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.

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.