Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Sarah Hoyt who blogs here at Classical Values is interviewed by Glenn Reynolds on Instavision. The title of the video? There is no such thing as a benevolent dictatorship. Way to go Sarah! Update: If you want to look at some books Sarah has written have a look at Sarah Hoyt – Books . Update…

This is an excellent follow up to my post: Maybe It Isn’t All In Your Genes. About 50 minutes and worth your time. The above video on DVD: Ghost in Your Genes Related video: NOVA – Cracking the Code of Life A book for laymen: The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New…

While I don’t know whether to call it Palin Derangement Syndrome or Palinphobia, a poster has sprung up in San Francisco which I think reveals more about the anger and fear on the left than it does about the anger and fear on the right it purports to condemn: Enrage them with fear? Who is…

Ace catches the media doing… well, what the media does.  The shamelessness is breathtaking. James Taranto has, I think, the best take on all this. Burning an effigy, like burning an American flag, is constitutionally protected symbolic speech. It is also about as eliminationist as speech can get, short of a true threat or incitement. To…

Joseph Nadeau is trying to find the missing link between heritability and genetics. What? You thought Gregor Mendel had it all figured out in the 19th Century? Well he did. But then DNA sequencing came along and upset the apple cart. What we know about the fundamental laws of inheritance began to take shape in…

As there has been a pretty steady series of posts about Jared Loughner’s massacre, I though I would pause for a post about something which seems irrational to me, and may gross out some readers.  The other night I realized that I have a double standard where it comes to asparagus pee. Many — but…

Speaking of television, according to a post linked by Michelle Malkin, it turns out that Jared Loughner did not watch TV. Nor did he listen to the talk radio said to have created a “climate” which was responsible for his actions. Friend says Loughner “did not watch TV. He disliked the news. He didn’t listen…

A TV (as in television) fan I am not. But when I saw a headline that “watching television damages the heart,” I took notice. We all hear about the dangers from cell phones and brain cancer, but the idea that the omnipresent television can cause heart damage — why, that strikes at one of the…

Ah. Yes. The dreaded libertarians. If they get into power they want the government to leave the people alone. Despicable. We should be glad that True Conservatives™ want to replace the meddling left (the fount of all evil) with the meddling right (the home of all that is good). The cry of the Conservative is…

I think the title of this post is a sufficient answer to a Slate article which asks: Are Assassins More Likely To Target Liberals? Cross Posted at Power and Control

While it’s still too early to say this conclusively, I think that people who want to read their various political narratives into Jared Lee Loughner are ultimately in for a disappointment. The man’s mind is so messed up that he’s the political equivalent of schizophrenic word salad (schizophasia): Judging from Mr. Loughner’s own website, his…

It is amusing to see the rantings of a paranoid schizophrenic elevated to the level of rational discourse. Starts to make you wonder if there are enough sane people in the US to make it work. Cross Posted at Power and Control Let me add that the comment posted here by snakeoilbaron is very much…

Gabrielle Giffords’s brother in law, a commanding officer at the International Space station, seems to think so: Hours earlier, the nation observed a moment of silence for the victims of the rampage, from the South Lawn of the White House and the steps of the U.S. Capitol to legislature beyond Arizona and the International Space…

There are a lot of reports about the Arizona shooter, Jared Loughner, being a pot smoker. But then Dave at Classical Values says that he quit smoking pot and drinking alcohol in August of 2010. There are reports that cannabis helps some people who have schizophrenia. In other words they are self medicating for their…

OK, so we can all agree it’s pukingly hilarious that a bunch of lefties immediately blamed Sarah Palin for the shooting of a politician and several innocent bystanders… by a deranged lefty. And it’s no surprise that the same media who urged us to wait for all the facts when someone shouted “Allahu Akbar” before shooting the place up…

As I explained in earlier posts, the fact that so many people are trying to blame the Tea Party and Sarah Palin for the actions of a deranged gunman does not surprise me, because placing blame is what people do. When a horrible violent crime is committed against a loved one, the enemies of that…

The question “Why was no one at the event packing heat?” has been coming up frequently with respect to the shootings in Arizona. My guess is that those at the event were Democrats. Yeah. Some Democrats are pro-gun. Like Rep. Giffords. But if you are looking for anti-gun folks you will have better luck sampling…

Yes, that is what exactly what they will say, if they haven’t already. As I just said to M. Simon in an email, I find the uproar over what happened yesterday so predictable that I can barely stand it. I have seen the same type of opportunistic demagoguery in reaction to every shooting incident —…

I know Eric is covering the Arizona shooter well. But I just had to have my say. And I’ll make it short and sweet: Paranoid Schizophrenics don’t have politics. They have voices. But if you want to do politics at least one of his acquaintances has said he was a lefty. And if you are…

By any reasonable standard, the man accused of killing at least six people (including a federal judge) and critically wounding U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is mentally ill. He thinks there is a big conspiracy to “brainwash” him which involves “grammar” and “currency,” and he has posted garbled and incomprehensible Youtube videos to that effect, including…