Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Stuart Taylor has a column up about how he was fooled by Obama’s rhetoric. Having praised President Obama’s job performance in two recent columns, it is with regret that I now worry that he may be deepening what looks more and more like a depression and may engineer so much spending, debt, and government control…

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One is from Chicago , another is from Tennessee , and the third is from Minnesota . All three go with a White House official to examine the fence. The Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then…

I haven’t written about my favorite artist, Salvador Dal&iacute, in quite some time. But I see that vintage Dal&iacute YouTube videos continue to appear, and I thought this one was wonderful. The title is “Salvador Dali with silver ink.” Certainly the above is not political in nature, although I’m sure a PostModernist would find no…

The DC Examiner’s Chief Political Correspondent Byron York has just asked Rush Limbaugh if he had “any numbers he could share on just what effect the increased visibility has had on his business.” According to Limbaugh, the numbers are “through the roof” — which prompted the following economic observation from York: …the most decisive economic…

I realize this is a departure from the culture war, but I am facing a war nevertheless. A potentially deadly fish versus turtle war. Normally, the latter eat the former, but in the case of my demented (and nearly outgrown) tank, the fish (a pair of demented Flowerhorn cichlids — “an abomination to the hobby“)…

Via an email, I learned of this video of “a leg trying to steal a bone,” and sure enough, that is what the poor dog thinks is going on: Fortunately, Coco (who did not like the video) would never do anything so dumb as snarl at her own leg. Otherwise, I’d be very worried.

This debate between Stephen Green and Will Wilkinson on “liberaltarianism” fascinated me. The philosophy is explained here by the latter, and dissected (maybe even deconstructed) here by Stephen. At the heart of liberaltarianism is antiwarism, and as an advocate of strong national self-defense, I side with Stephen on this debate for that reason alone. But…

I’m reading No Quarter for a change and I came across a “Progressive” who is unhappy with Obama. Remember how we (meaning, progressives, liberals, Democrats, fair-minded people) got really upset when the Republican majority used all kinds of tricks to get their way? It made us mad. But now, Obama is thinking of using a…

Rush is on fire. Listen. I will update this later.

In an interesting PJM piece, Adam Graham observes that “the war on Rush is a proxy war on movement conservatives,” and I agree. It’s a proxy war against all conservative opposition to Barack Obama, and I say this as a non-fan of Limbaugh. I also think that the war against the Tea Party movement is…

There are more at Doug Ross. Cross Posted at Power and Control

I was sure Obama’s election coupled with his agenda would lead to a failure that would be obvious to the majority of Americans within six months of his inauguration. It has taken less than six weeks. I read an anecdote some where today about a guy who was checking out his purchases at a grocery…

Well, I suppose this was inevitable. (There’s a similar sticker on Ebay with Palin’s name added.) But if you don’t quite fancy the campaignish look, Cafe Press offers plenty of other models to choose from. Like this: Or this: Not to be outdone, Amazon has a slightly slicker version: I’m not much of a fan…

I’m wondering how many readers out there use Twitter, and of those of you who do, whom do you follow? I notice that Barack Obama and Stephen Colbert haven’t tweeted in quite awhile. Karl Rove, our former paymaster, is sure to note exactly when and how often he’ll be appearing on FOX News. I, for…

It looks like Obama fever is starting to wane. At least that is what the anecdotal evidence from Larry Kudlow would indicate. Noteworthy up here on Wall Street, a great many Obama supporters — especially hedge-fund types who voted for “change” — are becoming disillusioned with the performances of Obama and Treasury man Geithner. There…

It is rather obvious that this is not a music video. Despite the fact that images of naked and semi-naked women are involved. Cross Posted at Power and Control

Via an email, I learned about a fascinating incident in which a woman called 911 because a McDonalds restaurant had run out of Chicken McNuggets: ARCH 3–Angered that her local McDonald’s was out of Chicken McNuggets, a Florida woman called 911 three times to report the fast food “emergency.” Latreasa Goodman, 27, last Saturday called…

The hard-hitting Geert Wilder film “Fitna” is a classic example of the kind of opinionated advocacy which Americans take for granted as protected free speech. Agree with Wilder’s point of view or not, the ability to see it is what the First Amendment guarantees. Right? So what’s the big deal about letting people see it?…

I’m not much of a fan of Rush Limbaugh (see yesterday’s post), but when he gets it right he gets it right. And he sure got it right yesterday in his explanation of what’s been baffling so many people: The president is presiding over economic failure. The president is watching it, doing nothing about it.…

Normally I don’t go in for cutesiness, but this is so cute I thought I’d share it. If only there were an Aesop’s fable to go with it… Of course, as anyone who uses Google probably knows, today is Dr. Seuss’s 105th birthday. (Which makes me feel old, as I grew up thinking of him…