Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

There’s not much I could add to the clamor surrounding Eliott Spitzer’s call girl capers, other than to say that it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Hell, I might as well just quote myself. Spitzer is a control freak par excellence: Spitzer has a long history as a control freak, whether it’s constantly messing…

We all have obsessions. I’m as guilty as the next person of having mine. But I try not to become too obsessed politically, lest I develop that disease of hyper-obsession known as “activism.” I had my fill of activism and activists when I was in Berkeley, and I know the creature well. Not only can…

In an earlier post I attempted to apply some of my grandfather’s wisdom to today’s political mudslinging — especially his advice to my father to “never get in a peeing contest with a skunk, because you’ll smell like him.” I figured, if the scandal-saturated Clintons are like skunks, then the more Barack Obama reduces himself…

This morning I read something nice about blogging — that it — along with Google, Starbucks, domain names, Spam (the meat, not the digital junk), professional wrestling, lingerie and teenagers — may be a recession proof industry. I like that, as I’d hate to think that “the economy” and what it allegedly is going to…

In today’s Inquirer, Temple University Math professor John Allen Paulos offers a somewhat utopian proposal to move the world towards “heaven on Earth“: …candidly recognizing the absence of any good logical arguments for God’s existence, giving up on divine allies and advocates as well as taskmasters and tormentors, and prizing a humane, reasonable and brave…

My grandfather used to advise my father when he was a boy, “Never get in a peeing contest with a skunk, because you’ll smell like him.” And my decent, well-meaning father passed along that wisdom to me — along with the following, seemingly contradictory bit of wisdom: “Always stand up to a bully.” Juxtaposing these…

I saw the Chambers Brothers do this live at the Fillmore. If you were there with me and my friend Ed Herny, how did you like the magic cookies? Inspired by a discussion of the latest McCain commercial at Althouse. HT Instapundit

Suppose there was trouble in the hood. Suppose you were the head Code Pinker. Who would you call? Who else? You call the Marines. Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, who can turn the air blue when shouting chants against American Marines called out for the Marines in front of Marine Recruiting offices in Berkeley yesterday.…

“There’s no such thing as normality in sex.” So says Vancouver sex therapist David McKenzie, in a generally stodgy Globe and Mail piece about how much time people spend having sex. Don’t expect me to contradict an expert!

Former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers (recently in the news for his Obama connections) has a “funny” sense of humor, and apparently no regrets about setting bombs: ”I don’t regret setting bombs,” Bill Ayers said. ”I feel we didn’t do enough.” Mr. Ayers, who spent the 1970’s as a fugitive in the Weather Underground, was…

When I clicked on Glenn Reynolds’ link to a CBS story titled “Obama’s Rezko Ties Escape National Radar” I found myself drawn to a comparison made by the Clinton campaign to the press coverage of the Norman Hsu fugitive felon/campaign contribution affair, described as much more vast in scope and breadth than that devoted to…

The Bussard Fusion Ram Jet has its own song. It might go well as an introduction to the Bussard Fusion Reactor. Cross Posted at Power and Control

….could this election get any wackier? Tom Maguire wants to know. (Via Glenn Reynolds, who calls McCain the Unity Candidate.) Tell you what. The front page of today’s Inquirer promises “an absolute zoo,” as the election is coming to Pennsylvania, ready or not. The problem is, Pennsylvania is where I live, and I don’t think…

I’m still recovering what’s left of my sanity from the shock of the last few days, which can best be described as an aggravation of my post traumatic Clinton stress disorder. Let me try to explain what I have tried to explain before. I have a serious, serious problem with putting the Clintons back in…

Often, situational awareness and a move to initiate deadly force can prevent trouble. I cringed as I approached the greeter at the door with a bag in my hand. Thankfully, the elderly lady ignored me and we exited the first door into the foyer. I became vaguely aware of two scruffy young men behind us…

Earlier, Glenn Reynolds linked yet another example of Hillary Clinton’s plagiarism (“a little less conversation, a little more action”). Well, I have a complaint of my own. I think she’s not only stolen one of my ideas, she’s done it in a dirty manner. I refer to the “new” idea she’s floating of a Clinton-Obama…

I can’t believe the stuff that gets posted on YouTube. For the past several days, a large number of people have been outraged by a video purporting to show an American soldier throwing a live, screaming puppy off a cliff: WARNING: It is very disturbing. How the video came into being I don’t know, but…

According to Professor Bainbridge European teaching on economics is not very market friendly. He quotes The Wall Street Journal article by Heidi Moore: Theil, who studied French and German financial textbooks as a fellow for the German Marshall Fund, compiles a couple of quotes from the books that guide Europe’s impressionable young into what he…

According to Andrew Sullivan, the right is “celebrating” the victory of Hillary Clinton. That may be, but the evidence he cites (a remark by Hugh Hewitt) seems rather slim: A month ago talk radio was dead. Now it has resurrected Hillary? I think that’s more a statement of irony than jubilation, but I could be…

I turned on the TV to watch the election results, and I’m already confused. It’s too early to count anything in the Ohio and Texas Democratic races, but Hillary is winning the former and Obama the latter. Fox gives this reading: TEXAS OBAMA 467,143 56% CLINTON 356,470 43% Except that’s with one percent of the…