Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

I just watched this video of Hillary Clinton’s mother endorsing — SURPRISE! — her daughter Hillary. This, BTW, is one of those professional “I’m Hillary Clinton and I approved this message” ads. I’m thinking back over the years, and I can’t recall the last time I saw an official campaign ad showing a candidate’s mother…

Marxist Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” is being made into a major television series: Zinn’s 1980 book influenced a generation of students with its negatively-framed distortions of American history which minimized successes like WWII. It exchanged traditional history for marginal topics such as Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Joan Baez and…

Scientific American looks at the radiation risks of living near a nuke plant vs. living near a coal fired plant. Their conclusion: the coal plant is more dangerous. How dangerous? Not very. Dana Christensen, associate lab director for energy and engineering at ORNL, says that health risks from radiation in coal by-products are low. “Other…

Stephen Green drunk-blogs the latest Republican debate, and it isn’t a pretty picture: We’re in a very fluid race. The frontrunner, Rudy Giulliani, is down almost everywhere. A scary populist preacher is taking the lead, almost everywhere. The war hero and the TV star are getting no respect, almost anywhere. These should be exciting times.…

Say what you will about Hillary, but the claim that she’s a feminist (or even an independent woman) is getting pretty lame. As has been the pattern all along, whenever she gets into trouble, it’s her husband Bill who comes to the rescue. Ann Althouse wonders what Hillary never did with Bill. A lot, I’d…

Control Engineering asks the provocative question: is manufacturing in decline in the USA? Boston, MA – The keynote address at Aberdeen’s first annual Manufacturing in the 21st Century Executive Summit served as a stronger wake-up call for attendees than the free coffee. During this session, best-selling author Michael Treacy highlighted the dramatic evolution of workplaces…

I have finally learned what will eventually kill me. You’ll die from an Unlikely Illness (like the plague). You will unfortunately succumb to a random and unlikely disease. Only to find out after death that eating more broccoli would have cured you. ‘How will you die?’ at QuizGalaxy.com Via Dr. Helen, who gets to die…

I think I have discovered the primary purpose of the endless recorded loops of voice dialogue prompts. They are there to make people grateful for the privilege of finally being put on hold. In the old days, I used to hate being put on hold. Much as it galls me to admit it, I now…

That’s what they say. “Climate change” is responsible for the Darfur conflict, right? This meme has been parroted endlessly (and of course it made it into Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth“), but trained economist Chris Blattman asked a basic question: The pundits say yes, but what do the data say? Well, among other things, this:…

Last week I saw “American Gangster,” which I thought was a great film. It deals with the rise and fall of black gangster Frank Lucas, and also explores the inherently corrupt (and corrupting) nature of the Drug War. The lead character, played by Denzell Washington, was a thorough Machiavellian who mastered not only a novel…

According to Drudge, this “DNC press release attack summary” shows the amount of time the Democrats have devoted their resources to attacks on candidates: DNC Press Release Attack Summary: Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) – 37% (99 press releases) Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) – 28% (74) Senator John McCain (R-AZ) – 24% (64) Senator Fred Thompson…

Via Glenn Reynolds, I’m glad to see that Evan Coyne Maloney reached a settlement with Indiana University, which alleged he infringed on their trademark. I don’t think he did, and I wrote a post about it. But that got me to thinking about the right of others to use a logo which the owner still…

Ann Althouse has an interesting discussion of a Times piece about why dyslexics become entrepreneurs, and she asks a good question: I love these stories of how people find special powers in their mental deficiencies. (Oliver Sacks is a master at presenting material of this kind.) Bonus topic: What are the mental deficiencies that prevail…

That’s what is being reported about Matthew Murray, the gunman who (fortunately) was shot dead after opening fire on a church but before he could kill more people. Reports also state that he is a “loner” from a “devoutly religious family,” was home-schooled, and was rejected as a missionary. While his family was described as…

Via Glenn Reynolds, who calls her a “supply sider,” Whoopi Goldberg’s latest remarks show so much common sense that she’s starting to remind me of my late father. Whoopi actually stated that the inheritance tax amounts to double taxation: During a discussion of Republican Presidential candidates on ABC’s The View, which the comedian co-hosts, Ms.…

The times they are a changin’ and morality changes with the times. There’s a movement now to abolish horse-drawn carriages in New York, ostensibly because of cruelty to horses: NEW YORK (AP) – The horse-drawn carriages that clip clop around Central Park could be banned under City Council legislation to be introduced at the urging…

Well maybe that should be “Lorica canumque cano,” but the pun would be lost. Anyway, via Ann Althouse (hmmm, maybe that should have been Glenn Reynolds, although I had thought he was talking about squirrels) I just found a link to a place called the Pit Bull Armory, which has — you guessed it —…

The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty…

I should probably apologize in advance for this post, as it’s hard to write something like this without being misunderstood. But I see blogging as a sometime art form, sometime labor of love, often opinionated and political, and nearly always a spontaneous effort in which I write about whatever I feel strongly about at a…

Just found a favorite song performed by Faudel (with Cheb Khaled and Rachid Taha). “Menfi” Faudel is one of Sarkozy’s favorites too. So much so that he got in trouble for it. There are some tastes in music and politics that are not supposed to be shared.