A week of ups and downs...

Well this week has been great and disappointing. First the good stuff. I attended 2 cool lectures this week. The first was on Tuesday; Wegger Strommen, Norway's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States came to visit my comparative political systems class. Mr. Strommen spoke about the role of the UN in world affairs. Strommen ended the lecture by call for drastic reform for the world's governing body.

The second lecture was last night and was given by John Langan of Georgetown University. The topic of Fr. Langen's lecture was the Five Wars in Iraq in relation to the Just War Principles. Excellent stuff.

But the really good news was me finding out that I will only have to complete 10 credits next semester and I'm officially a graduate!!! Of course the downside to this is that I will not be going on the Taiwan trip. It turns out that I don't need another political science credit, and I can't justify spending almost $4k on a course I don't need...sure would've been a great experience though.

My vote

I finally figured out my voting dilemma. For those of you that may not know, here's the back ground:

I've been considering not voting (or at the very least voting for Ron Paul) ever since John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. I'm sure Palin is well intentioned, but the office of the Vice President demands more than a narrow minded, backwoods Jane 6-pack. Then there's senator Obama and his socialist view of wealth distribution. Definitely can't vote for him. Thank you Senator, but if you don't mind I'll take a shot at earning my money the old fashioned way; by working for it.

My candidate is Joad Cressbeckler. Aside from his stance on snake oil salesmen, I agree with the majority of his positions.


Old, Grizzled Third-Party Candidate May Steal Support From McCain

A Matter of Perspective...

OK, so the past few posts have been from a sort of "third person, objective" narrative point of view. Well, I'm sick of that. There's no value add in saying "the Hobo" when I mean myself...so here's a change in perspective for ya'...

Hi. Feels good to be back in first person. So, I've been having a bit of a day. Yesterday I brought my Econ book to the office thinking that I would stick around and do a little reading after work and wait for traffic to die down...BIG mistake. As I was driving home it began to rain; and I mean heavy rain. I was stuck in traffic for the better part of an hour and when I finally made it to mid-town all of the streets were flooded. I've never seen the streets like that before; must be a lot of debris from Ike clogging the drainage.

Anyway, I'm like a block from my house when a some a-hole in an f250 comes barreling down the road creating a huge wake that covers my hood. Next thing you know my car is dead. That is pure douchebaggery sir!

Flash forward to now: I'm at home waiting for a tow truck to come get my ride so I can hear whether or not it can be fixed...I so hope it can be fixed' I really like my car; her name is Annabelle.

On the lighter side; I started filling out law school apps last night and I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend at home to work on my personal statement.

BTW, my favorite quote from the weekend camping trip:

TechPoet: What?!?!?! Elton John is NOT gay!!!

Me: That's right!!!! He's a ladies man...he's as straight as Liberace!

A man named Maynard...

John Maynard Keynes that is. Recently the Financial Times published an analysis article titled Man in the News: John Maynard Keynes. The title is ironic because Keynes has been dead for 62 years. Yet Keynes' economic theories are as relevant today as they were in his time.

It's kind of scary to realize that a man was able to present such great insight to the workings of our economy 70 plus years ago and yet we have not been able to forestall our modern economic woes.

As the article so neatly summed it up:

If individuals and businesses try to save more, they will cut the incomes of other individuals and businesses, which will in turn cut their spending. The result can be a downward spiral that will not turn up again without outside intervention.

That is where government comes in: to pump money back into the economy by some means, such as spending on public works, to persuade individuals and businesses to save less and spend more themselves.

This is precisely the behavior we are seeing today; consumers hear about the boogey man on the evening news and pretty soon they're stuffing wads of cash in their mattresses and tightening their belts. And soon the "impending crisis" that they keep hearing about becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. A key economic assumption in many models is that the consumer is rational; well with all of the hype it doesn't seem like we can expect to see a rational consumer anytime soon.

Don't get the Hobo wrong here; there are many many variables at play, but consumer confidence IS a leading indicator of the economy overall...that's what John McCain meant when he said that a large part of the problem is psychological.

of camping and of all philosophers ancient.

Well well well. Midterms are over and the Hobo must say, this semester is killer. The Hobo has never been so lost when it comes to ancient and enlightenment thinkers. The Hobo understood the concepts, but man just was not able to synthesize the info. Oh well. This weekend the Hobo is going camping!!! But it wont be all fun and games. This is a working vacation; the Hobo has much reading to do this weekend! Yay for Liberalism, democratic regimes and international trade! *sigh* At least there'll be no reading on old dead guys. :P

Great Deals and Congratulations

The Hobo went to Academy during lunch today to prepare for his weekend camping trip and got some really great deals! First of all the Hobo picked up a Kelty sleeping bag for $25 which is like half off of its original price. The reason being that the sleeping bag was in the wrong place on the shelf so the store offered to sell it to the Hobo at the marked price. Then the Hobo picked up a Mossy Oak folding camo chair for like $4.00 off because it was missing the tag and when they ran the price check they ran it for the wrong item. The Hobo tried to argue with the store and pay the diff, but Academy wouldn't hear of it. Yay for Academy; Hobo deals abound!

The Hobo would like to extend congratulations to economist Paul Krugman. It was announced today that Krugman has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences...Congrats!

They're pounding nails in San Antone, they're pounding nails...

The Hobo has gotten word that The Loved Ones will be playing Scout Bar in San Antonio on November 15...do you smell that? It smells like a roadtrip!

Cool Hand Luke

So as The Minimalist Hobo was creating this blog, right before he received a call from the TechPoet, the Hobo was watching Cool Hand Luke, one of the Hobo's favorite movies. What's really cool is that the movie came on earlier in the evening and the Hobo got to see the beginning of it; right up to the point where Luke is about to eat the 50 eggs. When the Hobo came home from the bar the movie was playing again from the exact same spot! Don't you love it when that happens?!!?!? Now Cool Hand Luke is one of those movies that just sums it all up. It's the story of a man that has been beaten and beaten and yet he wont stay down. Every time he's beaten, every time he's broken he just comes right back.

It's a true testament to the human spirit

The Hobo went to Cecil's Pub tonight and guess who he runs into...none other than Kevin D. Kevin told the Hobo that Reno Divorce front man Brent Loveday may be coming to Houston for a solo show. No firm plans yet, but the Hobo will keep you posted.

Well today's a study day; the Hobo has 2 more midterms this week: Law and Society and International Politics...lates!

Inaugural Post!!!

The Minimalist Hobo has now entered the blogosphere and the world will never be the same. At this moment there is no plan for this blog; no subject matter or theme. I'm just going to post whatever's captured my fancy of the moment. Music, politics, law school, economics mid-terms, technology, random randomness...let's just see how it goes

I just got a call from the TechPoet, so I'm gonna go meet him for a drink...cheers.

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