Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Why we need war
Julie Birchill writes a diatribe against anti-war folk such as myself. She lists several reasons as to why the arguments of anti-war people are nonsense, but in no real way justifies a war that will kill many of the people that she claims a war would save. Not sure about her logic, and many of…
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We need more democracy
The inimitable Naomi Klein writes one of her not-so-regular columns in the Guardian today. She extols greater democracy and great activism among citizens.
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Horizontal fun
In this piece, the Guardian writer Jack Schofield argues that computer systems have become ‘horizontally integrated’, they give customers greater choice but also lead to unpredictable quality. “Rather than being spoon-fed by high priced vertical suppliers, customers have to become their own systems integrators and IT managers. The products may be cheap, but freedom has…
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Columbia space shuttle lost over Texas
The space shuttle Columbia, with 7 crew aboard, has been lost over Texas. It broke up while coming in to land. Very sad news indeed. It appears that there was a small problem at take off that may suggest a reason for the accident. Spaceflightnow.com says During a mission status news conference yesterday, Entry Flight…
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Another record month
January has been the best month since this weblog began. After being very happy with my visitor numbers in December, January has turned out to have more than quadrupled my statistics. 8,500 in January! My level of donations has remained low at $0.00, but I am sure that will pick up. LOL. I just get…
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Springer for the Senate
The notorious talkshow host, and former mayor of Cincinatti, Jerry Springer is considering running for the Senate. This is a nice piece by Mark Lawson – I like: The state of American culture might suggest a horrible logic in President Springer, presiding over a country run by live-on-television plebiscites, with policy dilemmas snappily packaged: I’ve…
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Joyriding Irish politicians
My favourite writer on Sundays is Mr Gene Kerrgian. In this article he takes on the ‘cream’ of Irish society, our politicians. You don’t have to be from Ireland to relate to this story, minister (secretary of state- lower level) Noel Treacy was in a rush to make a parliamentary speech, and told the driver…
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Neutrality in a time bubble
The ever learned Tom McGurk has an article today on the controversial question of Irish neutrality. Besides commenting on Rugby matters on Irish television, McGurk is a skillful writer – and I almost always agree with his views. Here again he writes with clarity on the issue, my views with differ from his slightly though…
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The British Empire was not evil: Neill Ferguson
To help publicise his new book, and promote the tv series, Niall Ferguson has an article in todays SBPost. In it he argues that many of the effects British rule had on Ireland were positive. I would be inclined to agree. Im sorry I missed all parts of his series since it started on Channel…
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Romanians jailed in 'Minority Report' style
Top billing today is the story that 4 Romanian men were found guilty for commiting a crime they have yet to commit. Yes, in Ireland we are way ahead of the times, who needs Minority Report when you have the real thing here in Ireland. Because 4 Romanian guys were acting suspiciously in a Wicklow…
Got any book recommendations?