Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

And although I realize that on matters of taste there can be no dispute, I’m not sure I have the stomach for recipes that challenge the wisdom of my repugnance.

While it still worries me, the Republican intraparty civil war I discussed in the last post isn’t the civil war I’m most worried about. Because of some of the heated rhetoric (as well as the heated rhetoric over heated rhetoric) lately, I sometimes worry about the possibility of things getting ugly after the election. Which…

Another civil war? Must we? I don’t know, but I couldn’t resist clicking the above to read Patrick Ruffini’s analysis (in a post tiled “Hands Off Palin”) of Ross Douthat’s warning to certain conservatives. Noting the negative reactions of the latter to the negative reactions to Sarah Palin by certain Big Media conservative intellectuals, Douthat…

Intrigued by an editorial titled “McCain plays the race card,” I read the piece looking for details. The evidence for the “race card” consists not of anything McCain said or did, but of comments allegedly yelled by unknown individuals in crowds: At a Florida rally this week, according to The Washington Post, the crowd got…

Sound familiar? It does to me, and I don’t think there’s any escape from it. Not from “the depravity and cursedness of Western civilization,” mind you, but from the scoldings heaped upon those of us who’d prefer to be allowed to enjoy Western civilization in peace. The above came from a 2005 Columbus Day retrospective…

In such an eliptical manner that I amost missed it, M. Simon has announced his 64th birthday! It’s not every day I feel like a kid. My congratulations!

In a comment to yesterday’s post about Chris Buckley’s “defection” (if it is that), Sissy Willis quoted in part from a comment left by Gerard van der Leun at Roger Kimball’s PJM post on the subject: “Friends such as Roger will criticize him ‘more in sorrow than in anger,’ but he will still be welcome…

Meet Sarah Obama, Barack Obama’s step-grandmother. She lives in a rural Kenyan village, and in this video she says nothing about being present at the birth of her step-grandson in Kenya, even though she’s very proud of the fact that he’s running for president In a longer interview broadcast on Al Jazeera television, she also…

In a discussion of the bizarre new rules of engagement (that all criticism of Obama is racist) Ruth Ann Dailey sees little hope for racial absolution: When Republicans finally started paying serious attention to the man who was poised to pluck the crown right out of Hillary Clinton’s hands, Mr. Obama had already been running…

When I read last week that Christopher Buckley had decided to support Barack Obama, my reaction was a relatively minor shrug. Not even worth a passing mention here, much less a blog post. I realize the man is the son of William F. Buckley, the late, great, titan of conservatism, but so what? It isn’t…

We’ve all been hearing about mobs lately. Especially the brutal McCain mobs. First, here’s a YouTube video titled “The McCain-Palin Mob in Strongsville, Ohio“: (Views: 154,518) I’m not sure the above is really a “mob,” but that’s what it’s being called, and I’m trying to be fair to both sides. So let’s assume the above…

While I have not yet seen An American Carol, reading this post by Little Miss Attila makes me want to run right out and see it while I can: People are unable to buy tickets online for this movie, and have to get them at the cineplex itself; When one goes to the theater, the…

So snarks Frank Rich triumphantly, in what he obviously feels is a summary “refutation” of Sarah Palin’s remark about Barack Obama “palling around with terrorists.” (Also characterized by Rich as a “violent escalation in rhetoric.”) While I can understand why some people might dispute the tense and meaning of “palling around,” what’s the problem with…

Click To Enlarge According to Gateway Pundit Obama had some interesting friends when he was learning the political ropes in Chicago. Obama actively sought the New Party’s endorsement and urged the Marxist members to join his campaigns. The New Party went so far as to claim Obama as an official member of their organization. The…

I’m absolutely fascinated by the conflation that is going on. Now that McCain (who has barely mentioned Bill Ayers until very recently) has decided to finally say something about Obama’s unrepentant terrorist buddy, he’s being accused of not only ignoring the economy, but going negative about a trivial subject. For his part, Obama has been…

About 11 minutes I have looked into Obama’s birth certificate issues at: The Birth Certificate Democrats Against Some Entitlements Obama Birth Certificate Issue Heats Up Not A Citizen? Juhah Benjamin On Obama’s Birth Certificate You can also find out more by searching Philip Berg Obama. Cross Posted at Power and Control

Rumors Abound A post yesterday on pro-Hillary HillBuzz claims that a contributer spoke with someone in the Chicago court system that a team of FBI investigators in ten states are putting together a RICO case for U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. They are claiming that alleged undocumented contributions to the Obama campaign could potentially ensnare ACORN…

In a great piece about coping with stress — especially the stress of financial difficultues — psychiatrist Pat Santy, M.D. makes a passing observation about how unlikely it would be for anyone to take heart in the current problems: Unless you are some kind of environmental lunatic — or Al Gore — it is rather…

Until yesterday, I didn’t know that it was “unethical” to fire someone you don’t like if you have the power to do that. (At least, not in Alaska with an election pending.) I guess that means Sarah Palin is unethical. The downside of this is that if she is elected, and is given the power…