Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

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Bill Quick is running his first blegathon in two years. I just donated and you can too. Bear in mind that in over ten years of writing this blog, I have never asked for money. If that gives me any moral authority, then I hereby order you to donate to Daily Pundit! If not, then I…

More here about shooter Aaron Alexis: He sought treatment with the Veterans Administration for paranoia and hearing voices in two states. Considering what I have heard about the VA, that may have been his biggest mistake. In August, Newport, R.I., police were called to a Marriott Hotel room where Alexis said he was being followed…

As everyone knows, Detroit is bankrupt. In the normal course of things, bankruptcy means setting priorities. That is also common sense; when there isn’t enough money to go around, things like basic city services ought to take priority over — over what? Well basic city services ought to at least take priority over crackdowns on…

Who is Aaron Alexis and why did he murder at least 12 people in a secure military installation at the Washington DC Navy Yard? No one seems to know a damned thing. Endlessly curious type that I am, I Googled Aaron Alexis of Fort Worth Texas, and I found a dead Facebook page, and this mugshot. (Arrest…

Yes, the government is forcing doctors to ask every patient the above, or else face penalties from Medicare and Medicaid. Be ready to answer those questions and more the next time you go to the doctor, whether it’s the dermatologist or the cardiologist and no matter if the questions are unrelated to why you’re seeking…

Did you ever wonder why everything is dirtier? Wonder no more! I’m old enough to have a vague memory of clothes so white that they were called bright. This happened despite the absence of additives — the ridiculous varieties of sprays and bottles and packets that festoon our cabinets today and that we throw into the…

Reading stuff like this makes me glad I’m still in the electronic stone age: HOW DO I SET UP MY WI-FI NETWORK TO EXCLUDE ANDROID DEVICES? If an Android device (phone or tablet) has ever logged on to a particular Wi-Fi network, then Google probably knows the Wi-Fi password. Considering how many Android devices there…

This is truly amazing: When marine biologist Roger Hanlon captured the first scene in this video he started screaming. (If you need to see it again, here’s the raw footage.) Hanlon, senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, studies camouflage in cephalopods–squid, cuttlefish and octopus. They are masters of optical illusion. These…

Think the war on drugs was a bad idea? Well, people are now engaging in illegal consensual transactions over food: It may look like a dinner party, but it’s really an underground supper club. The diners are a mix of New Yorkers and tourists. CBS 2’s undercover cameras captured one experience — eight people who…

I do not like the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The date represents more than a notorious and murderous attack on America by our enemies, but it was a turning point in U.S. history, and for the worse. The lasting legacy of 9/11 is not merely a loss of life and damage to the economy,…

Michael Barone asks a good question: If the globe isn’t warming, does that undercut EPA regulation of carbon dioxide? …scientists note that the ice cover in the Arctic Sea has increased 60% this year as compared to 2012, instead of melting away as global warming alarmists predicted. And they note — and this is more…

Baltimore’s “finest” (I guess they still call them that) arrest a young couple because they were lost and dared to ask the police for directions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H_iXI2DkDk&feature=youtu.be And in this one, a Canton, Ohio police officer repeatedly threatens to shoot and kill people he has pulled over in traffic stops: Anyone who thinks abuse of citizens…

The Little Rock, Arkansas public school district is about to require teachers to wear underwear: The school district in Little Rock, Ark. has announced plans for a dress code that will require teachers to wear underwear. Every single day. Female teachers will have to wear bras, too. An Aug. 29 letter from the Little Rock…

While it doesn’t change my mind about the President or his policies, the brutal threats made by Iranian officials are chilling in their utter depravity: …in an unprecedented statement, a former Iranian official has warned of mass abductions and brutal killings of American citizens around the world and the rape and killing of one of…

A girl in a local Detroit area park recently went out of her way to save the life of a small snake her brother was about to kill. As a snake lover myself, I can appreciate her act of kindness, but she should have been more careful. It turned out to be a rattlesnake, and…

As we all know, PETA cares. But until today I had no idea that they cared so much about penis size: According to a letter from PETA to Drew Cerza, the founder of the festival, “The latest scientific evidence shows that the sons of pregnant women who consume chicken are more likely to have smaller…

Obviously feeling the heat internationally, Vladimir Putin has launched an interesting defense of Russia’s odd new law against “homosexual propaganda.” Tchaikovsky, claims Putin, provides proof that Russia is not anti-gay: Russia’s pride in composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, even though he was gay, is proof that the country does not discriminate against homosexuals, President Vladimir Putin said…

Glenn links Taranto, who says this about Iraq: No philosophical breakthroughs have occurred over the past decade to render the moral and legal justifications for the war untenable in retrospect. Thus the only test it can be said to have failed is an empirical one: that things turned out badly. To say so may seem…

I know I’ve been kvetching about this before, but the coming massive invasion of privacy by the federal government is going to make the NSA scandal look like a walk in the park: With just six weeks until scheduled implementation of the ObamaCare health insurance exchanges, delays by the Department of Health and Human Services…