Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

While it may seem a bit frivolous, I joined the “California Serpentine Awareness! Keep our Rock! Fight SB 624” Facebook group, because I think the Trial Lawyers are being ridiculous and imperious with their heavy-handed attempt to defrock California’s official state rock. The lawmaker (Senator Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles) and others who would like to…

I just learned that Clayton Cramer has been sued for quoting from and commenting on a newspaper article headlined “Slain store clerk, 77, mourned.” I found the article here and as I am assuming it is the same article, I will exercise my Fair Use rights under the First Amendment, and reprint it here simply…

Francis Cianfrocca is discussing Class Warfare In America. At the end of his piece he mentions a businessman’s lament. …I had a conversation yesterday with an old friend who runs a high-ten-figure hedge fund. (They’re flat for the year, like the rest of the hedge-fund world.) What he wants is to join a political party…

Eric at This I-dosing thing is giving me heavy flashbacks, man! is discussing how there is a call for government to look into how kids (it is always the kids) are changing their brain waves with music instead of drugs. And the panic is that currently the government has no control over music. Or stereo…

What is getting high? Does it require drugs? What are drugs? Must they be actual chemical substances ingested by a person? Or might things which stimulate the body to produce its own highs be called “drugs”? These questions were on my mind as I read about the latest form of hysteria and counter-hysteria: I-Dosing: How…

Andrew Breitbart posted a video segment which shows racist remarks being made by a USDA official and applauded by NAACP members. (M. Simon’s earlier post has the embed and a discussion.) When Glenn Reynolds linked the video, he also linked a post by The Anchoress who said she wanted to see the entire video. And…

I think M. Simon got it right in his post about the decline in morality (which was already in steep decline before the homos are alleged to have destroyed it). A commenter in an earlier post about a subject I tried to keep in the closet yesterday called “the legitimizing of homosexuality” a “lynchpin in…

An old friend recently told me in an email that she worries about the leftism of her grandchildren: I must say I do not understand my grandchildren’s liberal leanings. It amazes me that intelligent people can believe in this administration. It is making me ill when I permit myself to dwell on it. I replied,…

Housing starts fall again. We may not see a rebound for a long time — and if we do see one soon, that may actually be a bad thing. Both Dems and the GOP created a housing bubble by encouraging lenders to make loans to people who weren’t good risks through policies at Fannie, Freddie…

I’m having an interesting discussion at Moral Authority about the homosexual plot to destroy American values and take down American civilization. That is not the first time American civilization took the short road to decline. Marriages were once decided on the basis of economic interests and personalities mostly by parents. And then by 1830 or…

I think we can learn a couple of things from this. One is: the government is not your friend. If you want their help they are not your servants. They are your masters. Be prepared to kiss a lot of butt from the get go. Government functionaries are like this as a class. Throw in…

A recent editorial in The Economist addresses whether Dr. Donald Berwick (new head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) really intends to ration health care as many conservatives suspect. The editorial calls this claim “politically explosive” but then goes on to defend and rationalize health care rationing: That leaves the third charge levied…

I think a good way to start off a look at fascism is to look at the root: fasces. Fasces are a bundle of wooden sticks with an axe blade emerging from the center, which is an image that traditionally symbolizes summary power and jurisdiction, and/or “strength through unity”. In other words the root of…

As a longtime conservative, I believe in building coalitions. We can’t agree on everything, and it doesn’t help the cause to concentrate on areas of disagreement. So says Robert Knight in a Washington Times editorial which concentrates on an area of disagreement on which I’d love not to concentrate. In fact, I would so love…

In condemning homosexuality Robert Knight, makes an interesting point. This is no small disagreement. Conservatism, if it means anything, reflects the understanding that, as Russell Kirk said, “there exists a transcendent moral order, to which we ought to try to conform the ways of society … such convictions may take the form of belief in…

The most personal of personal information about you — your health records — will soon be online, in the form of what the government calls an “EHR” (short for “Electronic Health Record”): New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records–that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms…

I agree with Tom Smith that “the new DOJ website is kinda creepy.” And I’m also inclined to agree with the majority of those who took Glenn Reynolds’s poll that it’s only creepy if a website design by Darth Vader creeps you out. It’s not so much that it creeps me out (I’m actually kind…

Last night I stumbled onto a very strange account of one of the worst mass murders in United States history. I wasn’t really looking for it, but a friend emailed me a link to a site which lists the worst crimes committed within each state. Naturally, as I’m living in Michigan, my curiosity led me…

Instapundit has just put up a piece that deserves repeating in its entirety. WHAT TO DO? In response to this piece by Angelo Codevilla on America’s ruling class, readers wonder what to do. Well, a few things suggest themselves. First: Mockery. They are very mockable, and they are very thin-skinned. That leads them to erupt…

In the interests of science I like to run videos of science experiments from time to time. This one explores buoyancy, displacement, acceleration, energy transfer and probably a few other engineering if not scientific principles. Pay close attention. In fact to master all the concepts you probably ought to watch it several times. You can…