Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

The Secret Service has closed its investigation of the Facebook poll asking whether President Obama should be assassinated: WASHINGTON — The Secret Service has determined that a juvenile was behind the online survey that asked whether people thought President Barack Obama should be assassinated, an agency spokesman said Thursday. No criminal charges will be filed…

It has been my observation that people who preach “working for the greater good” always wind up picking your pocket, imprisoning you, or worse. In general I prefer the company of cutthroats and thieves to ecclesiasticals. The thieves and cutthroats are more honest. Cross Posted at Power and Control

Hey suppose I asked “What do Bill Maher and [name omitted] have in common?” Because I said [name omitted] (who will remain blank), no one would know what I was talking about, so they would draw a complete blank. About Blank. What if I said that this Blank was having a huge blog war with…

I am so not-in-the-mood for blogging that I feel like flaking out totally. But that wouldn’t do, would it? I have a blog which is alive and which requires daily posts, and to not supply them is tantamount to negligence. Like having a fish tank (which I have) and neglecting to put food in it.…

Cross Posted at Power and Control

My biggest problem right now is that I can’t stand Obama, but that has not translated into loving conservatism. Now, while that equation might not seem terribly problematic in itself, and it might even constitute remarking the obvious, there’s an added dimension. While I may be wrong about this, it seems to me that conservatism…

I had not wanted to write about (much less argue about) the rather tedious gay politician Kevin Jennings, but for reasons which elude me, I feel that my hand has been forced. Or has it? Should I be entitled to ignore issues that are raised here at my own blog? Do I have any duty…

You learn something every day, and I just learned something cool about Facebook: “The mere use of the word ‘retard’ is not a violation of terms of use.” I’m 100% in favor of free speech, even when the speech in question is not within the rubric of my day-to-day vocabulary. I often get spontaneous, though,…

ACORN is in big trouble in Harry Reid’s home state, Nevada. A preliminary hearing Tuesday in the downtown Clark County courthouse has put ACORN on trial for the first time as a criminal defendant. Until now, prosecutions for voter registration fraud have focused on ACORN workers, and authorities have secured guilty pleas from several who…

Kevin Jennings, Obama’s Safe Schools “Czar”, is in the news. So I thought this bit from Atlas Shrugs might be of interest. President Obama has appointed Kevin Jennings, founder of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) — which sponsored the conference that produced the notorious “Fistgate” scandal (in which young teens were guided on how…

The Democrats plan to pass their health care bill next Thursday. The Washington Post front page blares today: “Prospects for Public Option Dim in Senate.” Don’t believe it. Yes, the Senate Finance Committee did vote down two amendments that each would have added a government-run insurance plan to the committee’s health care bill. But two…

M. Simon sent me a link to a piece which makes some fascinating assertions about what otherwise appears to be a relatively simply piece of legislation (HR 3567), the operative text of which says this: For the purposes of any Federal law in which marital status is a factor, an individual shall be considered married…

This is a tale of forensics and what appears to be scientific fraud. And wouldn’t you know it: climate hysteria. Let me start with the famous hockey stick. It is a graph showing unprecedented global warming at the end of the 20th century. It was the icon of global warming hysteria. The wiki has the…

Or something like that. In his characteristically circular manner, Jerry Garcia explains why the Grateful Dead never bothered with anti-war politics and didn’t write anti-war songs — in a video of anti-war demonstrations to the tune of “Cream Puff War”: All in all, it’s a remarkably good period video, and I recognized some people I…

mOST OF THE TIMES YOU HIT IT YOU WERE ACTUALLY AIMING FOR “A”, AND WHEN YOU SEE EVERYTHING YOU TYPED IN CAPS IT MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE SOME IDIOT WHO IS YELLING FOR NO APPARENT REASON. Fortunately, someone has come up with a handy, easy-to-inplement fix, which I searched out the other day in…

Quick question. Can cigarette smoke travel through walls? Because either it can or it can’t, and this angry woman has filed a lawsuit saying that her neighbor’s cigarette smoke did in fact go through walls of her townhouse: In an age when smoking has been outlawed in most public places – government buildings, bars and…

What did he know and when did he know it? When Democrat Andrew Romanoff made noises about mounting a primary challenge to Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), the White House contacted Romanoff and made an interesting — and arguably corrupt — counteroffer: Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff and a storied fixer in…

Despite the occasional but fervent rantings of idiotarians like Matt Barber, gays in the United States generally do not seem to realize how good they have it. While Bush was president, an observation like that would have qualified as a gay Uncle-Tomism. But now that we have a “progressive” president who has made it clear…

Sarah Palin’s book Going Rogue: An American Life is available for pre-order on Amazon and it is already up to #5 and there is not even a picture of the dust jacket available. I guess she is not as popular as every one thought. Cross Posted at Power and Control

Wretchard and his commenters are discussing what to do before there is a breakdown in civilization. Of course there is the usual – buy guns and ammo. But what else could help? Stock up on tools. Even cheap Chinese stuff if it is not too junky. Voltmeters and for those who are somewhat adept –…