Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

I keep reading that pit bulls are the “number one dog of choice for drug dealers.” While the line sounds as if it had been scripted for Hollywood or MSM consumption, what really shocked me was to see it echoed by the Humane Society of the United States. When inflammatory code language like that is…

The Goddard Institute For Space Studies explains the meaning of surface air temperatures. Q. What exactly do we mean by SAT [Surface Air Temperature – ed.]? A. I doubt that there is a general agreement how to answer this question. Even at the same location, the temperature near the ground may be very different from…

There are plenty of excuses not to write blog posts, and most of them are not worthy subjects of blog posts. However, this morning I was all ready to write a post after I returned from an errand, but I was delayed by an irritating “tock-tock-tock” sound which seemed to be coming from the rear…

Kaus Files has a story on John Edwards. It seems the National Enquirer is flogging a story that claims Rielle Hunter is having John Edwards’ love child. The Enquirer posts the gist….. One initial point: There’s no reason to conclude this story was planted by one campaign or another. I’m familiar with how the initial…

She’s worse. From the trailer for Hillary The Movie. Side note: if any one recognizes the guy who said that in the trailer I’d like to give him credit. Cross Posted at Power and Control Update: 20 Dec 007 0755z Reader Vince P – Chicago at Classical Values says the guy with the Nixon bit…

But they are being thought anyway, and I don’t like reading that this kind of paranoid thinking is alleged to be taking hold among black Americans: Online and in the streets Black folk are saying they won’t vote for the senator because of fears of assassination attempts. The senator’s wife, an incredibly bright and engaging…

It’s hardly breathtaking news, but here’s an enjoyable little lesson in politics for Machiavellians and political junkies: Mayor-elect Michael Nutter last week wholeheartedly threw his support behind Hillary Clinton in next year’s presidential race. “Philadelphia, we need a friend in the White House,” he said at an Electric Factory fund-raiser for the New York senator,…

There is too much of this kind of stuff going on: A Minneapolis police SWAT team kicked in the wrong door yesterday during an early morning raid, prompting the man of the house to grab his gun and open fire on the officers who entered the house. “He took out his shotgun and he said…

In a previous post, I described Hillary Clinton having “no scruples or ideals whatsoever.” What I said cannot be overstressed, and it is shocking to me how much people have forgotten about recent American history. In a mini-history lesson on Clintonism, Diana West argues that not only is the “Clinton crime family” back, but something…

I would like to criticize Islam much more than I do publicly, but I’m afraid for my life if I do. So says “West Wing” producer Lawrence O’Donnell in an interview on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show. This revealing statement occurred while O’Donnell attempted to explain his rather over-the-top attack on Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. Roger L.…

Check out the 6th Annual Right Wing News Conservative Blog Awards! Find out which blogs were voted as the best — and worst — by their fellow bloggers. You can see won these once per year awards, which are the oldest and most prestigious in the conservative blogosphere…. The results are quite interesting, and I…

Commenter Papertiger has given me a heads up about a Climate Debate on Blog Talk Radio. By popular request, I present the Great Climate Debate. The participants in the debate are Dr. Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric science at Texas A&M University, and Dr. Timothy Ball, a retired professor from the University of Winnipeg.…

For years now (as I remarked on Friday), I have adhered to the assumption that Hillary Clinton Absolutely Will Be the Democratic presidential nominee, and I am having a great deal of trouble even considering the possibility that the nomination might go to Obama. Maybe I’ve been in denial. It isn’t an easy thing to…

I was reading Michelle Malkin on the recent vote by the Senate to authorize funds for the war with no strings attached. The vote was something like 90 to 3. I thought to myself, certainly there will be outrage at the DU, probably fodder for a blog post. So I’ll go have a look and…

Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy is discussing how the war on drugs impedes progress in the War On Islamic Fascism. So I ask a question: Which is more important – using prohibition to subsidize criminals or winning the war against the fascist? Americans repeatedly choose to subsidize criminals. The common complaint is “too many…

Via Glenn Reynolds, I just learned that Triticale has died. Glenn hadn’t heard of his leukemia, but says: I enjoyed his blog posts and comments. He will be missed. He certainly will. Triticale’s name, (it turns out, according to Old Grouch) was Tom Dee. This is really sad. I hate to lose not only a…

In the last month or so I have posted a couple of pieces on government interference with industry. One post contained this quote from Thomas Edison: “Any extension of the Government into business affairs — no matter what the pretense and no matter how the extension is labeled — will be bound to promote waste…

It’s a bit of a shock for this to sink in, but even in my wildest political prognostication I never imagined the presidential race shaping up as being between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It would be foolish to say that this will happen, but it certainly appears possible: Barack Obama has come from behind…