Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Amazing as it may sound, the government is trying to get people to feel sorry for the TSA screeners. “Our concern is that the public not confuse the people implementing the policies with the people who developed the policies,” said Sharon Pinnock, the union’s director of membership and organization. I love it. “Don’t blame me!…

I can’t decide what’s funnier in all this: that Krugman thinks this arms treaty is “desperately needed,” that he likens spending cuts to “blood lust” while claiming the GOP won’t do anything to address deficits, or his intimation that the GOP having a voice on spending may mean the end of the Republic as we…

As part of my endless quest to understand the meaning of words that are commonly used but ill defined, I found myself trying to understand precisely how best to politically characterize opposition to big government. I am going to attempt to break this down because the more I think about it, the more confused I…

In the comments to Did I impose on PETA last night? some one says I’m a fanatic. To wit (or without it): M. Simon, you’re a fanatic, and I know you mean well… I’m a fanatic and I don’t mean well to the statists of the left and right. I would remind you that extremism…

The drug war and its search for contraband was the prototype for all this. All made easier by the Drug War Exception to the Fourth Amendment. You peed in a cup to get your job didn’t you? Why all the pissing and moaning about the TSA? After all they are doing it to save the…

The link to the above was sent to me by my #2 son who is a staunch libertarian, graduated with honors in Russian literature from U Chicago, and now teaches American Culture at a University in Smolensk under a Fulbright Grant. Every time I think of that it cracks me up.

There is a unifying thread between the TSA and the drug war. The unifying thread? The search for contraband. You gave up the 4th Amendment to get at the dopers. And now that you are a suspect you have nothing to protect you. Because the 4th Amendment has already been torn down to make searching…

Watching the video of a small boy being strip-searched made me very angry this morning. I was already angry at the TSA, though, as I had just finished reading in the Sunday paper about the indignities meted out to a man suffering from bladder cancer whose urostomy bag was forced open by TSA man handlers,…

Some Birther Madness from Ulsterman’s Deep Throat. The she in question is supposed to be Nancy Pelosi. We shall she. Insider: Well, she was at it again and then she says something along the lines of, “How about I just hand over the goddamn certification file. They want me to go there? Because that’s where…

Every time a discussion of the correct scope of the laws comes up with social conservatives this little ditty or something like it is trotted out to justify the death penalty for picking your nose or for growing the wrong kind of plants. So do you advocate getting rid of laws that deal harsh consequences…

Inspired by a discussion with a commenter at Did I impose on PETA last night? Being left alone is not an imposition. If I push on a block of wood I am imposing on it. If I don’t push on the block I’m also imposing on it? You must be a Taoist.

Dr. Helen links a post by ShrinkWrapped about the disturbing trend highlighted in a Drudge headline that read: ‘1 IN 5’ AMERICANS MENTALLY ILL Hey, if that’s true, that must mean that this blog has a lot of mentally ill readers. I won’t comment on the authors, but there are at least four of us…

Social Conservatives thrive on prohibitions. So do criminals. Makes ya wonder sometimes don’t it?

A few thoughts and links on libertarian economics: von Mises was certainly groundbreaking and is definitely worth studying, though he hurt his credibility with the failed prediction that the pound would collapse. Schiff hasn’t exactly covered the Austrians with glory either, repeatedly predicting the collapse of the dollar. Hayek and Friedman tended to be both…

Last night I ate barbecued pork for dinner in a nice Japanese restaurant here in Ann Arbor. Normally, it wouldn’t occur to me that by ordering and eating and paying for that meal I was using, exploiting, or imposing on anyone. After all, I got the meal, the restaurant got the $16.00 it cost, and…

Sharron Angle is being widely ridiculed for saying that “sometimes dictators have good ideas.” Seems she praised the wrong dictator: Angle invoked Pinochet’s name when discussing Social Security privatization: “She had previously used Chile’s Augusto Pinochet’s experiment as an example, but had not used it since her staff shut her down,” Ralston writes. “That day,…

As you know the abortion discussion has been going hot and heavy here in the last few days. I have written a fair number of posts on the subject lately. Abortion Prohibition is a good example of the discussion. And of course the subject spills over into my e-mail box. So I wrote a letter…

I’m in a quandary. Again! There’s an issue I am tired of writing about that I feel obliged to write about. That alone wouldn’t be such a big deal, except that the last time I admitted I was tired of an issue, some commenters were mightily annoyed. One opined that if I am tired of…

Is Obama planning to rule by executive order? Ulsterman thinks so. And he has some evidence. John Podesta of the George Soros funded Center for American Progress is now urging President Obama to side step Congressional approval and simply utilize executive authority to move forward with sweeping reforms Podesta deems necessary for the good of…

Around 1930 or so the Progressive movement split into left and right factions. And they HATE each other. And their end is the same: Power and Control. Pretty cool huh? BTW Left and Right Progressives brought you alcohol prohibition. Billy Sunday ring a bell? I found the reviews of this book interesting: A Fierce Discontent:…