Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

As everyone knows, it is now official that Detroit is bankrupt. Reading this demagogic editorial in today’s Detroit Free Press convinces me that the city’s leading newspaper is also bankrupt. Intellectually bankrupt, and hopelessly so. There’s no comparison between retirees — many of whom live in the city and are familiar with its troubles —…

I’m beginning to think that those of us who thought Obamacare was a debate over socialized medicine were suckers. Including me. It’s becoming more and more clear that those who were worried — as I was and still am — about socialized medicine, the quality of health care, health insurance regulation, even the loss of…

An email from a friend asked “Is this the real Detroit?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9tXzQFQ0b8 To which I replied in the negative. But unfortunately, this is the real Detroit: And check out the Packard Plant.

Related: FACT CHECK: Obama spins health insurance rebates H/T Libertarian Republican

I have a new post up at Rockford For Safe Access discussing the scientific and anecdotal evidence about the relationship between autism and the body’s endocannabinoid system. It includes a number of videos about treating autistic children with cannabis. Cross Posted at Power and Control

H/T realitycheck

“We are the new slaves” some one was complaining in a comment thread discussing the latest attack by the DOJ on George Zimmerman. Well, I HAD to respond: We were always the slaves of some one. What is different is that you more or less liked your old masters. The new masters are intolerable –…

This is a perfect illustration of a problem I have tried to point out for years: Pandemonium erupted inside Manhattan Criminal Court Tuesday after panicked spectators said they spotted bedbugs crawling up the neck of a man who was there to answer to a desk-appearance ticket. The sickening sight sent court observers scrambling out of…

I need more self discipline. I don’t keep track of news as I should. Perhaps I am too busy with other things, and perhaps the news just plain sucks too much. Perhaps I should grit my teeth and get up to speed on this Huma Weiner business. After all, a friend was kind enough to…

This is what a modern lynching looks like.  In the age of “three felonies a day,” setting up a tipline to try to generate a federal case for prosecution of the crime of… whatever…  just because you don’t like the verdict of a jury, is a gross violation of Zimmerman’s constitutional rights, particularly the 14th.  The thousands of death threats…

The fact that the plaintiff is a lawyer only makes this more ridiculous: A lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee filed a lawsuit against Apple, Inc. that blames the company for the dissolution of his marriage and the collapse of his mental health. According to CNet.com, Chris Sevier filed suit in Federal District Court earlier this summer…

These are the current Drudge headlines: ‘MODERN DAY LYNCHING’… SHARPTON PLANS PROTESTS IN 100 CITIES… Rally Shuts Down Major Intersection In Newark… Baltimore Witness: Group of Blacks Beat Hispanic Man, Yelling ‘This Is For Trayvon’… Zimmerman’s Parents in Hiding from ‘Enormous Amount of Death Threats’… Lawyer: Prosecutors ‘Disgrace to My Profession’… Oakland: Police Stood Down…

Spengler at Asia Times says: The will of a people that cannot feed itself has little weight. Egypt is a banana republic without the bananas. Go read the whole thing.

This local item irritated the hell out of me: As the recovery set in, I eagerly began growing my business once again. Unfortunately, just at this time, I was surprised and disappointed to learn that the 2010 health care bill specifically targets pizzerias with costly and nonsensical regulations. Section 4205 of the Patient Protection and Affordable…

President Obama says we should honor Trayvon Martin. OK I’m down with that. Here is Martin’s Twitter screen name. Suitably enlarged for a memorial.   No Limit Nigga   That would be the son the President never had. I hope the President is suitably honored as well. I guess I should mention lest the PC…

His lawyers discuss the aftermath: Especially look at the part that begins at about 3:05 where O’Mara excoriates the press. H/T Legal Insurrection

In a famous scene from “It’s a Gift,” the great comedian W.C. Fields attempts what was clearly and laughably impossible in the mid ’30s — but which today would be considered mandatory accommodations under the ADA. Yesterday’s comedy is today’s reality. Clearly, W.C. Fields was a prophet.

I liked this comment about the Zimmerman trial from Legal Insurrection. There is an irony in this travesty. The very prosecutors that withheld evidence, lied to the court, coached witnesses and prosecuted without evidence, also prosecute a number of young black men, some not much older than Martin. And in cheering them on, the black…

I like salt, but as I try to be a realist about my health, a couple of years ago, I asked my doctor (a cardiologist) whether salt in my diet is dangerous. Noting that I don’t have high blood pressure, he said it would be a waste of time for me to worry about it.…

H/T Zero Hedge