Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

When we think of eminent domain, normally we think of the government taking private land in order to put it to public use, although the controversial (and incorrect, IMO) Kelo decision expanded the concept to include government takings for private use — if that private use can be said to improve a city’s tax base.…

It all started (in modern times) with Richard Nixon “You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to.” Richard Nixon as quoted by H.R. Haldeman, supporting a get-tough-on drugs strategy. Thus begins the Fort Worth…

The topic of collusion is of longstanding interest here, as I am always fascinated by the way politics makes strange bedfellows, especially the way sworn political enemies can end up working towards the same goal. This can take many forms; the following are only a few examples selected from some of my blog posts over…

The site Resist.net, billing itself as The Home of The Patriotic Resistance, is supporting Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio. So let me tell you a few things about Sheriff Joe. How about we start with the wrongful death of Scott Norberg. Sheriff Joe Arpaio: The Norberg wrongful death lawsuit was settled out of court for…

Instapundit linked to the RS McCain blog which was discussing the resignation of Washington Post reporter David Weigel. I found this comment there of interest: Danby June 25th, 2010 @ 5:41 pm The deal here Stacy is that Weigel was NEVER A CONSERVATIVE. He’s not a member of set B. He’s a member of set…

Artist’s interpretation of the fate WaPo blogger Dave Weigel wished on Matt Drudge the WaPo blogging career of Dave Weigel.

Over the years, I’ve seen a number of attempts attack, malign, regulate, categorize, and otherwise mess with bloggers, blogging, and the blogosphere, but today I stumbled across an entirely new potential avenue of approach. Apparently specialized software has been developed which purports to psychiatrically analyze bloggers’ writing styles, diagnose them as ill, and direct them…

Donald Sensing asked me to write up an e-mail conversation we were having about the coming war in the Middle East. You can find it at The Coming War. Cross Posted at Power and Control

H/T Hot Air Cross Posted at Power and Control

Yesterday I posted a story on the publicity amateur fusion has gotten over the last few hours (at the time). It is a day later and a Google search on fusion suppes (Suppes is the last name of the fusion experimenter profiled) now shows 857,000 hits. And my Classical Values article is right up there…

I don’t like to chide anyone for his or her sexual peccadilloes, and that includes even the very ridiculous Al Gore. The woman’s statement–which could be mistaken for R-rated Vice Presidential fan fiction–describes Gore as a man with a “violent temper as well as extremely dictatorial commanding attitude besides his Mr. Smiley Global Warming concern…

Like many people, I like taking nature walks. There’s something about getting away from humanity that I find emotionally appealing. What I don’t like is the increasing tendency by other humans — especially meddlesome humans — to interrupt the natural beauty with constant, ugly reminders of their relentless and intrusive presence. And what a domineering…

(Forgive my cynicism but that’s what happens when you’re subjected to non-stop government spin and relentless bullshit day after day, week after week, and year after year…..) Right now there’s a tornado warning in effect for the City of Ann Arbor, and the city sirens are sounding. “Take shelter” is being texted in emergency emails.…

My friend Famulus whose blog is Prometheus Fusion Perfection has just had his efforts (and in part mine too – I helped him with a Polywell research proposal) picked up by the BBC Mr Suppes, 32, is part of a growing community of “fusioneers” – amateur science junkies who are building homemade fusion reactors, for…

Many people are reacting to President Obama’s latest encounter with a fly; the incident caused Ann Althouse to “reminisce about the time when Obama seemed to have superhuman power.” Ditto here. Well maybe microditto. Certainly it is beyond dispute that our president did once have the power to swat flies…. Now, our president (whom a…

I often read things that bother me. Sometimes they are opinions with which I disagree, and other times they involve inaccuracies. Usually, I forget all about them, but sometimes, an item will still be bothering me the next day, and this is one of them. I did a bit of a doubletake when I read…

Commenter simentt at my post Got An Old Hard Drive? tells me about a campaign going on in Norway to reduce the costs of goods imported to Norway. Do you eBay? There is a small campaign (Organized by the libertarian magazine ‘Farmann‘, apparently on Facebook) going on to have people eBay all kinds of stuff…

Amazon is selling for a very reasonable price (currently $27.93) a hard drive to USB adapter that is just wonderful for extracting data from old hard drives or using a new hard drive for an emergency backup. I don’t recommend it for use as a permanent USB drive as it doesn’t come with a case.…

A promo for an article on the Gulf oil spill at Rolling Stone is entitled: The Spill, The Scandal and the President: How Obama let BP get away with murder. No wonder my friend Eric at Classical Values thinks the Resident would like to be doing something else besides being President. Like parties, golfing, and…

We hear a lot about how greed is ruining _____ (fill in the blank). In other words: Definition of greedy: anyone who has more than you do. OK I’ll play. Governments are the greediest bastards on earth. Cross Posted at Power and Control