Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

As today is Election Day, I thought that as a public service message, I’d remind everyone to vote. I just did, and the only issue of any importance here in Ann Arbor is a proposal for a double digit property tax increase. Ann Arbor already has the highest property taxes in the state, but that’s…

The combination of Gaia worship, agitprop and rent-seeking pays very well indeed. So, given that Gore is reaping huge rewards, doesn’t this call into question just a teensy bit the objectivity of his business partner James Hansen, the man NASA has administering the numbers telling us how much the climate is allegedly warming (when he’s…

Glenn Reynolds raises the unsettling question of whether there’s a bad driving gene. I have long suspected there’s some explanation along such lines, but it now appears that there’s some scientific evidence for it: People with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it –…

I’m having a long conversation about the future of the Republican Party at The Other McCain. There is a lot of back and forth and if you go to the link you can follow the discussion. What I would like to present here is my conclusion. I was replying to a comment by BD. BD,…

For entertainment purposes only, I thought I’d juxtapose two radically different opinions on the future of the Democratic Party. From WSJ’s Daniel Henninger in “Why Dems Should Start to Sweat“: …what we are seeing with this massive legislation is that the Democrats in Washington have a bigger problem: Their party is looking so yesterday. In…

As a lot of people are sounding off about Frank Rich’s latest silly column, I thought I’d chime in. I don’t know whether he’s trying to outdo himself in terms of pure buffoonery, but this time, Rich is hell-bent on proving that the conservatives who support Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 race are a bunch…

When is a catfish not a catfish? When it’s farmed in other countries and then sold in the United States, that’s when. I’m very much a fish eater, and because I don’t like to contribute to waste if I don’t have to, I often worry about the overfishing issue. For example, I love big ocean…

Angela Merkel was sworn in as Chancellor recently, and I have to say, I like the ho-hum attitude towards her foreign minister: GERMAN CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel flew to Paris last night for talks with French president Nicolas Sarkozy on who to choose as the new EU president, a month after winning the general election and…

Eric Dondero of Libertarian Republican in the comments at Independent Political Report is discussing the 2008 Election. He talks about how Libertarian Candidate Bob Barr was surging in August and then explains why McCain chose Palin. …why did Bob Barr get only 525,000 votes, versus the 2 to 3 million he was well on his…

Dede has endorsed the Democrat the race for Representative of the New York 23rd District. Dede Scozzafava, the Republican and Independence Parties’ candidate for the 23rd Congressional District of New York state who suspended her campaign Saturday, announced moments ago she was throwing her support behind Democrat candidate Bill Owens rather than the Conservative Party’s…

An Orthodox Jewish family shelters a gay Palestinian. Here’s a wild story, courtesy of YNet. T is a gay Palestinian who for the past 10 years has been living in Israel with his partner, an Israeli Jew named Doron. A few days ago, he heard that his father was ill, and he ventured across the…

When I discussed the fatal shootout between a radical Imam and the FBI, my biggest concern was with mainstream Muslim support for a violent, murderous advocate of a Sharia state in the United States. It bothers me that such a person could be considered a “respected Imam” and that he sat on the ruling council…

She has dropped out. Republican state Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava has suspended her campaign for upstate New York’s 23rd Congressional District seat, giving a possible boost to Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman against Democrat Bill Owens, Fox News has confirmed. The move comes on the heels of a new poll that showed Scozzafava had fallen behind…

Carving a pumpkin is an annual Halloween ritual I’m too old to stop. Here’s what my jack-o-lantern looked like at sunset: And here’s how it looks now: Enjoy the ghosts! DISCLOSURE: A hypothetical marriage proposal from Donna in the comments below left me feeling deepy flattered, but also a tad guilty, and I’m afraid my…

Julian Murdoch thinks oil supply and demand are out of whack. OPEC has publicly stated that they believe inventories in developed OECD countries to be equal to roughly 61 days of demand–a number OPEC is none too happy about. They’d prefer the world to be constantly on the brink of running out (that is, 55…

Juxtaposing two posts by Ann Althouse made me wonder. The war against tobacco is proceeding like a relentless juggernaut — to the point now where law professors are being forced to act as anti-tobacco narcs: They will be armed with small cards that detail the school’s impending ban on smoking or using tobacco products anywhere…

Today we learn JFK was advised by morons. Well, at least one. America’s unwise, unwarranted, and sadly unwinnable war in Afghanistan–hastily initiated and then abandoned for Iraq by President Barack Obama’s ideologically blinded predecessor and dumped into Obama’s lap in the worst possible way–is beginning increasingly to smell like the 1964-68 war in South Vietnam…

Great news! According to a Princeton University study, if we take greenhouse gas emissions arguments seriously, the implementation of cap-and-trade will have precisely the opposite effect that it’s intended to have. Carbon reduction laws encourage widespread deforestation as trees and other vegetation are harvested to produce energy from biomass to replace oil and gas. The…

Given the Choice between a Communist and a Culture Warrior I’ll take the Communist. Why? Because a Communist might admit that a policy doesn’t work. A Culture Warrior will say: God Says. Making the Culture Warrior immune to reason. For the most part. Cross Posted at Power and Control

Sarah Palin endorsed Doug Hoffman in the New York 23rd District House of Representatives race on October 23rd and now the Republican Party is getting behind him. The House Republican leadership is prepared to welcome Doug Hoffman into its ranks, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said Thursday, a sign that the GOP…