Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Like a lot of bloggers, I’ve written about how red light cameras are a disaster from a legal perspective and a safety perspective. But (surprise!), the cameras are still there! The Philadelphia red light camera problem is compounded by the worst sort of bureaucratic ineptitude, with the scandal-plagued Philadelphia Parking Authority treating revenues as money…

Over at Volokh Conspiracy there is a discussion about Chanukah’s influence on the global warming problem. Of course the warmists and deniers are having at it. Brian K says in response to another comment: i’m not going to hold my breath Another warming denier. If you believed in warming you would be holding your breath.…

Moma Bear left a comment at IEC Fusion Technology blog with a link to Gizmag – Emerging Technology which features gadgets and science/technology news. I found articles on a miniature photonics modulator and super computer performance from a single low power chip most interesting. This one on a real flying carpet would make Ali Baba…

I was delighted to see that remembering Pearl Harbor made the front page of today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – “Battle stations!!!” The Klaxon’s blare blew Jack McElroy out of his bunk on the Helm, a Navy destroyer in this ill-fated Pacific Ocean port. The West Catholic High School graduate, newly minted as a…

In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed yesterday, Evan Coyne Maloney said that it’s time for Indiana University to call off the copyright dogs: Early in November, On The Fence Films received a letter from an attorney representing Indiana University. The letter stated that university was claiming that a portion of the logo used for “Indoctrinate…

More proof that either I’m not a conservative, or else someone has done a very poor job of giving me my marching orders: “Conservatives do love to be told what to say. Saves them the hassle of having to think for themselves,” Markos Moulitsas Zuniga crowed…. Will someone please tell me what to say, already?…

Speaking of climates, my regular emailer Matt Barber is upset about San Francisco’s (S&M oriented) Folsom Street fair, and he absolutely insists that I know about it. Too late. I already know about it. I lived in the Bay Area for nearly 30 years, and in San Francisco for 3 years. Not that the Folsom…

I’ve often wondered how it would be if you had chosen weather reporting as a career (in the “old days” of course) because you wanted to do something safe, non-controversial and apolitical. You know, in the old days, weather reporting was for nerdy types. Nothing political about weather, right? Not so today. Weather reporting just…

As quotes of the day go, it’s tough to beat this one from Bob Krumm: if you think that President Bush took constitutional liberties that amount to an invasion of privacy, you haven’t seen anything compared to what President Hillary would do. (Via Glenn Reynolds) That’s among my biggest concerns about a return to Clintonism.…

I don’t like other people telling me what to do. One of the reasons I abhor communitarianism (and tend to see my political philosophy as the opposite of that) is because it vests communitarian thinkers with the self appointed power to tell me (and others) what to do. Provided, of course, that they come up…

We’ve all heard about teflon presidents. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton are both frequently cited as examples. Is Hillary Clinton also made of teflon? To tell the truth, I never really thought of her as the teflon type. But how about a Hillary made of “long-lasting PVC”? Yeah, I know it’s just a dog toy…

I must not be paying enough attention to the news. From the tone and huge New York Times headline in today’s Inquirer (and, no doubt, in many other newspapers), you’d almost think that Bush went to war against Iran based on faulty intelligence. (Or might as well have.) And once again, our warmongering president has…

The Volokh Conspiracy is having a discussion of women in combat. Here is my 2¢. I remember reading where being a woman in combat had a number of positive effects (in the current environment). They connect with the females in the population better. Very helpful when fighting an insurgency. They also shame Iraqis who are…

There are some serious analyses of the religious issues facing Romney in the Republican race, and this one by Mark Tapscott is a good example. On the other hand, there are some not so serious analyses (at least some that shouldn’t be taken seriously), such as the view that a ‘Vote for Romney is vote…

The New York Times has an article on the new Congressional mandate to raise average vehicle mileage standards from 27.5 mpg to 35 mpg. We have been here before. The standards have usually turned into perverse incentives. SUVs were the result of discontinuing the station wagon, because the station wagon was a passenger vehicle. Perversely…

In response to Obama’s show of strength in Iowa, Hillary Clinton has gone on the offensive, starting with a barrage about the “superiority” of her “comprehensive” health care plan, and moving on to a literal attack on Obama’s character: ….asked whether she was saying this was an issue of character when it comes to Senator…

A front page story in today’s Inquirer (featuring a picture of convicted murderer Jerome Whitaker, who shot a police officer after his release) promised to tell me how this thug “came to be armed” In an apparent hit attempt, a gunman fired into a parked car at 15th and Sansom Streets, wounding two men and…

Here’s the latest picture (taken yesterday) of the roses that still cling (barely) to life on my porch. And a picture of them a month ago: Nothing is forever, but considering that they’re December roses, they’re lucky to be alive. Then there’s this. I think it’s kind of pretty. But trust me, it’s a lot…

The election results in Venezuela don’t look good. Apparently, people down there are willing to vote away their freedom. In what was probably a harbinger of things to come, the eve of the election appears to have been punctuated by government-backed anti-Semitism: Police raided Venezuela’s main Jewish social club on the eve of a national…

Hillary. She’s inevitable. Right? The very politically astute Ann Althouse links Frank Rich, who thinks she might not be: [T]he Republicans have fallen into a trap by continuing to cling to the Hillary-is-inevitable trope. They have not allowed themselves to think the unthinkable — that they might need a Plan B to go up against…