Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Remember the 1987 crash? It began on a day known as Black Monday: The crash began in Hong Kong, spread west through international time zones to Europe, hitting the United States after other markets had already declined by a significant margin. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped by 508 points to 1739 (22.6%).[1] By…

And you can find out who they are by visiting BarackBook.com. Here are some typical entries: Barack is watching the new BarackBook Web Video Here =============== Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Governor Rod Blagojevich and Antoin “Tony” Rezko are now friends with Joseph Cari =============== Barack Obama and ACORN are now friends with Madeline Talbott The…

CERN Rap from Will Barras on Vimeo H/T The Pale Scot

In other earthbreaking campaign “news,” I see that John McCain stands accused of being sarcastic. Imagine! And consider the timing! This blatant sarcasm comes right after children were lovingly made to sing tender and loving paens to Obama. How mean and vicious and cruel can McCain get? MORE: You think I’m kidding? Watch this. If…

Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press does not like Sarah Palin very much. She not only disagrees with her, but she thinks she is stupid, and above all is making women look bad: As our economy teeters on the brink of disaster, Gov. Sarah Palin has spent the past two days cramming for a…

Keeping up with Britain? When I saw this story which Drudge earlier, I thought it involved the United States. Smokers buying cigarettes will from Wednesday be confronted with a series of gruesome images printed on the packets showing how tobacco damages health. The pictures, which show cancerous lungs and throats as well as rotting teeth,…

I know you can’t make this stuff up because you don’t have to. In an imaginary world where liberal journalists are held to the same standards as everyone else, Ifill would be required to make a full disclosure at the start of the debate. She would be required to turn to the cameras and tell…

Another Clinton backer endorses McCain. As Barack Obama and John McCain battle for the Hispanic vote, a leading Latino backer of Hillary Clinton is crossing party lines to support the Republican presidential nominee. In an interview Thursday, Miguel D. Lausell, a Puerto Rican businessman and longtime Democratic activist and fund-raiser, came out for Sen. McCain.…

What a community organizer does. Or in the words of Stanley Kurtz: A community organizer helps get high risk loans for low credit customers. What ACORN does. What is ACORN then? An organization full of community organizers committed to mortgage fraud and vote fraud. Some real nice friends that Obama has. Cross Posted at Power…

In Europe. And you thought we had it bad in America. The Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis, Britain’s Bradford and Bingley, and Iceland’s Glitnir, were all partially or fully nationalized after failing to roll-over debts in the short-term money markets, while the French state pledged support for the Franco-Belgian lender Dexia after the share price collapsed on…

Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential…

One of my pet peeves involves ideologues who misuse the word “we” — especially in a scolding manner which implies that “we” all oppress the poor, have abortions, engage in hedonism, hate God, etc. Whatever it is that that’s the ideological complaint of the moment, “we” are said to all be guilty of it. Predictably,…

If you visit this blog regularly, you probably know that I have no tipjar, but that I occasionally urge readers to donate to other bloggers instead. Right now, Dean Esmay could really use your help. Details and tip jar here. While it’s a real drag to ask people for money, I’d like to give a…

What’s shocking (to me) about the clamor to “save people’s homes” (see M. Simon’s earlier post) is that in many cases, they’re trying to “save” people who owe more than the house is worth. I think it is economically dishonest to talk of “saving” homes in this context. When someone is allowed to walk away…

Victor Davis Hanson has one of the best analyses of the current predicament vis-a-vis the election that I have seen in recent days. (A must read.) He thinks time is running out (that’s the title of the piece!), and even though the most moderate Republican in history is running against the most left wing Democrat…

Stephen Strauss takes a look at big science and comes away unimpressed. He talks about two exhibits he saw. One for the $15 billion ITER (pronounced EATER – heh) and another about neolithic technology – mat weaving, pottery making, chipping stone axes. At the recent European Science Open Forum conference in Barcelona, for example, I…

So who is to blame for the mess we are in? Victor Davis Hanson has some thoughts on the subject. no one dares to ask what really drove the wheeler-dealer portfolio managers. Who re-elected these shady politicians of both parties? Who fostered the cash-in culture in which both Wall Street profit mongering and Washington lobbying…

Simon’s Law: It is unwise to attribute to malice alone that which can be attributed to malice and stupidity.