Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

I am delighted to announce that with any luck, we will have another co-blogger here at Classical Values, Sarah Hoyt. I’ll let Sarah speak for herself, but for now I’ll just point out that she is an accomplished, published writer, whose current book is Darkship Thieves. She has graced this blog as a reader and…

While I don’t shy away from writing about politics, crass political advocacy is just not my style. Which is why — despite the fact that I have donated to his campaign twice — I have refrained until now from writing posts about Scott Brown’s candidacy. I find the guy genuinely refreshing, and obviously the Massachusetts…

Yeah, I know. Today seems to be Conspiracy Theory Day at Classical Values… Anyway, I don’t know what to make of this, but our State Department has been playing some sort of head games — literally — with PhotoShopping. As Jos&eacute Guardia demonstrates, they have stolen the hairdo from the head of Spanish Communist Party…

I am no fan of Cass Sunstein, but when I read (via a link from M. Simon) that he advocates a government ban on conspiracy theories, I nearly blew a gasket. After all, the man is often said to be a serious contender for nomination to the Supreme Court. Here is what Sunstein is reported…

Speaking of believers in nutty deities, in a comment to my post about Pat Robertson’s latest idiotarian remarks, Veeshir pointed out a gem from Danny Glover (which Glenn Reynolds linked last night). Says Glover: “When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you…

Here is the first segment of the KUSI video with weatherman John Coleman who cofounded The Weather Channel that I mentioned in my post NASA Caught Cooking The Books. Second Segment Third Segment Fourth Segment Fifth Segment You can also see a video by a coauthor of several of Willie Soon’s climate papers, Sallie Baliunas,…

In a post at Watts Up With That a commenter looked at the e-mails found at this link [pdf] and had some interesting things to say. Ira (17:00:53) : The UK CRU version of Climategate centered around whether the 1990’s were warmer than any time in the past 1000 years. The US GISS version could…

Here is some chilling news about the American economy. Retail sales unexpectedly fell in December, leaving 2009 with the biggest yearly drop on record and highlighting the formidable hurdles facing the economy as it struggles to recover from the deepest recession in seven decades. In another disappointing economic report, the number of newly laid-off workers…

Is nothing sacred any more? I guess not. NASA has been caught cooking climate data. Climate researchers have discovered that NASA researchers improperly manipulated data in order to claim 2005 as “THE WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD.” KUSI-TV meteorologist, Weather Channel founder, and iconic weatherman John Coleman will present these findings in a one-hour special airing…

There is nothing fair about natural disasters, nor is it fair the way some people and some countries are afflicted more severely than others when faced by similar disasters. I agree with what Johnathan Pearce said here: richer countries, with superior building standards and better means of rescuing those in danger, tend to fare better…

As every respected blog with which I’m familiar in the libertarian and conservative blogosphere is criticizing Pat Robertson’s attempt to blame an alleged Haitian pact with the devil (and thus today’s Haitians) for the earthquake, it would hardly seem worthy of another post. Except that I’m feeling devilish enough to play Devil’s Advocate, and in…

…and the Met is worried they might end up going to Mohammed. Apparently the “image of Mohammed” controversy is a little too… explosive for some museums. Can’t imagine why. “We do not negotiate with terrorists. We just accede to their anticipated demands.” That’s the safe play. It’s a temporal version of Pascal’s Wager: terrorism isn’t…

Pat Robertson never seems to miss an opportunity to make a horse’s ass of himself, and the latest is his attempt to blame the disastrous Haitian earthquake on a “pact” he says a Haitian made with Satan in 1803, for which God has retaliated: On the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club” today, after a lengthy…

While I was disturbed to read about Oliver Stone’s attempt to rehabilitate Stalin and Hitler in the eyes of young people (who need to “walk in Stalin’s shoes and Hitler’s shoes to understand their point of view”), considering Oliver Stone’s history it’s not surprising. Still, I can’t help find myself wondering whether Stone and the…

Watts Up With That has the timeline (as best as it can be reconstructed) of the ClimateGate story. Climate Audit is also covering the story. My first inkling of it was between 3:34 am and 4:40am GMT Fri Nov 20, 2009 at Talk Polywell. I started a post on it at 04:29 am GMT (posted…

From Tim Blair, the amusingly flawed history of “consensus” as reported in the NYT: — 1955: “Sun power still is a losing proposition in dollars and cents. But experts agree that its prospects never have looked so good.” And haven’t things changed since then! Apart from the dollars and cents, of course. — 1956: “WEAR…

Earlier today, four male Saudi Arabian passengers disrupted a flight from Seattle to Detroit, terrifying the passengers and causing the plane to be stopped short of the gate after it landed, upon which they were taken off without any charges filed: MyFoxDetroit.com – Sources tell Fox 2 that a flight from Amsterdam into Detroit Metropolitan…

Art in the West has a long tradition of never shying away from controversy, and as New York is supposed to be on the cutting edge, the last place you’d expect to see censorship would be in New York’s art museums, right? Wrong. Controversial art may be one thing, but if the controversy involves Islam,…

From Random Traverse. WASHINGTON, DC – Congress is considering sweeping legislation which will provide new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition. “Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not…

Famulus of Prometheus Fusion will be featured at Nerd Night, Friday, January 15th, in NYC. *Presentation 1 Fusing the Atom and Living to Tell by Famulus Description: We have built an open source nuclear fusion reactor and fused the atom. This is the story of a remarkable fusion device called the Farnsworth Fusor and its…