Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

While many have heard about how Barack Obama took over $100,000 from Fannie Mae ($126,349, according to Open Secrets), I think I’ve found the Fannie Mae trivia question for the day. Who turned down $100,000 from Fannie Mae? No, that is not a trick question or a joke. (Nor is the economic crisis triggered by…

“Catholic social doctrine as I was taught it is, you take care of people who need the help the most.” Don’t worry, I’m not going to play “Name that Christianist” again. The speaker was Senator Joe Biden, and he was explaining how his religious views define what he thinks ought to be government policies on…

That would be David Axelrod, Obama’s Campaign Manager. David Axelrod has long been known for his political magic. Through his AKP&D Message & Media consultancy, the campaign veteran has advised a succession of Democratic candidates since 1985, and he’s now chief strategist for Senator Barack Obama’s bid for President. But on the down low, Axelrod…

I hate conspiracy theories, especially blogging about them. Even more do I hate spending my time checking them out to see whether they have any merit. That’s because few reasonable people care. Reasonable people don’t waste time with conspiracy theories, and tend not to believe them. So, if a conspiracy theory is “debunked,” the reaction…

At least not yet. Here is where it started for me.

Considering the way the vicious attacks on Sarah Palin generated sympathy for her (with a resultant backlash reflected in earlier polls), I would have thought that her attackers would by now have learned to control themselves, at least for the few weeks that remain in this increasingly ugly campaign. Almost ten days ago, I opined…

It looks like Joe Biden and B. Obama have some mutual acquaintances. Or at least mutual once removed. DENVER — No matter what help Barack Obama might get from Sen. Joseph Biden, his newly named vice presidential running mate won’t give Obama much cover on the Tony Rezko front. Biden has described himself as a…

My Pet Jawa thinks so. It is also likely that the PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign. While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign. Namely: * Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of…

Noting Biden’s attack on the “the cowboy mentality of the Bush-McCain era,” Bill Quick comes out swinging in defense of cowboys: I like cowboys. They are one of the greatest American icons. Why do Obama and Biden hate America and her greatest icons? (Via Glenn Reynolds.) Hey wait a second! How does Biden manage to…

Top Democrat issue framer George Lakoff has some advice for the Obama campaign. (From a psychiatric pdf file.) Stop talking about issues. It’s all about “character” (in quotes because according to Lakoff character is just “narrative”): In 1980, Richard Wirthlin – Ronald Reagan’s chief strategist – made a fateful discovery. In his first poll he…

I got a kick out of the Issues-O-Meter that Ann Althouse linked earlier. It lists ten issues, each one with a button which, when clicked, makes the figures of McCain and Obama slide back and forth on the scale below so you can see how close or far apart on a given issue they are.…

Long time commenter and e-mail friend linearthinker brought that word to my attention. He quotes this definition: “…the statistical analysis of elections. Psephology uses compilations of precinct voting returns for elections going back some years, public opinion polls, campaign finance information and similar statistical data.” And then he explains why it is important. One quarter…

While I haven’t spent as much time as I perhaps should on the subject of ACORN, last week’s Detroit Free Press article about the group’s connection with local voter fraud was hard to ignore. Now (from Bob Owens, who is not surprised) I see that the group is up to the same thing in North…

Part 2

H/T Uppity Woman

This is a story from August 15th so it is a little old. However, it ties in with this story about the interrelations among climate change profiteer Al Gore, climatologist Jim Hansen, and the financial firm Lehman Brothers. So lets look at the connection between George Soros and the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers. George Soros…

An anti-abortion group has sponsored this anti-Obama ad, in which Gianna Jesson (a woman who survived an abortion) points out that “If Barack Obama had his way, I wouldn’t be here.” It’s hard hitting, and intended to highlight the fact that Barack Obama’s position on abortion is to the left of Hillary Clinton and Barbara…

It seems that the Washington Post says that Franklin Raines really wasn’t an Obama adviser. And by the way, you can’t believe what we write in our newspaper. Talk about boosting the brand. The Obama campaign last night issued a statement by Raines insisting, “I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I…

Reflecting on the discovery that a Tennessee Democratic legislator’s son was the hacker who accessed Sarah Palin’s email account (see Rick Moran’s post on the general subject), Richard Miniter makes a prediction: I predict that the same crowd that said that Palin should have been able to control her 17-year old daughter will defend the…