Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

More Rockford Tea Party pictures I don’t know who the above gentleman is (I think he is a candidate for office in Illinois – my mate took the picture) but he was speaking at the Rockford Tea Party yesterday and was warmly welcomed. Let me add that I was talking for a few minutes with…

Adding his own insights to yesterday’s post about authoritarianism, Sean Kinsell also defended me against a commenter who put words in my mouth. It is true that I did not say that social shunning was censorship, and sometimes I don’t see why I should feel obligated to say “I didn’t say that!” over and over.…

I have a bunch of pictures from today’s Rockford Tea Party at Power and Control. I may post some of them here later. But for now follow the link. And don’t forget: Click on the above image and learn how to spread it around.

Last night I took a closer look at the Ipad (the technology itself as well as the marketing phenomenon), and I concluded that there was no particular reason for me to shell out seven or eight hundred dollars to replace my existing laptop with what appears to be a lightweight and verticalized version of a…

A brilliant bit of analysis from Allahpundit: Taking a modest pro-legalization position (i.e. “I don’t use it myself and don’t want kids using it, but…”) would (a) electrify the debate over a hot-button issue, which she obviously relishes doing (see, e.g., “death panels”), (b) prove that she doesn’t mindlessly follow Republican orthodoxy, which would force…

Like most libertarians, I don’t like authoritarianism. But defining it is another matter. At the most basic level, I do not like people telling me what to do. Meddlesome, tyrannical, busybody control freaks — whether they’re working for the government or whether they’re private assholes, I just plain don’t like em. I would characterize all…

An economist I am not. But this piece by Glenn Reynolds had my head spinning over the vastness of attempting the impossible: In his “The Use of Knowledge In Society,” Hayek explained that information about supply and demand, scarcity and abundance, wants and needs exists in no single place in any economy. The economy is…

Do you recall my recent Report From Omaha? I reported on the Tea Party Express Bus Tour’s stop in Omaha. On April 6th they will be coming to Davenport, Iowa and Rockford, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin. Here are the details for Rockford. Rockford, IL Date/Time: Tuesday, April 6th at 2:30 pm Rally Location: Davis Park…

Happy Easter, everyone! I’ve been offline for more than a day, and haven’t had time to blog, but yesterday I saw my old friend Dean Esmay. Among other things, he was installing, tweaking, and playing with the latest version of Ubuntu Linux, and burned an extra CD for me. Dean is pretty excited about Ubuntu,…

You can get the Physicist’s explanation at: Bussard’s IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion) Explained Found at Maggie’s Farm H/T Jccarlton at Talk Polywell Cross Posted at Power and Control

Click on image for a larger view. The green areas in the above map show where drilling is allowed. The Red areas show where drilling is not allowed. Compare Bush’s map to obama’s map. It pretty much explains why the oil markets didn’t even blip on the announcement by obama about his opening of some…

I thought I should weigh in on the “Teabonics” project that I learned about from Ann Althouse. It is apparently believed that if enough spelling errors on the protesters’ signs are discovered (or created via photoshopping), that the Tea Party movement will be laughed out of existence. Or else maybe the goal is to shame…

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness A review from the above link: Contrary to the rosy picture of race embodied in Barack Obama’s political success and Oprah Winfrey’s financial success, legal scholar Alexander argues vigorously and persuasively that [w]e have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned…

I grew up in Omaha and my mom still lives there. So this report from Omaha about a Tea Party there inspired me to write. The big traffic problems in Southwest Omaha Thursday night could be blamed on one thing: a political rally. Some people had to park more than a mile away from the…

Megan McArdle’s experience at a Post Office highlights the inefficiencies of a government monopoly. I’m always surprised people can ignore the most obvious economic lessons of the 20th Century: statism slows productivity growth, and in the end productivity growth is more important than anything else (GDP is just population x productivity). You’re about ten times…

Senator Chris Dodd has a plan to make investing in new ventures more difficult. …Dodd’s bill would require startups raising funding to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and then wait 120 days for the SEC to review their filing. A second provision raises the wealth requirements for an “accredited investor” who can invest…

Regarding a plan to shift thousands of U.S. troops from Okinawa to Guam, Congressman Hank Johnson said this: My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize. Huh? Is he effing kidding? I’ve been having enough trouble lately trying to figure out what’s humor and…

Yesterday I saw an anonymous piece which appeared in the National Review Online. Titled “Getting Serious About Pornography,” the author claims that: — her husband left her because of porn — pornography is an addictive drug — hearings should be held, and the federal government should get involved. This is not a new topic here,…

We have an image of Victorians as prudish about sex. And the continuous decrying of our sex gone wild culture. But the truth may be different. For those into sex control the past was always more moral and today’s youth are going to hell one night at a time. But maybe human nature is not…

Either someone pays me by midnight tonight or the dreadful logo at the top of this blog is coming down. I mean it! Hackers, consider yourselves warned!