Kiss the Flag

Welllll, my application to UT Law is going out today...it's really been a team effort getting this thing ready; professional reviewers, professional letters of recommendation...lot's of logistics and leg work involved...phew, glad it's almost over.

National Defense and Intelligence Policy is a pretty eye opening class this semester. As a student of International Politics I sort of understand the relationships between states and their allies, but what really puts into perspective how intertwined the relationships are is the types of ballistic missiles these states have in common...you can get a great deal of relationship insight, for example, by which nations share China's CSS "DongFeng" missile technology...very cool stuff...well if you're a dorkus malorkus like me it's pretty cool (by the way the whole missile/relationship exercise wasn't a class assignment, that was just for fun...next step is to find the Chinese missile manufacturing plants on Google Earth).

Workouts are going great, except that I've lost my work out partner due to my school schedule...and it's so difficult to stay motivated by myself; but onward I must trudge.

Oh, and the title of this post? Well, I just can't get enough of Evans Blue lately. Evans Blue precariously walks a fine line between good music and generic pussy rock, but their lyrics have enough depth, and their guitars enough hook to pull it off.

Wait a minute...Where Are We Going?

Time and time again we are told that life is about the journey, not the destination; this is true in literature, poetry, music, and art works of all sort. My thing is; you never undertake a journey without knowing the destination. So if life is a journey, where are we going??!?!

Heeeeres my take on it: The destination in life is goodness and wisdom-- the good life. There is no path to get there, no map or road; we get there by daily winning our interior struggles. We all wage internal battles on a daily basis; it's how we rise to fight our self adversaries that determines whether or not we reach our destination.

There is a story in Native American folklore that speaks volumes to this concept. A Native American man is talking to his grandson:"There are two wild animals inside of me. One is greedy, cruel, and hateful. The other is generous, compassionate, and loving. They are constantly at battle; they fight every moment I am awake". Upon hearing this the grandson asks "Grandfather, which one wins?" To which the grandfather responds: "Whichever one I feed".

On Friendship

A good friend sent me this quote the other day and I just can't get over its elegant simplicity.

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
-Albert Camus

If I were more laconic in nature and I were to provide a compendium on friendship, this would be it. In other words, please don't judge your friends for the way that they are or seem to be. Don't try too hard to understand them or to relate; Just give your silent friendship and in return you will have their eternal allegiance and constancy of character. Unfortunately we are often asked to give more than God has graced us with the capacity to give; to justify actions or to provide reason-to sacrifice more than which with we are endowed. Please refrain from requiring of your friends that which they are unable to give...just walk beside them.

Distracted

Not really, but The Loved Ones have a new album coming out on February 3 titled Distractions; their new single Distracted is already up on MySpace.

Week In Review: All in all it was a pretty good week; classes are good. I have 2 awesome classes (National Defense & Intelligence Policy, and Metaphysics) and 2 so-so classes (Astronomy, and Theology). The classes seem to go ok with my job schedule, so everything should work out! I'm also in the midst of serious research for my summer in Europe. A friend of mine helped me find some super cheap airline tickets so the next step is to plan an itinerary and figure out where to sleep!

Everything in the world seems to be at a lull right now. President Obama just took office and I think all interested world parties are taking a break to figure out how to deal with the new administration. There's still plenty of regional conflict of course, but nothing like the scale of conflict that we saw on the run-up to January 20th.

My Little Social Experiment

So it should be no secret by this point that I'm pretty easily entertained...here are the reactions from 2 friends with very different personalities when I decided to share "just a little too much" in an IM conversation. Let's call them "Friend A" & "Friend B". "A" was definitely more entertaining, but "B" had me ROFL'ing:

Friend A
(9:55:17 PM) MinimalistHobo: i just took a dump
(9:55:19 PM) Friend A: umm
(9:55:22 PM) Friend A: I don't need to know that
(9:55:27 PM) MinimalistHobo: No, it's ok..i don't mind.
(9:56:07 PM) Friend A: i do
(9:56:10 PM) Friend A: i mind
(10:04:38 PM) MinimalistHobo: oh
(10:05:20 PM) MinimalistHobo: ok, i thought we were the type of friends that "shared"
(10:05:25 PM) MinimalistHobo: my bad
(10:49:45 PM) Friend A: share is one thing
(10:49:58 PM) Friend A: imagary associated with what comes out of your ass
(10:50:04 PM) Friend A: thats for married people
(10:50:53 PM) MinimalistHobo: i'm sorry..i guess I thought we were close enough to share those kinds of details..i must have misjudged our relationship...I didn't just take a dump then.

