Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Speaking of rudeness, Texas Governor Rick Perry apparently still supports sodomy laws. I think it’s rude to put people in prison when they haven’t hurt anyone. But I guess if I would vote for Gingrich over Obama even though he would execute people for drug crimes, I suppose I would also vote for Perry over…

I’d like to ask Newt a question: “Do you support drug prohibition because it finances criminals at home, or because it finances terrorists abroad?” Prompted by Eric’s Rudeness can create a “nice” backlash.

Most regular readers know by now how I feel about Newt Gingrich. Earlier I expressed the hope that he would quit the race, and this morning I was cheered to see Glenn ask this: Ouch. Is the Gingrich campaign over already? The man is deservedly catching flak for his attack on Paul Ryan, and I…

I just checked and Classical Values is now officially eight years old. While that’s not old enough to vote, it’s starting to get old for a dog. But you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.

Frank left a comment at TEPCO Halts Cooling Plan asking about something he saw on Drudge about a Fukushima reactor meltdown. I have news on that below the fold. I was going to post this later in the day – but with Frank’s input now seems the time. === The two videos below take about…

I was reading Ulsterman looking for dirt on Obama (more on that later) when I came across this interesting comment about the Osama bin Laden raid. justavet Posted May 14, 2011 at 10:12 am ULSTERMAN- LOVE THE INSIDER INFO- ASK HIM ABOUT THIS. SOME OF CAN ADD. LOAD OF CRAP. The operation “as propagandaized”(?) was…

What is it about stories involving obnoxious behavior by complete assholes that makes them so popular? The fifth most popular item at the San Francisco Chronicle involves an obnoxious passenger who had to be put off a train: A passenger train made an unscheduled stop in Oregon over a woman’s cell phone use and verbal…

Papertiger who has been a frequent commenter at Power and Control left a comment at Classical Values that I found rather interesting. In that comment he left a link to an article on Internet Porn in the Muslim world. Called fuhsha in Arabic, pornography is considered haram, or illegal, according to most interpretations of Islam,…

I know. I’m overdue for a Fukushima update. In the mean time the BBC reports that the cooling plan for reactor #1 has some holes in it. Japanese engineers have abandoned their latest attempt to stabilise a stricken reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The plant’s operator, Tepco, had intended to cool reactor 1 by…

Ann Althouse has had — and is having — problems with Google. But reading this ominous post by Patterico convinces me that the time has come to look for an alternative to Google.  Moreover, Professor William Jacobson calls it “the Big Blogger Blackout of 2011,” and says that several of his posts are missing. Fortunately,…

Let’s see. The head honcho of the IMF, one Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been arrested for “allegedly sodomizing a Manhattan hotel maid,” shortly before he tried to get on a plane to France: The French political bigshot who heads the International Monetary Fund was arrested for allegedly sodomizing a Manhattan hotel maid today — hauled off…

Well not Polywell directly. More like a fusor. A program started by Richard Hull at the instigation of Robert Bussard and Tom Ligon. Here is part of a message on the subject I got forwarded to me by e-mail. On April 28th 2011, the Microsoft Corporation held its annual Hardware Summit. This year’s theme was…

I am glad to see that one of my worst political fears appears to have been misplaced. If present trends continue, Newt Gingrich will go nowhere. When hard core socon Stacy McCain, liberal David von Drehle of Time, and conservative stalwart John Podhoretz all agree, then I’m thinking maybe I can breathe a sigh of…

In my endless quest to understand the nexus between morality and immorality, I found myself returning to an observation I made the other day in the context of 1920s speakeasies: Not a SWAT team in sight! In the days when morality reigned, the police could be paid off. Now that there’s no right and wrong,…

I can’t post at my other blog Power and Control – http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/ because Blogspot has been down (for posting) for about a day now. Funny thing is if you Google blogspot news or blogspot crash there is no information on the subject. After a bit more searching I found BLOGSPOT HAS JUST CRASHED. Is It…

Hillary Clinton says, “We don’t have to blow.” Cross Posted at Power and Control

One of the advantages of living in a student neighborhood is that when students move, they often leave things behind. Just yesterday I found this Weber grill left on a nearby curb, so I wheeled it home. The “flavorizers” are rusted out, the burners need overhauling, but it still fires up, and with a little…

Dr. Helen links John Hawkins’ interview with Warren Farrell (author of Why Men Are the Way They Are.) I haven’t read the book, but I felt sorry for a woman he quoted in the interview. Basically what I’m saying in The Myth of Male Power is that power is about control over one’s life. I…

Alan Boyle has the latest on Polywell. A Navy-funded effort to harness nuclear fusion power reports that its unconventional plasma device is operating as designed and generating “positive results” more than halfway through the project. And that is not all: “It’s a very nice machine,” he said. “I like what we have so far. It’s…

Burglars are criminals and they can be very dangerous, but they tend to be rational people who in general simply want to get in, get your stuff, and get out as fast as they can.  Home invasion burglaries are of course the type of burglary people dread the most, but they are quite rare, because…