Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
-
I've moved to Facebook
If you used to be a regular reader of my blog, you may have noticed my lack of activity here. I’ve decided to stop updating my personal blog and post short updates to my Facebook page instead. Though most of my traffic now is random Google searches, Feedburner claims that I still have 100 subscribers to…
-
Developing countries don't need aid and democracy: they need to be re-colonized by Western ideas
Reposting this from Facebook: The material and social progress of post-Enlightenment European civilization stands in stark contrast to the rest of human history. No other culture has created such dramatic and widespread progress in such a short time. Those who wish to export the material success of the West to the rest of the world…
-
An Objectivist wedding ceremony
Here is the text of my wedding ceremony earlier this year. I was not able to find any appropriate ceremonies for me, so I wrote my own. I’m posting this for those looking for a wedding ceremony inspired by Objectivist ideas. (The only thing missing are some readings contributed by our friends and family.) Introduction…
-
Do fat people deserve medical treatment?
Faced with an “obesity epidemic“, that has dramatic consequences for medical costs, pundits have proposed different solutions, ranging from excluding obesity from health insurance, government-run prevention campaigns, higher taxes on junk food, or higher premiums for fat people. The possibility of greater government involvement in medicine with the passing of ObamaCare puts this debate in…
-
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.…
-
It's only logical…
Have you noticed that stores are placing environmentalist and faith-related products in the same section?
-
Playboy interviews: then and now
Playboy has published their excellent interview with Ayn Rand. After reading the interview, I decided to see if they had any other interesting interviews under the “Best of” section. And came across this. OK, this is Playboy, after all, but surely there is at least one other interview about ideas. Right? Can you name any…
-
Wedding website up
The website for our upcoming wedding is up at DavidLovesSarah.RationalMind.Net. We used quotes from Ayn Rand, Robert A. Heinlein, Bruce Lee, and Lucille Ball. Thanks to Sara Lindsay for the photos – I’ve posted more on Flickr.
-
Obama demands power to shut down Internet and access private data during "emergencies"
If anyone out there still thinks that Obama is any improvement over Bush on Constitutional rights, they must be delusional if they persist in that belief after reading this: Mother Jones: The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF) gives the president the ability to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” and shut down or limit Internet traffic in…
-
Iraq to start executing gays this week
More than 100 prisoners in Iraq are facing execution – and many of them are believed to have been convicted of the ‘crime’ of being gay, the UK-based Iraqi-LGBT group revealed this afternoon. According to Ali Hili of Iraqi-LGBT, the Iraqi authorities plan to start executing them in batches of 20 from this week. There…
Got any book recommendations?