Purpose

..so, what are ya' in for?

I was sitting around the dorm room, downing a 2-Liter of Pepsi, fretting about a tough project and thinking about the meaning of life.

Folks, this is an accurate description of the majority of the time I don't spend sitting around in class or helping people out with classwork.

You'd think I'd get somewhere, but all I've got is a high minded mish-mash which I am staunchly adamant about.

To wit:

Proposition: The purpose of life is to serve the best interests of mankind according to the dictates of one's own core value system.

Service is the key in my book. A life not in the service of other human beings (as well as one's self) seems to me the epitome of nihility (had to look that gem up!)

Now once I recognized that this was my perspective I had to carry it to its logical conclusions.

The myriad entertainers, the athletes, the multi-billionaires were all so many leaves in the wind. At least as defined by the aforementioned labels.

To be a Bill Gates or Michael Jordan was a simply a colossal waste of time. If one only considers, the traits (wealth and athletic ability) that made them famous.

Sound sappy? It gets worse.

Next I juxtapose it with other thoughts on purpose. A friend of mine seems to have his meter set on wealth and especially legacy.

He places value on being remembered.

Being remembered fondly, except for services rendered, has no value. The forgotten school teacher goes to her a grave a more fulfilled person than the mourned pop singer.

Understand that when I say that, I don't just mean on the inside. Or that a servant on his death bed is somehow more comforted than a person who did not fulfill their purpose.

Corollary: Fulfilled purpose is an absolute, not to be confused with satisfaction which is relative.

The janitor who wails with despair at life's end over dashed dreams and wasted years, may well have been more purposeful than a millionaire who nods of to bed for the last time with a smile on his face.

One last morsel...

Postulate: Fulfilled purpose is of greater value than satisfaction and is to be sought whenever the two are in conflict.

The meaning of life will not change (I refuse to edit it :P), it is our part therefore to adjust our attitudes to find happiness in it.

Happiness... sounds like the stuff of another post.

Signing off from la-la-land...

John Negroponte: Jack of All Trades

..What's up with this? I not sure whether it's a bad choice per se, but does the Bush Administration know of any other qualified people? Oh, you don't know what I talking about, do you?

From the BBC:
President George W Bush has nominated John Negroponte as
the first US director of national intelligence. [...]Mr Negroponte became US
ambassador to Iraq in July, after having been his country's envoy to the United
Nations. There has reportedly been little discussion of who will replace him in
Baghdad.
Link

From UN ambassador to Iraq ambassador to intelligence chief. Every time the White House has a difficult position to fill, it seems Negroponte is the guy.

How being an ambassador makes him the best intelligence chief is a bit iffy though.

I don't like the looks of this one at all...

Iraqi Prime Minister

Gotta a heads-up on the guy looking to run Iraq for the next few months.

Dr. Ibrahim Jafaari, leader of the Iraqi Dawa party. Dawa is islamist but this guy doesn't look to be an extremist. According to the NY Times he favors the current legal balance of religion and law in Iraq. It cites Islam of one of many sources of law, which means Sharia is not likely to be legally enshrined.

Good news for those interested in freedom and especially women's rights.

Iraq's New Start...

... and here it is!

One of the issues I'm watching more closely is the continually developing situation in Iraq. Of particular note recently have been the recent elections in the country.

Link to Election Results (Wikipedia): Iraqi Legislative Election, 2005

To be brief the "United Iraqi Alliance" a mainly Shiite coalition of parties with the quiet backing (he never claimed to support them himself, there were merely whispers from his spokesmen) has claimed a plurality with 140 of the 275 seats in the national assembly.

Other major players include the "Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan" (made up of the two main Kurdish parties) with 75 seats and the "Iraqi List" headed by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi with 40.

This makes for a divided government albeit between relatively friendly factions, possibly the best that could be hoped for.

It's a real downer for the "puppet government" crowd who were sure the evil neo-cons were going to install Allawi (you know, just like how they were going to install Chalabi). As well as for the "election of the extremists" crowd because the group backed by Moqtada Al-Sadr got two seats, both of his representatives are free to give the other a pat on the back... (Edited to Add: That number might be upgraded to three, which would be enough for a group hug)

..but for 25 million Iraqis it ain't so bad.

The Sunni Arabs who "chose" (or had the insurgents choose) to boycott are almost a non-issue, except in the consideration of the Shia and Kurds in power (which fortunately looks to be pretty friendly).

It also mean that fundamentalist Shia (the Kurds could stall everything if offended) have to go easy on the role of Islam in government which may well mean more freedoms for women and religious minorities.

How that could not be good is beyond me. Democracy is well on it's way to becoming a fact of life in Iraq.

Free(Penguin) Love

First of all, this post is not meant to be anti-gay in any way shape or form. I think the homophobia in our society has reached distressing levels and I certainly don't want to add to it.

This post is dedicated to the pursuit of comedy.

That being said, bring on the penguins.

Confused? What do penguins have to do with homophobia?

Apparently everything...

From the BBC:

"Gay rights activists have protested at a north German zoo's plans to test the sexual orientation of six male penguins which have displayed homosexual traits."[...]

"The zoo says it just wants to encourage the rare Humboldt penguins to breed.[...]
"Nobody here wants to forcibly separate homosexual couples," she said."
Gay outrage over penguin sex test

Which is good to know...

I could go into a whole diatribe about how this illustrates the capacity of human beings to get upset over the smallest things. You know, the tendency for people to separate into antagonistic factions at the slightest pressure.

..but I think we all know that isn't why I posted this.

So if you're like me, you'll have a good laugh and wait for the more intellectually stimulating content (I assure you it's coming)

Or, if you want me to stick with the penguin thing, tag on a comment and I'll consider it

I aim to please.

Peace and Penguin Love Folks!

A New Day...

For all of you who don't believe peer pressure works... :p

Observe that is has gotten me to do something that I have not tried in years. That is to say keep any form of journal.

Oh, I have been "encouraged" to in the past by school assignments, trips to camp and the like, but it seemed to me a most cruel form of torture to have me write about my own day.

I always preferred the luck of the psychological draw as the driving force behind my memories. If I forgot then, hey, it must not have been that important.

So when I first submitted the proposal to start a blog to the central processing office that sits between my ears, I balked at the idea.

"Sounds suspiciously like work," I say to myself.

"It's not work, there's no commitment to posting." I respond.

"If you want to leave whatever readers you have (pauses to listen to the crickets out back) out to dry no one can stop you."

The prospect of such a practical joke appealed to me, so after months of consideration (zzzz) I started "The Hot Seat".

Here in our "Siege Perilous" (this was the, already taken, first choice for a name) I intend to grill political and popular issues of note.

You see I have a shameful interest in the sordid game we in the English speaking world like to call "politics," in an effort to have some way of referring to it in polite company.

I thought to satisfy my regrettable urgings at the best darn site for discussion politics and policy anywhere...

*Vital Information*
America's Debate: A know-it-all's Heaven on Earth.

Visit, now... you can read my yammering later.

..Ahem, but that only aggravated my condition. I sure you're thinking that further expression on this site would do the same. Understand that I have decided to embrace the madness.

"Embrace the Madness" is quite possibly the best description of the plans I have for this blog you can get in three words. Remember it, the test is tomorrow.

Welcome.