Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Apparent Inconsistencies
The voucher debate has kept educational issues prominent in my brain for quite some time now. Before spending so much time thinking about these issues it was easy to recognize the image of hypocrisy in those who stump for public education and keep their kids outside the public education system. A far greater percentage of…
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Real Debates
Mike Huckabee has offered to debate Fred Thompson, Lincoln-Douglas style. I think that Fred should accept the offer, but I know lots of reasons why he might chose not to. Mike has nothing to lose. Few people take his candidacy as seriously as they should and the media attention of such a debate would help…
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Reality Check
Last night I went to a UDOT open house for the East-West Connector project. This has been informally known as the 1000 South boulevard and was previously part of the Mountain View Corridor project before being broken out into a separate project. I suspect that the people working on this project for UDOT already know…
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My Position on Vouchers
I have stated that vouchers have potential benefits to our education system and also that they do not address the core issue that is leading our education system down the path of crisis. So here is my position on vouchers. The bills that we are going to vote on are flawed – most bills are.…
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Vouchers and Public Education
My views on education have been a topic of regular discussion for many years with my wife and her family. She grew up in a family where all the children went to a very expensive private school. (It’s very expensive now, I don’t actually know what it cost back then.) My father-in-law has a PhD…
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More Voucher Debate
I talked about flawed/unbalanced arguments related to vouchers in Pick Your Poison. As more and more is written the issue fails to get clearer. However, one point that I cited (made by the anti-voucher camp) involves throwing out numbers to prove their point without backing up their numbers. In this case it was “the average…
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Quality Argument
Here is why I love to read The Utah Hornet’s Nest – he writes about “Why I Oppose Vouchers” rather than resorting to writing about “Why voucher supporters are trying to sacrifice your children for money.” We can always use more solid examples of “what I believe and why” on both sides of any argument…
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Power Struggle
This is nothing new in politics (power struggles in general or this one in particular) but it is starting to get more press coverage – the question is, “Who controls the nomination process – the states, or the parties?” The struggle is most public among the Democrats as their candidates have now promised to honor…
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Good Advice
Political columnists don’t generally offer advice that is generally applicable to life. One exception to that comes from Doug Giles (writing about Larry Craig): To heck with public opinion and what people will think. Focus rather on the inevitable mano-a-mano that you will one day have with God (and He can’t be buffaloed). Let that…
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Pick Your Poison
One thing that often bothers me in many public discussions is that people rarely offer all the pertinent information when they argue for their cause. The result is arguments like this against vouchers. I will be the first to admit that voucher supporters are just as guilty of only discussing facts that are favorable to…
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