Friend B
(9:56:13 PM) MinimalistHobo: i just took a dump
(9:58:06 PM) Friend B: thats insane
(9:59:09 PM) Friend B: where did you take it from?
(9:59:23 PM) Friend B: the cat turds?
(9:59:29 PM) MinimalistHobo: hahaha....bravo!
(9:59:41 PM) MinimalistHobo: i'm testing reactions of my friends
(9:59:54 PM) MinimalistHobo: to the phrase "i just took a dump"
(9:59:58 PM) Friend B: i win

COME FOR ME!!!!!

hahaha...I just cant get the line "Come for me!" from Peter O'Toole's portrayal of King Henry II in the film The Lion in Winter out of my head. That film is a masterpiece and I just can't understand how O'Toole has never won an Academy Award. I have now moved on to another O'Toole portrayal of the first monarch from the House of Plantagenet in the earlier film Becket...good stuff.

Something else I can't get out of my head lately is Anberlin's Adelaide...I know, I know, Anberlin is totally lame, but I do like that song. (also check out the new music on my iPod list)

I'm working on law school apps this weekend and I think I've turned a corner; for this very morning I finished my personal statement!!! Of course I'll be noodling it 'til the very moment I submit it to the Law School Admissions Council, but I'm done with the major edits, so that's a milestone! Next item on the list? -- Resume!, and college transcripts, and finalizing recommendation letters, and putting the finishing touches on the actual applications, and...

I'm also excited about applying to the joint JD/Masters program at UT Law. I think I'm going to go for a Master's degree in Global Policy.

School starts Tuesday. I found out on Friday that I need another Poli Sci credit to graduate which really pissed me off. If I had known I needed another credit I surely would have done the study abroad in Taiwan...I hadn't been that mad in a loooong time. I'm over it now and ready to get my last semester over with. Here's the line up:

* Theology: Pentateuch (Old Testament)
* Philosophy: Metaphysics
* Poli Sci: Federalism & Intergovernmental Relations
* Physics: Astronomy II

...should be interesting...

In case you haven't heard I'm sick...

...and tired of trying. I'm sick and tired of trying to rationalize an irrational situation; sick and tired of feeling helpless while witnessing what may the height of human folly. I heard a guy on NPR state something similar to the following:

Hamas permeates Palestinian society; from the college professor to the cab driver. Hamas is not an organization, it's an idea; and you can't bomb an idea into submission.

This statement reminded me of a question on my International Politics final. The question was something to the effect of "With decades of the Arab-Israeli conflict why have there been no political theories to address said conflict. My answer was as follows:

The reason that there has been no coherent IP theory to address Israel/Palestine is because up until very recently the prominent Political Science theories have been rational theories. Rational Theories focus on rational actors meaning state actors. Everything boils down to the state and the power of the state. What you have in Hamas is a non state actor. Hamas is the idea of the Palestinian homeland, the idea of freedom. So for there is no framework for rational theories to build upon.

Hamas cannot be bombed into submission like a state government can be. Hamas cannot be subdued by the power of realist theory, unless there is genocide. Which seems the be the path that Israel has set themselves upon.

Liberal political theory wont work either. Hamas cannot be a partner for trade because Hamas has no economic structure, no viable land or natural resources. the only thing that Hamas has to export is ideology and a hunger for freedom; an ideology of winning this freedom at any cost. And for every Palestinian killed that ideology is being exported at an increasing rate.

It eludes me. The rationale behind Israel's actions absolutely eludes me. How does the most hated state in the region think that the way to create a symbiotic relationship with its neighbors is to kill them? How does Israel think that killing Palestinian civilians will all of the sudden make Hamas' agents of terror see the error of their ways?

There's Just Too Much...

There's just too much on my mind these days. One of the most disturbing things I've been thinking about is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ramping up in Gaza. Israel has launched a HUGELY disproportionate response to Hamas' lobbing of rockets. According to Al Jazeera over 660 Palestinians have been killed and over 3700 have been wounded since Israel's December 27th assault began. To get a fresh perspective on the matter one must look beyond western news sources which are either unable or unwilling to show the sheer carnage of the conflict. The most alarming images I've seen from this round of fighting have been from China's Xinhua News Agency depicting images of children slain when Israel shelled a UN run school. Reminds me of a Rudyard Kipling poem, but I digress.

Also on my mind is work. I'm concerned that I'm spending too much time performing tactical tasks rather than focusing on more strategic initiatives. Oh well, this stuff must be done and I'm more than happy to pitch in as there is plenty to do...although I do conceive of a life more adventurous one of these days *sigh*.

One thing that I'm trying to not think about, but still seems to seep its way into my gray matter the way this winter rain seems to find every crack on the root splintered sidewalk is law school apps. My dead line is fast approaching at the end of the month and I'm thinking more and more that I'd like to join the military rather than spend another 3 years at school. I can't place my finger on it but it just seems like the right thing to do. I have a restlessness that I know can't be quelled by spending more time in class. I'm still applying to all of the schools that I want to go to though because it's good to have options, right?

One last thing on my mind is the death of Samuel Huntington on Christmas eve. No commentary; if you know who Sam Huntington is, then you know the mark that his theories left on post-Cold War liberal thought...and I just wanted to acknowledge that the world has lost one of the great minds of our time.