Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

I realize we have an increasingly tedious president, and for my part I’m trying not to add to the tedium by carrying on about how tedious he is. Not that I expect anyone to thank me. In fact, my blogging has been so light lately that I doubt readers appreciate my enormous restraint. The thing…

Here’s an item which guarantees fun for the whole family — the Chia Obama! For just $19.99, you can teach your children about civics and horticulture while amusing your friends. In honoring our 44th US President, the Chia Pet company presents this Special Edition Chia Obama. On the side of the Chia Obama planter are…

I have just come across a book, Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis, which has given me something new to worry about. Global warming – if it lasts long enough – will cause the average IQ of the human race to decline. Here is a bit from a review of the book. The book’s…

I have been meaning to write something about a Consumer Report I have been reading on licit and illicit drugs. They discuss a few famous opiate addicts, including the father of modern surgery Wm. Halsted, among others. One bit of the article struck me as particularly interesting. Incredible as it may seem, even a few…

The spike in violence due to heavily armed gangs in Mexico can be rectified, but not through the failed model of near-complete prohibition. Bob Owens made the above remark at A Call to Arms in Mexico. He was referring to gun prohibition. Now if only that understanding could be applied to drugs we might get…

I don’t know whether to title this post “why I am not a conservative, Part XXVI,” but every once in a while I find myself so appalled with conservatism (Republicanism?) that I feel an overwhelming need to speak out and distance myself from, um, it? (From them?) In this case, I’m not talking about the…

Like many people, I’m tempted to ask just what the hell is going on with what seems like a phenomenon of “another day, another massacre.” I’m not going to spend a lot of time trying to make sense out of something so senseless, but Rick Moran has done an admirable job of analyzing the mass…

Not long ago, the following pronouncement from Hillary Clinton upset me enough that in desperation I turned to Ayn Rand: “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police, of soldiers, and civilians.” Ugh! (That is the Secretary of State, talking, after all….)…

China has surpassed the USA in automobile production. In 2008, China surpassed the United States to become the world’s second largest auto-making nation, and in 2009 is set to displace Japan as the planet’s largest car producer, according to iSuppli Corp. Last year, China manufactured 9.3 million cars, while the United States built 8.7 million.…

I liked this story about an enterprising Detroit man who has been hunting and selling raccoons — in urban Detroit: Beasley, a 69-year-old retired truck driver who modestly refers to himself as the Coon Man, supplements his Social Security check with the sale of raccoon carcasses that go for as much $12 and can serve…

In what will surely come as a disappointment to some, David Horowitz has argued that “We are not witnessing the coming of the anti-Christ.” Ron Radosh discusses this and Obama Derangement Syndrome generally in a well reasoned PJM piece arguing that “a more nuanced conservatism may be emerging from the ashes.” I’m all for nuanced…

Instapundit says that Amazon is having A Big Food Sale. And that you can get some really good deals. So let me ask you. Who buys food like this: Ener-G Foods Chocolate Chip Potato Cookies, 9.6-Ounce Packages (Pack of 6). Or as a Jedi Master once said, “How you get so big eating food of…

I got this clip from Transform where they explain a bit about the show. …debate drug legalisation/regulation with Anne Widdecombe MP on David Frost’s Al Jazeera show; ‘Frost over the World’. This was significant in that the show is broadcast to an audience we rarely access – 140 million households internationally (although not, presumably, anything…

Says Alan Boyle in his most recent Cosmic Log. So what’s behind the seemingly sudden interest? Part of the buzz is dictated by the calendar. After 12 years of construction, the world’s most powerful laser is finally finished at the National Ignition Facility in California, and VIPs are getting a look at some of the…

Via Glenn Reynolds (who sees a tipoff in the “candlelight vigils”), Rand Simberg skewers one of the most idiotic arguments I have yet heard against armed self defense. Anti-gun activists have found a convenient poster boy for their cause — one John Woods, described as “a student at Virginia Tech when his girlfriend and several…

A friend of Joe Biden’s daughter claims to have video of her snorting cocaine. The daughter’s name is Ashley. The video is for sale. The New York Post and Radar online reported that lawyers representing the seller claimed that the footage was of Ashley Biden, 27, a social worker, at a party and initially wanted…

Drudge links a press release which reconfirms some old news — the radical animal rights group PETA euthanizes thousands of animals: According to public records from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, PETA killed 2,124 pets last year and placed only seven in adoptive homes. Since 1998, a total of 21,339 dogs and…

The murders of four police officers in Oakland, California by a wanted parole violator with a long record has generated predictable reactions. Naturally, there are calls for more gun control, like this plea for passage of a renewed ban on “assault weapons.” (California already has a draconian ban on “assault weapons” as well as strict…

I stumbled across a video in which “Expedition Six NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit demonstrates how the International Space Station crew prepares and eats snacks” — one of which is honey and peanut butter. “You mix peanut butter and honey, and man, it doesn’t get any better than that!” He also notes that because…

Hizballah has set up shop in Mexico and a few points south. It seems they are interested in taking advantage of a business opportunity. Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S.…