The Zot on Vacation

Well ladies and gents, the Zot is on vacation this week in sunny California, visiting esteemed former Reader of the Month Christopher “Late Night” Casselman. When I left Minnesota on Monday morning it was 4 degrees outside. Today I was walking through Old Town Pasadena and actually started to sweat a little bit. Outstanding.

I’ll assume that you’re all aware of the recent report (put together by the 16 agencies of the US intelligence community) that Iran halted its nuclear program in 2003 and is very unlikely to be capable of producing a nuclear weapon before 2010.

Personally, I find it very reassuring that this faction of Islamic fundamentalists will be ill-prepared to initiate the nuclear holocaust for three more years. Now we can go back to our previous Iranian diplomatic stance of ignoring the problem. At least it must be comforting to all the nonagenarians (who will be dead soon anyways).

I understand that the point of the report is to demonstrate that once again the Bush administration exaggerated a threat, but is exaggeration really such a bad thing? America has a tendency to turn a blind eye to potential dangers until they become imminent dangers. The belief that Iran was developing a nuclear program forced our leadership to diplomatically engage a country that has been stirring the pot in the Middle East for years (by funding various radical factions), has called for the extermination of an entire group of people (Israeli Jews), and has been oppressing its people through Islamic law.

On a different note, I’d like to initiate a conversation on Ecclesiastes. I read through it yesterday, and found it baffling. It seems that the author repeatedly contradicts himself, and the chapter is extremely discouraging to anyone hoping to make a difference in the world. What are everyone else’s thoughts?

Sorry that this post is a bit brief, but like I said I’m in sunny California.

Thanks for reading.