Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

I’m having a serious logical problem, and I hate it when this happens, because I get stuck, and the frustrated little wheels inside my mind go in circles, spinning around and around like a broken hard drive. There’s a fairly new law in California, SB 777, which adds “sexual orientation” and “gender” to classes protected…

Via Glenn Reynolds, Donald Sensing highlights the latest chapter in moronic anti-military bigotry in San Francisco (aptly described as “San Francisco: the Few, the Proud, the Morons.”), in which the Marine Corps was denied permission to film a commercial depicting Marines in San Francisco, thus forcing the filmmakers to superimpose Marines into the film later.…

That title was easy enough to write, but it looks sexist. Of course, would also have appeared sexist had the title been “Not taking sexism seriously…” Forgive the irony, but I often feel I can’t win, whether I try to be serious or try to be humorous. Anyway, in a column titled “Sexism is candidate…

It hurts to read that Fred Thompson dropped out of the race. After South Carolina, I knew it was inevitable, but it just plain hurts. FWIW, I favored his candidacy back in March, and I was defending him when people were making fun of him because I thought he could be a great president. Those…

I’m talking about Bill Clinton, of course. He might as well have been in last night’s debate. Really and truly, it’s almost as if he was there. Anyway, even if he wasn’t there, his strategic emotion certainly was: …while large swaths of the American opinion elite suffer from Clinton fatigue, the Democratic primary electorate does…

I was up late with last night’s debate, and my full report is now posted at Pajamas Media. This was my third debate report for PJM, and I am very grateful to them for thinking highly enough of my stuff to invite me to join the fun. And I do mean fun (even if it…

The title is a paraphrase of an astute comment at Althouse HT Instapundit

In a remarkable speech delivered yesterday at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (Martin Luther King’s church), Barack Obama called for unity, and while he did not single out identity politics by name, his attacks on divisiveness speak for themselves: For most of this country’s history, we in the African-American community have been at the…

I wanted to post this video done in 2000 to help people to get a feel for just how big the ITER Fusion Test Reactor is. The Bussard Reactor is about 1/100th that size. Here is another ITER video. In the beginning it shows something called the Central Solenoid. A Bussard Reactor producing 100 MW…

What are you supposed to do if you are in your home at night, and suddenly hear the sound of your door being smashed open? The normal response of an armed person would be to grab a gun and shoot at the invader before the invader has a chance to get inside and kill you.…

It looks like Hillary Clinton knew what she was doing when she made a former La Raza President Raul Yzaguirre her campaign co-chair. (Yzaguirre, BTW, has likened the “US English” organization to the Ku Klux Klan.) Analyzing the Nevada results, Bill Bradley sees a serious problem for Obama with the Latino vote — a fact…

Instapundit

There is a long discussion going on at Gates of Vienna about the divisions in our society. The Left seems intent on multiplying those differences in a divide and conquer strategy. One of the participants said that the answer to what the left is doing is for people of European ancestry to band together to…

HT Lubos Motl

(Sorry for the “Eraserhead” reference, but this is one post I’d rather not write. But the theme is about erasure anyway, so what the hell.) Ron Rosenbaum has a fascinating piece which documents the Mormon practice of baptising dead non-Mormons (something I’d only heard about vaguely). I take a broad general view of religions and…

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer ran a report by Stephanie Simon of the LA Times about Ward Connerly’s national campaign against affirmative action. DENVER – Intent on dismantling affirmative action, activists in five states have launched a coordinated drive to cut off tax dollars for programs that offer preferential treatment based on race or gender. The campaign…

What might be the biggest unspoken liberal objection to Barack Obama is only being voiced by foreign leftists: In Europe, one senses a quiet shame. The left, which loves to criticize the Unites States for its imperial foreign policy and its discrimination against blacks and Hispanics, is not really saluting Obama. There have been few…

That’s what an angry core of feminist activists is saying about Oprah Winfrey: AMERICA’S favourite television presenter is paying a painful price for her intervention in the US presidential campaign last month. Oprah Winfrey has been dubbed a “traitor” by some of her female fans for supporting Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton. Winfrey’s website,…

I’m watching the South Carolina results roll in and I’m sorry that Fred Thompson didn’t win this one. (Right now he’s in third place, which is at least better than he’d done elsewhere.) With 22% of the vote in, it appears that McCain has it — winning by an eight point margin over Huckabee. (36%…

Here’s Boys on Wheels — a disabled Norwegian group singing a song about how glad they are that they’re not gay. This came from a friend who said in the email, Hysterical, but as you see, we are STILL the only ones on whom it will always be open season for ridicule! Exactly how serious…