Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Depressing News

    Despite what some people may think, my outlook on life is not based on how politically active my fellow citizens are. If it was, this report from the Deseret News would have made today really lousy. Utah now has the nation’s worst voting participation rates. We should have participation closer to 65% like Minnesota rather…

  • Independence From What

    In church today there were a number of things spoken related to Independence Day. One of the people who spokle wa a woman from the UK who noted that the celebration was of independence from Great Britain. Of course that is a natural perspective, but I think that we need to recognize that that what…

  • Patriotic Rivals

    I really enjoyed Lyall pointing out the Op-Ed articles on patriotism from McCain and Obama yesterday. I think he was quite right to point out a major flaw in McCain’s statement that patriotism should come “before anything” but I don’t agree that without that flaw the editorial would have been perfect. I really liked McCain’s…

  • Very Well (Under)Stated

    “There’s always the chance that politics are involved in politics.” Steve Urquhart I wonder if Steve chuckled to himself when he crafted that bit of wisdom today.

  • GOOOH – Elect Regular People

    I’m always interested in ways to open up government to the average voter so I was interested when I learned about GOOOH (Hat Tip – Mark Towner). Their mission is to change the way we elect representatives and try to make those representatives more accountable to their constituents. Because GOOOH is a process for selecting…

  • A Fresh Face in Congress

    I really don’t mind so much if the voters in Utah always choose Republicans to represent them in Congress so long as they replace at least one incumbent on a regular basis (I’d say at least one new face every other election cycle). For that reason, if for no other, I was happy to hear…

  • Republican Primary – State Treasurer

    Today I am hoping that Republican primary voters show that they can see through party connections to select a candidate who might actually be qualified for the office of State Treasurer by selecting Richard Ellis to represent the party on the November ballot. There are other races where I have a preference, but no others…

  • A Real Solution

    For all the political talk about what ails our society and how our “leaders” in Washington can fix it, I think that Peter Lovenheim has identified one real solution that can put everything back into perspective – recapturing the meaning of “neighbor.” He asks this very important question that I’d like to take a stab…

  • Capitulation Day

    Obi wan nailed the truth in his reaction to Democratic Capitulation on FISA and the rule of law. In fact, he nailed it and so did his readers in the comments section: rmwarnick said… They all took an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution. Every one of them. Obi wan liberali said……

  • Transit Oriented Development

    The idea that we need more transit friendly ways to develop our urban and suburban areas is nto new to me. I have long believed it. The idea that government restrictions hinder as often as they help is also easy for me to accept. That’s why I was interested to read about the ways that…

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