Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

A former Saudi Admiral says it is not Israel. On the anniversary of the 1973 War between the Arab and the Israelis, many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present and the future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The questions now are: What was the real…

Capitalism is about profit. Socialism is about loss. Who do you think will prevail? The losers?

You learn something new every day. Binyamin Netanyahu claims creation of Kurdish state would aid in formation of alliance of moderate powers in Middle East. From 29 June 2014: The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has voiced support for Kurdish statehood, taking a position that appears to clash with the US preference to keep sectarian…

CureZone.com. Reposted in its entirety. A SWAT team is under investigation for storming into a home in Coconut Grove at around 11 a.m. with a narcotics warrant. According to the homeowner, Bobby Mclendon, the warrant that SWAT presented to raid his house was for 2 blocks away. However these brutes did not care. They came…

Rand Paul has a few things to say about the policing in Ferguson, MO. In this context, Senator Paul stood out for the passion of his attack on what he sees as a national trend toward overly militarized police forces and, as a Republican, for explicitly raising the issue of systematized racial bias against blacks.…

I got a link to a movie trailer The Givers from a bunch of Republican luminaries. I watched the trailer until one of the baddies said: “When people have the freedom to choose they choose wrong.” Of course inner hilarity ensued as I immediately thought of Republican support for the War On Drugs.

There is a movie coming out about Straight Inc – an organization devised by Mel Sembler to keep kids off of drugs. Here is a trailer for the movie about Straight Inc. that I also posted a couple of days ago. From the page describing the purpose of the movie. It is our hope that…

Gaza resident are starting to voice discontent over their government’s recent war with Israel. The group of neighbors surveyed the destruction wreaked on their residential complex by Israeli bombardment, with building after building flattened or punctured by shells. The men then began to voice something almost never heard out loud in Gaza: criticism of its…

Since the Palestinians haven’t signed a peace treaty with Israel they have no claim on the land unless they can hold it. The old rules still apply.

Samizdata has suggested a visit to Vice News for their take on the Islamic State. Flush with cash and US weapons seized during recent advances in Iraq, the Islamic State’s expansion shows no sign of slowing down. In the first week of August alone, Islamic State fighters have taken over new areas in northern Iraq,…

From the comments at Obama Told Lawmakers Criticism of His Syria Policy is ‘Horsesh*t’. Obama CREATED ISIS, Hillary/Obama were both involved in operations from Turkey to fund and arm the Syrian rebels, many of whom are the ones who created ISIS. Obama was perfectly fine with ISIS as long as they were fighting Assad. Notice…

Is ISIS coming to America? These people seem to think so. As the Islamic State gains ground and enlarges its pool of foreign fighter recruits, it is increasingly likely to attack on American soil as well. That has been the warning coming from some lawmakers and defense analysts this week, who argue that the United…

The Electric Power Industry is catching on to the global warming scam. In April, Climate Central reported that weather-related power outages had doubled since 2003. While the authors concede an aging infrastructure and greater electricity demand are contributing factors, they point to climate change as a major cause. They state that while only two Category…

If you are short of time watch the last two minutes of the video. Start at about 8:30. Part 2 Much more about all this with numerous links. Scroll down. This is Republican profiting off the Drug War. Straight Inc., which was sued out of business, got Medicaid money. The head of Straight was Mel…

Did they get the rockets to stop by their actions? Did they stop fighting once the rockets stopped?

There is a discussion going on over at ECN Magazine about the morality of working to make weapons of war. In the thread there is considerable discussion of the “stolen land” in the Israel/Hamas dispute. Well I had to chime in. == Re: the stolen land dispute going on down thread. What is the general…

I learned recently that there is a major war going on against ice plants. These beautiful succulents have long been naturalized in California, stabilize the soil, provide a perfect fire break, are zero maintenance and look beautiful. What’s more, the same state and local governments that spent countless millions of taxpayers’ dollars to plant them are…

Jewish Girls With Guns, Chinese Netizen Reactions from 2009. One of the illustrations:

It looks like Bill Nye (The Science Guy) did an erroneous experiment proving CO2 is an atmospheric warming gas. But let us assume (for the sake of argument) that his experiment was correct. He replaced 100% air with 100% CO2 and got a 2°C temperature rise. Excellent. But CO2 is less that 1% of the…