Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Commissioner Monahan Lives on Food Stamps for a Week
CHELSEA, Mass.—”I never realized how expensive cheese is,” Stacy Monahan said as she picked up a generic pack of slices in a crowded Market Basket in Chelsea. The Department of Transitional Assistance Commissioner is the latest in a string of Democrats across the nation have been walking in the shoes of people in the Supplemental…
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Protest Against Government Surveillance Comes to Boston
BOSTON, Mass.—“Hey hey, ho ho, surveillance state has got to go” rang through streets from Dewey Square to Faneuil Hall as 200 Boston-area residents held a Restore the Fourth march and rally—part of a nationwide protest against government surveillance. Clandestine National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs revealed to the world by Edward Snowden, a former…
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The Mugging: Times Square: 1973
New Year’s I drank quarter beers and lived in a delirium of lights. The flash of the flash-in-the pan the hooker and the tourist whores working the opposite side of the street. And then running down the dark alley the sucker punch the spray of American Express Checks the denominations, flapping to the ground my…
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A Step Backward
As the federal Defense of Marriage Act was being struck down a few weeks ago—the Supreme Court allowing same-sex couples the rights to the same federal benefits that were only available to opposite-sex couples beforehand—another right was being taken away. By a 5 to 4 vote along ideological lines, a key provision of the 1965…
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Non-Stop Transcontinental Relay Raises Money for the One Fund
BOSTON, Mass.—Everyone in the city of Boston knows where they were on 15 April 2013 at 2:49 p.m. The world watched as the scene unfolded at the Boston Marathon. Some of the world’s greatest athletes had crossed the finish line just hours before, and Bostonians gathered en mass to cheer on those who were completing…
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Rap and Revolution in Mozambique
Mozambique is proud home to not one, but two female rappers who are both qualified lawyers. Yveth “Vauvita” Matunza is striking. She is tall, wearing shoes with enormous stilettos. She has on full make up and a smart, tailored dress suit. She is doing her master’s part-time while working full-time at the Mozambican Human Rights…
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Massachusetts Can Do Better for Its LGBTQ Homeless Youth
When I came out to my parents a long time ago I was already out of the house, living on my own 3,000 miles away. I was worried about what the conversation would be—how I would actually say it, what they would say, how the conversation would end. But I also was fairly sure that…
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New Report: Globalization Partly to Blame for Climate Change
Presently, disagreements between developed and developing countries on responsibilities and cost sharing are major stumbling blocks in discussions about an international agreement on climate change. The study, titled “Economic Globalisation: Origins and Consequences,” notes that for decades, developed countries—the pioneers of global industrialization—were the world’s biggest polluters, responsible for the lion’s share of menacing greenhouse…
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Free for All?
“Free For All!” Directed by John Wellington Ennis freeforall.tv, 1:36:36, free online (streaming) The controversial presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 angered many Americans, who believed their ballots were stolen. The investigative documentary “Free For All!” (2008) lifts the veil of secrecy. In this film, director John Ennis investigates unsettling problems such as disfranchisement of…
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Two Wheels Up
I was late to graduation, just like I was late for everything. I was flying down the right-hand lane on South Livingston Ave. doing close to 90 miles an hour in my 1958 Plymouth Belvidere convertible top-down when I heard a police car hit the wailers and saw the lights in my rearview mirror. I…
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