Musings of a Patriot

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Heroes and Idols

    Laura and I were having a fascinating conversation with good friends which rolled around to the topic of teaching children about their future roles as adults. We got to talking about the types of role models that children have and the messages that they are being fed from our society about those adult roles. Out…

  • Mike Jingozian

    Although he is running for President, Mike Jingozian is more focused on the idea that we should remake our political machine. While the core values expressed have some merit, he fails to recognize that the vast majority of those who have the skills necessary to successfully operate our government are those who believe in, or…

  • Where Do I Fit?

    This morning I was thinking about my political orientation and wondering where I fit. I’m independent from a republican region. I am more and more in favor of a smaller federal government. I am convinced that we rely too much on the government, especially for things that the government is not well-suited to address. Libertarian…

  • Mob Intelligence

    I love reading Terry Pratchett, for the humor, but I just discovered an extremely useful mathematical equation in Maskerade to calculate the intelligence of any mob. “The IQ of a mob is the IQ of its most stupid member divided by the number of mobsters.” Now if only we had an accurate definition of what…

  • Non-Binding Resolutions

    While listening to NPR today I heard a senator talking about many agreements we have made with the Iraqi government where the Iraqi’s failed to do what they promised. He attributed that failure to the fact that "the agreements [had] no teeth." That got me thinking. We don’t have to look outside our country to…

  • Bob Jackson

    Well, I decided to tackle a second endorsement today because some endorsements are very easy to go and find a candidate who should not be endorsed. I expected that to be the case again today. After looking into Bob Jackson again (a commenter pointed me towards him some time ago) I was looking for reasons…

  • Donald Allen

    Donald Allen is an idealist. He talks about the major issues of today (Energy Independence, Social Security, Healthcare, etc.) but his campaign is exactly what I would expect for a person running for city council in a city of 25,000. Some people may be nostalgic for a time when leading our country was a matter…

  • Inherently Unequal

    My whole family is getting over being sick (here’s a story about that) and as I reflected on the experience I was thinking how nice it would have been to have the kinds of beds they had 150 years ago (pre-industrial age) where you would clean a mattress after someone threw up on it by…

  • Mitt Romney

    In search for a candidate who understands the need for smaller government? Mitt Romney fits that description. He is publicly committed to not raising taxes, and to finding ways to cut spending. He believes that we can solve some of the same issues that others have used to call for raising taxes, or rolling back…

  • Barack Obama

    It’s been a long time in coming, but I have finally managed to finish my homework on Barack Obama. This is a man who is full of ideas. One of his challenges is that many wonder what he can really do in Washington DC as a relative outsider. That is a question that can never…

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