Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Sean Kinsell looks at this Reason round-up of libertarian reactions to Barack Obama, then adds his own analysis. Here’s how Jonathan Rauch sees the upside and the downside: The upside: his subtle mind, silver tongue, moderate temperament, cool deftness, and magnetic charisma. The last time we saw those traits combined was in John F. Kennedy,…

He is talking about how he will bankrupt any investment in new coal power plants. I think that is just the start. BTW Obama’s State, Illinois, has a significant coal mining industry. Cross Posted at Power and Control

I hate the culture war. Yet I have been writing about it for years, spilling tens if not hundreds of thousands of words in post after post. As to how many hundreds of hours of my life this has consumed, I’m probably better off not knowing, because if I did know, I might start wondering…

Erica Jong predicts that if Obama loses there will be a second civil war in America. One wag at the site linked (Hot Air) had this to say: If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. The sad part is that this is starting…

Via a comment at HillBuzz comes a link to audio of a Republican Operative who says some pretty outrageous things about the state of the election. Things like McCain is way ahead in Pennsylvania. And that McCain has a chance in California. Who could believe it? Here are the numbers the operative gives according to…

HillBuzz has this to say about their Halloween Report. Halloween costumes are a reflection of the zeitgeist in that moment — Palin and McCain were the costumes on people’s minds, because they are who are in the pop culture’s imagination right now. The ticket that is best represented in Halloween costumes in an election year…

So I’m reading this, because Justin told me to go to Protein Wisdom and find it. As it happened, just as I was right in the middle of it — savoring every mean and vicious Rethuglican word — a team of Obamacrat volunteers came knocking at my door. They were furiously barked at, and I…

Many of you, like me, may know Seattle’s consciously lefty paper the Stranger through sex-columnist cum-editor Dan Savage. I occasionally read his column, Savage Love, and I listen to his podcast weekly. He’s entertaining, informative, and like many people, a blind follower of the Democratic party with zero tolerance for Republicans of any stripe. I…

Feminist author and icon Erica Jong has stated that an Obama loss “Will Spark the Second American Civil War” and that “Blood Will Run in the Streets“: Basically, Jong says her fear that Obama might lose the election has developed into an “obsession. A paralyzing terror. An anxious fever that keeps you awake at night.”…

Rick Nebel of EMC2 explains what the recent flurry of contracts from the Navy (New IEC Fusion Experiment Contract) was all about. This isn’t a big deal. This is small, interim funding. It’s called staying alive until they make a decision. At least they are going to be able to keep the team together until…

This is a follow up to my post Cult of Personality. The best antidote to these techniques is to read and analyze the speeches. Bring your rational mind to bear. You might also be interested in this speech by another master of the technique that has themes similar to an Obama speech. H/T the comments…

Ready or not, it’s Halloween, so I wanted to wish a nightmarishly good time on all my readers. I’m not wearing a costume, but Coco managed to look a little ghoulish for the occasion. And I did manage to carve my pumpkin before the sun completely set. Lucky for me, and lucky for the pumpkin…

In light of the previous post on free speech (and for innumerable other reasons), I find it tough to see how any libertarian could possibly justify voting for Barack Obama. I understand why McCain could be considered beyond the pale by libertarians, especially the purists of the Large L variety, and I have voiced my…

M. Simon’s post about the hypnotic qualities of Barack Obama made me recall something which might be of interest, and which may or may not shed light on the human perceptions involved. Basically, I found Barack Obama interesting at first, and the fact that he had a more pleasant voice than Hillary made me favor…

Tom Maguire asks some good questions about the recent news item involving Barack Obama’s aunt: Barack Obama has an aunt (OK, a half-aunt) living in Boston and we need a British newspaper to tell us this? What else are we going to learn about Obama after we elect him? And will we learn it from…

The last day or so I have been looking at the The Mass Psychology of Fascism and how to Escape from Freedom. Not the books. Stuff on the net. Let me start with Ali Sina’s discussion of the cult of personality. There are other disturbing similarities. Like Hitler and Khomeini, Obama also likes to create…

Since we love rumors around here let me pass on another one. According to The Obama File a tape in which Michelle Obama is castigating racists for working for the defeat of her husband will air on FOX some time in the next few days (given the typical election calculations it will be out some…

I was all set to write a post about the LA Times withholding the video of Rashid Khalidi’s farewell party (which featured the Ayerses and the Obamas among other luminaries), when I saw that WorldNetDaily has stepped right up to the moral equivalency plate with a story about McCain giving Khalidi (or at least some…

Don’t ask me why. I heard this and had an intense feeling something terrible was about to happen, then a flock of crows flew low overhead, in avian anarchist formation. No going home. MORE: I liked dr kill’s comment to the last post: Human reality is universal only at the border of life and death.…

I don’t know whether to call this the quote of the day, the quote of the month, or the quote of the year, but I think what Bill Quick says here is brilliant: A free and healthy democracy cannot function when it has no way to determine reality. This has been on my mind for…