Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Durango, Colorado is having economic difficulties. And what are they giving up to be able to pay for city workers? Green energy. For two years, the city of Durango, Colo., bought electricity for all its government buildings from wind farms. The City Council ended that program this year, reverting to electricity derived from coal-burning plants…

Politicians use words the same way squids use ink. To cover their tracks. Cross Posted at Power and Control

I’m trying to avoid the appearance of gloating over this report: WASHINGTON – Barack Obama warned Democrats in Congress against making a partisan cause out of the Bush administration’s harsh interrogation tactics. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is ignoring him — loudly — and the party, from the president on down, may pay the price. Were…

In a remarkable piece titled “The Alinsky Administration,” Jim Geraghty demonstrates how the Obama administration is following the Alinsky model — with detailed line and verse examples. It’s a must read, and the bottom line is that this is not about ideology, but power: …an Alinskyite’s core principle is to take any action that expands…

Now that Glenn Reynolds has favorably linked Andrew Sullivan’s discussion of Barack Obama’s betrayal of gay rights, I’m hoping that Andrew will reciprocate (and without one of the snotty asides he usually directs towards Glenn). I notice that Andrew was surprisingly kind to Carrie Prejean not long ago, even linking Kathryn Jean Lopez’s column. Perhaps…

That is right. According to a Zogby Poll half of all Americans want pot legalized. A majority of Americans, in a poll released Wednesday, say it “makes sense to tax and regulate” marijuana. The Zogby poll, commissioned by the conservative-leaning O’Leary Report, surveyed 3,937 voters and found 52 percent in favor of legalization. Only 37…

You heard that right. And it is not tinfoil hat stuff. It is from reputable scientists. It makes intuitive sense that if superconductors can carry currents with zero resistance, then superconducting light emitting diodes might do their stuff with equally amazing efficiency. But superconducting LEDs are not only bright, they are brighter than anyone can…

Commenter Robert (to a post about parenting) supplied a link to a truly amazing piece titled “Gun Control Is a Reproductive Justice Issue.” Among other things, the author claims that gun control opponents are racists: In casting the gun issue as a matter of individual rights and responsibilities, the gun lobby only fuels the criminalization…

Sometimes I wonder whether things are getting a bit loopy on the libertarian side of the fence. (Either that or some clever agents provocateur are making it look that way.) Earlier today I received an invitation — from a libertarian Facebook friend I will not name — to join a group named “The New World…

Last night I did something I hardly ever do and flipped innocently through the TV channels. An annoying story caught my attention — involving some local high school kids who were caught horsing around with disposable cameras they’d modified into low-powered stun guns, and who now face felony charges Some of the comments I heard…

Rick Nebel, the head of EMC2 Fusion (Polywell), has a few words to say in the comments at Next Big Future about the progress he is making in understanding The Polywell Fusion Reactor and its chances for power production. rnebel I believe we will know the answer for the Polywell in ~ 1.5-2 years. I…

Eric at Classical Values says that what people want to read is weird and sensational stuff. A little humor never hurt either. My take is that if it includes sex and home improvement it ought to work even better. Popular Science meets the National Enquirer. So today I’m doing a short (very short) review of…

Sean Kinsell looks at a couple of pieces by Bruce Bawer on the repudiation of Pim Fortuyn by certain members of the European right wing. Warns Sean, Some of these people probably had contempt for Fortuyn all along but were willing not to repudiate him as long as he was one of the few high-profile…

The singing in the video is one of the best versions I could find on YouTube. I did like the dancing in this version better though. The version in the above video is very good. It doesn’t hold a candle to the version of Brush Up Your Shakespeare that was done by a traveling company…

The other day Glenn Reynolds linked a Reason piece about new federal rules for anyone running a yard or garage sales: Selling old kids books, anything with metal, paint, or plastic that a kid might use, old clothes or shoes with metal components that a kid might wear? You know, any of the stuff people…

“It’s great to have a private jet.” So says Oprah Winfrey (to a group of young and impressionable people). Yes, I’m sure it is just great to have a private jet. (And armed bodyguards too! How great is that?) What I think would be even greater would be if Oprah would just stop lecturing the…

Forgive the title, folks. But inspired by a link, I decided to yellowize the blog up a bit. And why not? As things are, I’m so burned out on human politics that a slight change of pace (to hyena politics) seems very much in order. Whether you’re into traditional values or tend towards more radical…

As you can see from the above graph the heat stored in the ocean does not match global warming predictions. Normally this would mean the death of a theory or at minimum some serious adjustments of it. But you know what we are dealing with is not real science. It is climate change science. Albert…

Michael Barone looks at why public support for gun control and global warming hysteria have diminished over time. The preaching and scolding have had a cumulative effect, aggravated by hypocrisy: …For liberal elites, belief in gun control and global warming has taken on the character of religious faith. We have sinned (by hoarding guns or…

I can’t help thinking that the timing of this this “death to Limbaugh” meme is awfully suspicious. For the past week, a sizeable portion of the conservative and libertarian blogosphere have been debating whether or not to adopt leftie-style meanness and dirty fighting as a tactic, and with the debate still ongoing, what does the…