Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Initiative vs Policy
It’s easy to find people describing the moral argument against government run social programs (forced charity encourages selfishness) but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more compelling logical argument for the negative consequences of substituting an institutional approach to a problem for a solution based on individual initiative than this one. With no hint…
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Thwarted
I had planned on participating in last night’s caucus meetings, but life intervened and I was not able to. That being said, I am still interested to learn what happened in those caucus meetings for my precinct (Lehi-08). I would love to know the outcome of the Republican and Democratic caucuses, especially the Democratic caucus…
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Bill Clinton Endorses Obama
I chuckled at the NBC report that Bill Clinton said the following about a general election campaign between Hillary Clinton and John McCain: “I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country,”…
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A Timely Request
Kip, at the Wide Middle, invites others to share Questions for the Candidates. This comes the very day that I have a question that I would ask any congressional candidate. What part, or parts of the Change Congress movement would you pledge to support (if any). The four principles of the movement are that: Candidates…
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The Wide Middle
I just discovered The Wide Middle today and I think that the concept of “open source public policy” is an example of how more political discourse ought to take place – based on the assumption that we agree on more things than we disagree on and that we can find solutions where we identify problems.…
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High Priced Entertainment
I have to say that SUPERDELL events sound very entertaining. Fear not, my fundraising events will be worth their ticket if merely for entertainment value to the sceptics:). We are going to have some serious fun in Utah. I’m already working on my first event. I’m looking for acrobatic aircraft, base jumpers, powered skydiving pilots,…
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Ridiculous
Last week his boss had his career sunk by revelations of participation in prostitution. Now the new Governor of New York starts his term by confessing his past affairs. I’m not here to criticize Gov. Paterson – his affairs hold no interest for me (especially since he’s not my governor). What I think is ridiculous…
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Anti Universal Coverage
This came along before I started reading the Cato blog regularly but I am definitely a member of The Anti-Universal Coverage Club. Health policy should focus on making health care of ever-increasing quality available to an ever-increasing number of people. “Universal coverage” could be achieved only by forcing everyone to buy health insurance or by…
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Open Congress
It becomes more and more clear each day how powerful the internet can be as a tool to improve our political process by enabling citizens to be informed. A great example of that is OpenCongress.org. The purpose of the site is to provide information on bills and members of congress. It only took me about…
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Personal Political Perspectives
I’ve posted a couple of stories where people have given personal perspectives about politics that I thought were well considered. I recently discovered that NPR has a project called Get My Vote that is meant to allow people to share exactly these kinds o f personal perspectives. NPR and public media want to hear about…
Got any book recommendations?