Who Were the Sea Peoples?

I was just recalling Benito Giuliani's fatuous retorrt to Ron Paul during that presidential debate where he claimed "I don't think I've heard that before," referring to the blowback theory of terrorism. What struck me this time was how absurd is Giuliani's claim to understand the sources of terrorism because he was in NYC on 9/11. You see, it's proximity to an event that brings understanding! The (living) people who understand the source of the 9/11 attacks best are those who got out of the lower floors of the twin towers. Guiliani understands them much better than Paul, who was only in wWashington at the time. Since this effect falls off rapidly with distance, we can surmise that Osama bin Laden, who was half the world away, must no nothing at all about the attacks . QED.

I saw a "stay-in-school' billboard yesterday reading "I'm going to graduate because they don't think I can," underneath a picture of a male teen. So, if it wasn't for those people denigrating his abilities, he would drop out. So, they're actually helping him. And if there's a student whose abilities you've been knocking, and you've been thinking of stopping, think again -- your cruel words may be the only thing keeping him on the road to a degree!

An interesting suggestion by Ron Paul, relying on Larry Sechrest.

Game theory often seems to be a daunting academic topic. However, much of this impression is the result of mere obfuscation. Here I explain some "game theoretic" concepts in everyday terms: Stag Hunt -- Jackie, Sue, and Mary are dressing up to go out to the local dance club in hopes of meeting some "stags." Their expectations, however, will be disappointed, as all they will find at the club are weasels camoflauged as stags. A game characterized by imperfect information. Folk Theorem -- This theorem states that "Folks is just folks." It has been challenged by the Showtime series "Queer as Folk," which raises the important theoretical issue, "Just how queer are folk?" Prisoner's Dilemma -- The food at the prison is uniformly crap. But if you don't eat at least some of it you will starve. How to resolve the dilemma? Chicken -- Guido and Tony decide to play chicken with their Camaros on Court St. They separate by a few blocks a...

Judging from Sean Hannity's radio show and some comments on a Christian blog, it appears that many right wingers thought Andrew Meyer had it coming . There are two major arguments that they use to defend the tasering, and I think each misses the point: ==> "The police were afraid. Just read their reports." Since my objection is that the police didn't handle themselves professionally, and that in a free market this particular firm would go out of business, this type of response is silly. It's like seeing a guy punch his toddler at the store for not giving up a toy, and then someone defending him by saying, "Nah man, he didn't use too much force. I talked to him, and he wasn't hitting the kid out of sadism. The guy was really frustrated and just wanted the kid to shut up! If they kid had behaved, I know for a fact that guy wouldn't have slugged him." ==> "Andrew Meyer wanted the publicity. He was glad he got tasered." Umm...

It's a bad time to have a softie at the helm of the Fed.

I caught Bush on TV complaining that Democrats won't approve a five billion dollar increase he wants in a welfare program subsidizing health insurance. Aren't all of you small-government conservatives glad you worked to get a Republican elected as president?