Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

The most advanced auto plant in the world and the UAW is against having it located in America. And the UAW wants a bail out for the auto industry? Not one cent. No loans. No cash. No nothing. They helped ruin the business. They can go down with it. Cross Posted at Power and Control

H/T Radly Balko Cross Posted at Power and Control

Prohibition is an awful flop. We like it. It can’t stop what it’s meant to stop. We like it. It’s left a trail of graft and slime, It won’t prohibit worth a dime, It’s filled our land with vice and crime. Nevertheless, we’re for it. Franklin P. Adams, 1931 In honor of Repeal Day we…

Exactly seventy-five years ago today (depending on which calendar you use) that grand social engineering program called Alcohol Prohibition was repealed. There still appears to be a market for that sort of thing but thankfully it is drying up. Cross Posted at Power and Control

I took this presidential fashion challenge that Ann Althouse linked, and I couldn’t tell whose tie was whose. (I did a pretty good job of guessing, though.) It’s probably best not to read too much into this. However, if Barack Obama ever started sporting a Bush-style suspicious bulge, it would be time for his progressive…

Why semi-automatic rifles are not assault rifles. About 11 minutes. Some shooting involved. H/T Instapundit Cross Posted at Power and Control

In a piece about shocking acts of anti-Mormon bigotry on the part of certain gay marriage activists, Jonah Goldberg warns, …the scorched-earth campaign to victory pushed by gay-marriage advocates may well be disastrous, and “liberals” should be ashamed for countenancing it. Such tactics are deplorable, and they may very well redound to the benefit of…

Yesterday I spoke with a Pakistani American who told me that he thought the partitioning (by England) of India into India and Pakistan (and two independent countries) was a mistake. His view was that because there are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan, the notion that Hindus and Muslims belong in two different countries…

A commenter at Giving up on God (sort of) by David Harsanyi said a funny thing. David seems to focus his energies on diminishing religion and being a booster for “medicinal marijauna”, and gay rights and so forth. It is hard for Dave to admit, but those aren’t conservative principles. I guess using God’s own…

I’m busy as hell today, but Davis Harsanyi has a great culture war piece in the Denver Post, titled “Giving up on God (sort of).” The question is “Do we need God in politics?”: Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker recently penned a provocative column titled “Giving up on God,” wherein she suggested that the Republican…

Earlier today I had a wonderful lunch with Judith Weiss (of the great Keshertalk blog) at my favorite Japanese restaurant, following which we went to the Albany Waterfront Trail Park. We found a beautiful little dream house that some artists built, and I handed my camera to Judith while I went inside and peered out…

I got the video from National Geographic Explorer – Marijuana Nation – a review . Cultivation of Marijuana (hemp) stretches back from George Washington’s farm when Pot was the leading cash crop in the United States, to today, with annual profits surpassing $65 billion. The documentary reveals more than 200 million people around the world…

My house is located in one of Berkeley’s “conservative” neighborhoods. Just out of curiosity, I thought I would check to see how well John McCain did. In my precinct, he got nearly 5% of the vote, or 19 out of 521 votes, to be exact: President And Vice President Consolidated Precinct Number: 201300 Includes precincts:…

From time to time when I lived in the Bay Area in the late 60s and early 70s I would visit with the folks at an art/architecture collective called the Ant Farm. This was the heyday of the water bed and the Ant Farmers were big into vinyl. Not for fetish purposes but as a…

Fred is hilarious. Sadly. (about 8 1/2 minutes) You can keep Fred’s videos coming by donating to Fred PAC. Cross Posted at Power and Control

“YOU REALIZE, OF COURSE, THAT THIS MEANS WAR.” I don’t know what was more of a shock — reading that chilling declaratory remark from Glenn Reynolds or reading the underlying reason: In his latest tape Ayman Al-Zawahiri warned America to convert to Islam and give up beer. Damned if Glenn isn’t absolutely right. As the…

The economy of Zimbabwe is collapsing due to the policies of its President for Life Robert Mugabe. In another sign of the turmoil, the government rejected a ruling by a regional court that demanded Zimbabwe stop seizing land from white farmers. The government instead will speed up efforts to take land remaining in whites farmers’…

I was reading a post by Bob Owens about concealed carry of fire arms for self defense. Bob suggested that the first thing to do was to have a look at the US Marine Corps rules for gunfighting. Here are the first few rules: 1. Bring a gun. Preferably, bring at least two guns. Bring…

Reading through the various accounts of the Mumbai terror attack, I was suddenly struck by how easily everyone (including myself) was fooled into thinking that this was primarily a “hostage-taking” operation. Nonsense. It was a murder operation, and the terrorists used the “hostage” meme to full advantage: Evidence was emerging last night that the the…