Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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A Failed Crisis?
I would bet that almost all the people who have read The Fourth Turning have wondered at one time or another whether 9/11 was our nation’s crisis as predicted in that book. I know that I read somewhere that the authors of the book indicated that they believed that 9/11 was the crisis that marked…
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Limitations of Politics
photo credit: RSzepan Over the course of my writing here I have been asked why I focus so much on political issues and not so much on promoting a moral society. I think it’s a great question and I have thought much about it. The short answer is that my focus on this site is…
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Selective Enforcement of Law
photo credit: ThreadedThoughts In a not-particularly-surprising move, Arizona passed a very strict law giving police broad powers to crack down on illegal immigration. Equally unsurprising is the backlash from those who worry that rights will get trampled in the enforcement of this law. The biggest complaint is against the provision allowing police to stop anyone…
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Repeal vs Lawsuit vs Nullification
photo credit: Smabs Sputzer Ever since the passage of that rancid piece of legislative sausage labeled health care reform Republicans have been talking about repealing the bill. Some even talk about “repeal and replace” as their goal. Alongside that rhetoric (and that’s pretty much all it is at this point) there has been the action…
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The Race for Second
Within hours after I wrote about how far Bennett is from winning this senate race Bennett himself essentially confirms my position by bringing out some friendly generals and shooting himself in the foot while taking aim at Mike Lee. All except possibly his most ardent supporters will rightly recognize that taking that shot is a…
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Bennett’s Magic Number
With polls coming out surveying actual state delegates we are beginning to get our first picture of where Bob Bennett’s chances really stand. Of course we should never implicitly trust a first picture but it’s better than all the guesswork before the delegates had even been selected and more grounded in reality than straw polls…
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Ongoing Local Discussion
photo credit: dorineruter I’ve shared some ideas (and will be doing whatever work I can to see that they get implemented) about how to make caucus meeting accommodations that are better suited to having productive and effective caucus meetings. I realize that having comfortable accommodations does nothing to address the issue of having ill-informed or…
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Davis County GOP Convention
I wanted to share a few thoughts from the Davis County Republican Party convention from Saturday. It was fun for me as the first time I have attended such a convention with the ability to vote. Because I have spent so much energy researching and considering the Senate race and other races that will be…
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Caucus Accomodations
I think it is a sign of how casually we view our caucuses that parties can do so little to make them successful. It is a sign of the apathy of the general population to the political process that party leaders really have no idea how many people to plan for and a sign of…
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An Example of Constituent Communication
Two months ago I wrote about my newly solidified position on why we should abolish earmarks. As part of that, I criticized Rep. Rob Bishop and his office for failing to even acknowledge two questions on the subject that I sent the congessman now nearly a year ago. Somehow my post came to his attention…
Got any book recommendations?