quite talented, and it’s filled with inspirational samples and such about this upcoming election:

Obama Mix - 85 MB

This next one is actually quite old (about a year or so), but it’s one of my favorite mixes by the SuperStar DJ’s on their free podcast Fat Laces Radio. If you enjoy it, you should check out their other episodes and give them some props!

“Flip-flopping” is a term that generally carries a negative connotation in politics. If someone flip-flops on issues, it means that they are unsure where they stand, both politically and morally, and are lacking in confidence and decisiveness. The GOP (and conservative media outlets, such as FOX News) have thrown the term around so much in the past decade that it hardly says much anymore.

Most have heard of former press secretary Scott McClellan’s “tell-all” book, What Happened, which criticizes the Bush administration for its proactive distortion of the truth and willful neglect of responsibility.

I just read this article today on Yahoo, which reminded me, once again, why McClellan should be in the running for Biggest Douche in The Universe - were such an award to exist.

Here’s an excerpt from the article to get you up to speed:

I just saw this article while browsing my Netvibes page this afternoon. This high-school kid apparently hacked into his school’s servers and changed a bunch of his test grades from F’s to A’s, sparking the wrath of his school - and subsequently - that of prosecutors in Orange County. He now faces nearly 40 years of hard time.

It’s been a few days since I updated last - I had meant earlier this week to write on a variety of things - all of which now seem to be lost to my memory. Work has been pretty hectic. So, in lieu of whatever interesting things I had planned, I figured I’d post some of the websites that I check out regularly.

I’m not a very organized blog reader, and hence don’t really subscribe to anything. However, there are sites that I return to quite frequently:

Wurkit Books is authored by Daniel Ritzenthaler, and is updated with interesting and motivational quotes from books that he reads. I love the layout; the design is very concise and to the point.