Who Were the Sea Peoples?

"The Reform began with the program of submitting the secular sphere to the control of the saints and ended with the relegation of the saints to the corner of 'a free and voluntary society.' The moving sectarians have won their freedom of conscience at the price of keeping quiet and not bothering the political community with their affairs." -- Eric Voegelin, History of Political Ideas , Volume 7, pp. 142-143

La Repubblica recently was examining the topic of placing webcams in pre-school classrooms so that parents can check in on their kids. One Antonello Soro, president of a data privacy group, is against these, because they violate the privacy of the children and the liberty of the teachers. Look, I don't know if these cameras are good ideas or not. But what sort of "privacy" do four-year-olds have a right to expect in a pre-K classroom? The webcams aren't being put in the toilet, after all. More disturbingly, what do the teachers want the liberty to be doing that they can't do if there is a webcam around? Consider this: when I coached youth swimming my practices were always open for parents to watch. Had I somehow lost some of my liberty because of this? Sure, parents might sometimes try to interfere with my coaching methods. I would just tell them, "If you want me as your coach, you have to let me coach my way. If you want a different coach, you are free to l...

respect tradition, but don't turn it into an idol. I noted this was done by the traditionalists at the end of the Roman Republic, hastening its demise. Rod Dreher points out that Jesus beat me to this by 2000 years.

Why do base-n pseudoprimes exist? Well, since it is a topic in discrete mathematics, I suppose I shouldn't talk about it too much. "Mums" the word!

Yes, the odds are that this will never happen before the world ends, but what if my message turned into a number just should happen to turn out to be a multiple of one of the secret primes p or q? Would the process fail? Silas? Shonk? Wabulon?

As I drive to work I pass a billboard that reads "The Loss of This Billboard Cost NYC Jobs and Money." But it's not lost: there it is, right by the roadside. It's not even unused: It is displaying the above message. What does it all mean?

it doesn't suddenly become moral when you sleep with her. A very stupid argument, right? And yet I see anarchists forwarding essentially the same argument again and again: If it would be immoral for you to do X as a private citizen, it doesn't suddenly become moral when the state does it. The thrust of the argument is that social roles should have no effect on our evaluation of an action... which is obviously complete nonsense. Otherwise, if it is immoral for me to break into your house, then it would be immoral for you to do so as well. If it is immoral for me to shut a stranger in a room, then it must be immoral for a parent to send a child to his room as well. If it is immoral for a student to alter another student's grade, then it must be immoral for the teacher to do so as well. Not all of what we may properly do depends on our social roles, but much does. That certainly does not mean everything, or even anything, the state does is OK. But the notion that a ch...