Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

I got an e-mail from Tea Party Patriots. Many have asked about the news that there may be “infiltrators” at tea parties around the nation. A website (crashtheteaparty.org) was recently set up. The creator, though he tried to hide his identity, has been outed; his name is Jason Levin, and he’s a middle school teacher…

On Saturday I went to a Tea Party event in Lansing, Michigan where I spent over three hours. There were vendors walking around hawking Gadsden flags, but at no point did I see any table or vendor selling “STRAIGHT PRIDE” signs, nor did I see anyone wearing a “STRAIGHT PRIDE” T-shirt. A reporter named Todd…

Just try to imagine the deafening shrieks of “McCarthyism! Oppression! Mob tactics!” if we substituted, say, Al Gore for the subject of this piece. Remember, this is the same MSM that ignored the Edwards adultery story for years and allows climate shillionaire Gore to bar them from his events with little scrutiny. But this story?…

Watch the second part. See the discussion at Bring your cameras and video recorders. This seems like a pretty good camera for the price. More than enough pixels for the Internet. Kodak EasyShare C180 10MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.4 inch LCD This video camera had decent reviews: Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket…

Even though I’ve been over this ground before, there’s a point I made in the last post that deserves emphasis. The fact that it deserves more emphasis annoys the hell out of me, OK? Not just because I am sick to death of repeating myself, but because I think this is such basic stuff that…

To what extent is it reasonable to judge a group of people by the actions of an individual member of that group? I don’t think it’s reasonable at all, but a lot of people — especially activists — seem to do it. And of course when it happens the activists on the other side have…

From the blurb at YouTube: Desiree Bassett of Connecticut shreds guitar like no other her age! sit down and enjoy! The song is called “Power & Force, which is also the the title of her all original CD. Desiree also wrote this song at the age of 10. Desiree has a fan club where you…

This is about the best take on the Tea Party participants (as opposed to the “leaders”) that I have read so far. Beyond their fiscally conservative principles, the ideology of the people involved in the tea party movement tends to vary dramatically. So far, tea party activists “haven’t been interested in politics,” Fitton said. Which…

Camden, New Jersey has a problem. For nine months last year, Ron Mills was locked in the Camden County Jail. For nine months he held firm to his story that the drugs he was charged with possessing didn’t exist. Last month Mills’ story was validated when a former Camden police officer admitted in federal court…

As it’s Monday, and I got all politicked out over the weekend, I thought I would take a brief break from writing about politics. Perhaps I am being naughty, but earlier I received a very nice email from a reader who was actually inspired by a series of posts about my adventures in rice cooker…

I wouldn’t normally have written a blog post about something as mundane as going to the post office to mail an overnight letter (something that it turned out can no longer be done), but no sooner did I return from my mini-adventure than I saw that the GAO is warning that the Postal Service is…

Yesterday I drove to Lansing, Michigan for the Tea Party Express rally in front of the State Capitol building. While I’m no estimator, it was a good-sized crowd, and I read that there were thousands of people at the earlier rally in Grand Rapids. That may explain why the event started an hour or so…

I’ve been mulling over the rather bizarre (and amazingly tardy) claim by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka that he “witnessed” the N-word being shouted by Tea Partiers at black congressmen. I share Dan Riehl’s skepticism: It seems curious to me that he made no such claim in a released statement dated March 25th that specially cites…

I’ve been reading about a rash of fires started by arsonists in Flint, Michigan. There have been so so many fires in recent weeks that it’s hard to give an exact count. But what I find especially ominous are local news reports quoting Flint officials as saying the arson was committed for political purposes, apparently…

While I like to be thorough, today is a busy day for me, so I absolutely will not have time to deal with the issues raised here by one of Glenn Reynolds’ readers: Anyhow, was just wondering if you could please mention at some point in the next few months how very pleased you have…

First they said that cows caused global warming. I dutifully repeated their claim until I was blue in the face. But now they’re saying that cows don’t cause global warming after all! Livestock could actually be good for the environment according to a new study that found grazing cows or sheep can cut emissions of…

Remember when taking candy from a baby was a cruel thing to do? When I Googled that phrase from yesteryear, this was the first picture that came up: The photographer of the above aside, what sort of cruel person would take candy from a baby? I remember when that was a stereotype of the evil…

H/T Diogenes via e-mail and The Sniper who created them and has more. And who for the price of viewing this picture here insists that you give him a visit. It would be the honorable thing to do. Cross Posted at Power and Control

I had something to say about all this yesterday. F. A. Hayek had something to say about it in 1944: The Road to Serfdom H/T Diogenes via e-mail Cross Posted at Power and Control

The trap is simple: some really smart managers with really good tools can greatly reduce the “waste” of the system to the profit of all. That is the essence of communism, socialism, fascism and every kind of despotism known to man. And don’t forget envy. i.e. “Share the wealth” F. A. Hayek in his nobel…