Classical Values

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Science Fictional spam bot!

    Okay, so Classical Values might be the blog (proudly) devoted to overthinking everything and I might be the resident (cat infested) science fiction writer, but oh, heck, for thinking outside the box we’ve got nothing on spambots. In the process of springing my last comment from spam — I’m dangerous, what can I say?  ‘s okay.  It’s a…

  • Specialization

    Sarah mentioned Heinlein flame wars in her recent post. So I’m cross posting this piece (with some additions) to see if I can get one going. ******* Of course, our failures are a consequence of many factors, but possibly one of the most important is the fact that society operates on the theory that specialization…

  • The Rule Of What?

    Stacy McCain is bemoaning the destruction of the property market in Maryland caused by a ruling against the banks who created fraudulent documents. From a report he linked to: In a major ruling Friday, a coalition of nonprofit defense lawyers and consumer protection advocates in Maryland successfully got over 10,000 foreclosure cases managed by GMAC…

  • What those big money, snarling-headed libertarians won’t permit

    While there doesn’t seem to be much in terms of earth-shaking news yet today, over at Memeorandum I found a thoughtful and amusing essay, even if it sometimes borders on the outrageous. The author “Freddie” is primarily irritated at the mainstream left for excluding genuine leftists (the sort who are honest enough to admit to…

  • Hostile Working Conditions

    See, I don’t think we’ve seen enough cute doggie — or fish — pictures lately, so I thought I’d pick up on Eric’s slack. (grin)  Of course, this means CV, a staunch dog blog, is being taken over by the cat-blogging side. Frankly, the internet consists of fifty percent cute kitteh pictures and fifty percent…

  • They Are Walking Away From Their Mortgages

    Who is this “they” kimosabe? Home owners? Nope that is old news. The Banks are walking away from mortgages they have underwritten. …the United States, much of Europe, and China have severe balance sheet issues that are ravaging their respective economic prospects. The media, analysts, and investors are gingerly mozying along as if this is…

  • Meth Arbitrage

    The Government has scored another drug war success. Homeless people are now supplying meth precursors to underground drug labs. At the height of the methamphetamine epidemic, several states turned to a new weapon to disrupt the drug trade: electronic systems that could track sales of the cold medicine used to make meth. Tracking sales by…

  • In “honor” of King’s legacy, the AP scolds Arizona

    While I am accustomed to scoldings from the left (especially on Sundays), it surprised even the jaded me to see a Sunday scolding in the form of an Associated Press news report titled “Nation ponders King in wake of Arizona shootings“: ATLANTA (AP) — The federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. has taken on…

  • Too much originality, and girls go wild?

    While the psychotic shooter was in the midst of murdering people, I was trying to solve a far less important puzzle — one which struck me as frivolous once I heard the awful news of the tragedy in Tucson, so I put it off. Still, whenever classic texts are censored, Bowdlerized, or edited, I am…

  • Days Of Future Past

    Sometimes I get nostalgic for the future – a future in which people have flying cars and flying houses; where diners were run by sentient bots embedded in the walls; where there are colonies in other planets. You see, I read Clifford Simak when I was very young, and that was the future I’d thought…

  • Hoyt, Harmony, and Hayekipedia

    Classical Values gets results! No sooner does our own Sarah Hoyt tell the Instaworld “there’s no such thing as a benevolent dictatorship” than this happens: Tunisia’s popular uprising is all the more surprising because it wasn’t part of a narrative that had been given a name and assigned a colour months in advance. To most…

  • Hey, I was just kidding! I didn’t mean to create a climate!

    In a post about the FDA’s ban on caffeinated alcoholic beverages, I resorted to sarcastic ridicule by calling for a crackdown on old standby drinks like Irish Coffee and Rum and Coke. ….our culture has been asleep at the wheel as this dire threat has metastasized. Does anyone remember Rum and Coke? Cuba Libre? Why…

  • Smart Drugs

    Boy is this going to piss off a LOT of people. Odds are the more recreational drugs you consume the smarter you are. Counter intuitive huh? According to Psychology Today, people who use more drugs are more intelligent. “Intelligent people don’t always do the right thing,” they write, “only the evolutionarily novel thing.” According to…

  • Pushing Humpty Dumpty

    Back when I was eight I read Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock.  I’ve since heard it has a globalist sub-text, or whatever.  I don’t know.  I haven’t re-read it since I was eight. At eight, what I took away from it was the mechanics of change in society and how people react to change.  Also, that…

  • The Tight Rope Over The Lion Pit

    Today at the breakfast table, the entire e-publishing thing flipped on me. It started with nothing more significant than a flutter, a feeling of excitement. Now, you know – if you’ve read me – that when it comes to technology and how it affects our lives, I’m a “the glass is brimming full” kind of…

  • A Narcotics Officer Speaks Out

    If you want to leave a comment on the video at YouTube you can use this link. Links to the organizations mentioned at the beginning of the talk. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Drug Policy Forum Of Texas And another organization not mentioned headed by retired Detective Howard Wooldridge: Citizens Opposing Prohibition Some thoughts on the…

  • What if they made disease illegal, and jailed the sick?

    M. Simon’s post about heroin drew an interesting comment from reader Bob Sykes: In the past, I have often thought you were somewhat of a crank on drug legalization. But your link this morning to Dr. Shavelson is a revelation. I have a brother in-law who is a long-term drug addict and who is suicidal.…

  • What Baen Does Right

    I’ve talked a lot about what publishers are doing wrong in the analysis of the current transformation of book marketing and publishing. Let me talk about some things one of my publishers is doing very right. First, let me admit to some built-in bias. For those who haven’t heard the sob story at cons or…

  • Arbitrary discrimination is the only way to promote fairness and equality

    One of the many ironies about life in our mega-egalitarian, discrimination-obsessed country is that not only does discrimination abound, there may be more discrimination than ever before. Most of it is government mandated, whether in the form of affirmative action hiring programs, requirements that government hire minority contractors, numerous programs for the “traditionally disadvantaged” (such…

  • Heroin

    Here is an oldie but goodie I wrote back in 2001. Republished on my blog in 2004. == Here is what got me started on the Chronic Drug Use is Caused by Chronic Pain track. The important thing is to read Dr.Shavelson’s book. The drug war in essence is a persecution of tortured children. –==–…

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