Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

All the actions I described in My Drug War Obsession were done by Germans in war propaganda movies to make the Germans look bad. America was not like that was the undercurrent. We had the rule of law. Protection of the innocent. Innocent until proven guilty. That may have been an idealization. But being an…

In my post Eric Cantor Loses To TEA Party Libertarian a commenter notes: Your fixation on the drug issue is getting worse. You don’t object to full up Gestapo style raids with battering rams at 3AM? You don’t object to throwing thermite grenades into baby’s cribs? You don’t object to racist enforcement? You don’t object…

It’s getting so there’s almost nothing that can’t be found on Youtube, including a doowop favorite I just found. “Why Oh Why?” by the Click-ettes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrleOsUbLtc It was hard to make it in those days and the group struggled. The Clickettes formed in 1958 at Yorkville Vocational High School in Manhattan. The group had variously…

From the comments to this Reason article on Eric Cantor vs David Brat. from Brat’s c.v.: “An Analysis of the Moral Foundations in Ayn Rand” by Katy Holland and David Brat, presented and published in the proceedings of Southeast Informs, Myrtle Beach, SC, October 6, 2010 Whole thing here: http://faculty.rmc.edu/dbrat/research.html === Note: Cantor spent $5.4…

Please do me a favor and pass this on. A lot of educating needs to be done. Direct link to the video: http://youtu.be/nU2sozW46i8.

I have been a sceptical of cold fusion for a long time. this article changed my mind. The really good stuff is in the comments – including a reprise of my former scepticism. This post is a response to a comment by NikFromNYC (good job Nik) who repeated a statement from the post he was…

While the narrative promoted at the moment is that President Obama is winding down America’s wars, what is actually happening is that the machinery and war expertise are being shifted from use abroad to use domestically. Never mind the Constitution; police departments all over the country have been transformed into heavily-armed military occupation forces. …as…

I have been rather harsh on the Right lately. They deserve it. But the Left is no better and in some ways possibly worse. Here is the evidence: Obama’s Science Czar Considered Forced Abortions, Sterilization as Population Growth Solutions Evidently the President that the American people elected twice is in on the mass murder deal.…

With something like 60 to 80% of the population in favor of medical marijuana, Texas Republicans have decided to strike that issue from their party platform. Supporters of medical marijuana made emotional statements arguing that patients suffering from certain diseases could benefit from the treatment. Opponents maintained that legalizing marijuana for medical use would lead…

Yes. Our culture has fallen. Unwed motherhood is no longer a disgrace and abortion on demand is rather freely available. But there is worse. This link was suggested to me by commenter Frank. Brought to you by those paragons of morality the Catholic Church. In a town in western Ireland, where castle ruins pepper green…

Yes, the Feds have now targeted the artisan cheese industry. A sense of disbelief and distress is quickly rippling through the U.S. artisan cheese community, as the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week announced it will not permit American cheesemakers to age cheese on wooden boards. Never mind that these cheeses have been…

The Democrats in Colorado are running ads (for? against?) Tom Tancredo claiming he is too conservative for Colorado. Democrats really don’t want former Rep. Bob Beauprez to win this month’s Colorado GOP gubernatorial primary, so they’re hitting the airwaves with television ads aimed at boosting his nearest rival, former Rep. Tom Tancredo. Protect Colorado Values,…

Well Laurence Welk says so at the end of the video. Hilarious.

I’m naturally inclined to the Republican Party. They have reasonably good economic sense (compared to Democrats) and their “smaller government” slogan (hardly ever honored) is appealing. But their appetite for moral crusades against the wrong kind of people (gays, dopers, what have you) is a real turn off. I’m going to repost a piece I…

Drudge links another article which only confirms what has already been pretty well established and which common sense would suggest. Texting while driving is more dangerous than drunken driving. It’s obvious why. Unless they are completely blotto, drunken drivers at least are devoting their attention to their driving, while texters are somewhere else. Moreover, what the…

I was recently discussing the Texas Republican’s mildly anti-gay platform. Some further news on that subject has arrived. Gay Republicans in Texas said Friday they may stop fighting their party’s proposed endorsement of “reparative therapy” over worries that even tougher anti-gay language could be added to the party platform. The country as a whole is…

Reason Magazine had an interesting take on D-Day back in 1999. There is no more dramatic example of F.A. Hayek’s seminal discovery: the importance of dispersed information–“knowledge of time and place.” Hayek, who was to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1974, published his memorable essay, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,”…

…was D-Day (aka the Normandy Invasion). Considering that I’m almost 60, it absolutely amazes me to read about D-Day veterans who are not only alive, but who are celebrating the anniversary in ways that I doubt many people could today. Like this 89 year old guy who escaped from his care home to join celebrations…

A paper reporting results. And a discussion of the paper at Talk-Polywell. Also: Focus Fusion just got a major write up at the Daily Mail – UK. They are raising funds for further research at Indiegogo.

A letter I wrote to my local paper (link added): A trace gas in the atmosphere essential to life has just been declared a pollutant. Am I the only one who notices the insanity of this? But the emperor has such pretty clothes. I can’t wait until water vapor – by far the most significant…