Social D is coming to Austin

It's about time!!! Social Distortion is coming to Austin March 7!!!! It's been years since I've seen them live; this is going to be awesome. There's a rumor that Tiger Army will be playing too. There's a roadtrip involved and definitely lots of partying after the show...deets later!

Toward a Universal Truth?

I've been looking, for the past few years, for a universal truth. A moral absolute that transcends geographic and cultural boundaries; an undeniable commonality...up until now I've been pretty unsuccessful, but I never stopped looking. Every time I thought I had a theory I would always find a valid argument against it. I thought "thou shalt not kill" would be a moral absolute; but then I encountered the self defense and Jus ad Bellum justifications. I thought surely rape, slavery, gender equality, etc. would be regarded universally around the world, but further investigation proved that these concepts are culture bound.

Earlier I was reading a summary on the English School of International Relations and I stumbled upon this: An author named John Vincent in his book Human Rights and International Relations posited that a person has the right to not go hungry; that no one should be denied basic sustenance. The impact of Vincent's assertion should not be taken lightly for this reason: Since the beginning of civilization mankind has struggled to find a common ground in the field of International Relations; a universal belief of a single human right can lay the groundwork for future cooperation amongst state actors. Unfortunately ideological deviations between states have hindered any progress in this area. The fact that Vincent was bold enough to identify an area for universal acceptance inspires hope. Author Andrew Linklater writes of Vincent's theory

[Vincent] argued that the right of the individual to be free from starvation is one human right on which all states can agree on despite their ideological differences. Vincent argued that a global action to end starvation is essential since the absence of the basic means of sustenance should always shock the conscience of humankind. Consensus on this matter would be a significant advance in relations between the Western world, which has traditionally been concerned with order rather than justice, and the non-Western world, which has always stressed the need for greater justice.

So will this be the one moral absolute that will be the "silver bullet" in International Relations? Probably not, but it's a start. And considering that I thought a universal truth was impossible, I'm starting to like our odds.

Post for the sake of posting

Yea, it's been a while since my last post, but I've been super busy. So here's a post just to keep things going. I don't have too much to say, so you probably shouldn't even take your time to read this. As a matter of fact you will regret wasting your time on this post, and then you'll be all pissed off at me...then the next time you see me you'll be all like "dude, your last blog post totally wasted my time; you're a douchebag", then you'll punch me in the head...I don't want to be punched in the head so please don't read this...

What a killer week. I had an Econ test today that I've been studying for since Sunday...I just took it and I have NO idea whether or not I got a single answer correct. At least the weekend is nearly here. I'm hungry but I have absolutely no energy to cook anything and even less energy to go out and get something...feeling very introverted tonight so staying in & recharging my batteries sounds like a good idea. Now if I could only get someone to bring me some food I'd be set.