Who Were the Sea Peoples?

in Brooklyn . (Hat tip to Elen.)

While in Auburn for Mises University, I got into an argument over the existence of God. The young man arguing with me thought he had a priori proof that God couldn't exist. (We were both at the bar, so it's possible that he didn't present his case well and/or that I am botching my summary of it.) Basically he argued that theism made no sense, because if God created the universe, then that's something out of nothing. (I will pause just to let that sink in.) Naturally my first response was to say that God is not nothing. He asked, "Then what does God consist of?" I responded, "Love, wisdom, omnipotence..." It soon became clear that he was a materialist (or some variant of), and so thought that nothing could exist before the existence of the physical universe. I tried showing the problems with this by asking, "Of what does Austrian economics consist? Of what does geometry consist?" (Note that you can say propositions, but by the same t...

This is even funnier than The Onion's spoof. I think Kaplan didn't really drive home the point, but he did write these choice quotes: [Rice's] statement is worth a close look now, because it reflects with glaring clarity something horrifying about this administration's leaders: the wide-elbowed indifference with which they stomp around the globe, their shrugged inattention to the consequences of their actions. ... Scholars who enter the chambers of power should use their training as a tool to help them make decisions. Condi Rice is using hers as a chant to wish away the consequences.

(Hat tip to Tim Swanson .)

My son really loves my Sprint cell phone, to the point of sucking on it. The contact points on the battery and phone (where it hits the charger) got corroded, and now the phone doesn't charge. It was a gradual process. Over the course of about 3 weeks, the charging got to be a hassle where I'd try several times putting the phone in the charger, until finally it looked like it was working. Anyway while on vacation my phone totally died, and I couldn't get it to charge enough even to get my numbers out of my address book. I took it to a Sprint store while in Alabama, and the lady there just looked at my phone and said she couldn't help because it was an old model. Today I am back in Manhattan and took it to a Sprint store. After putting my name on a list and waiting a few minutes, I was called to the "agent" who just showed me the corrosion and said my numbers were gone. Somehow I think that if it had been her phone she would have at least tried to plug th...

But stay out of cars and off the roads . Meanwhile, in a war to "protect" its people, the Israeli government is deliberately allowing some of them to be attacked .

Roderick Long writes: "By most reports, Israeli bombings of Lebanon are strengthening Hezbollah’s support among Lebanese civilians, while Hezbollah bombings of Israel are strengthening the Israeli government’s support among Israeli civilians. "So here we have (what are by libertarian standards) two criminal gangs, both blasting away at innocent civilians, and the result is to increase these gangs’ popularity among the civilians being victimised! A very successful outcome for both sides." Read the whole post here .