Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Ald. Burke, Wrigley & Your Tax Dollars
Ten years ago, Chicago’s most powerful alderman, Edward M. Burke, and the rest of the City Council signed off on a deal that promised $16 million in taxpayer subsidies to the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. to help it build a new corporate campus on Goose Island rather than move to the suburbs. Three years later,…
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Illinois Need to Cut COLAs
The head of Illinois’ largest pension plan strongly suggested that cuts in cost-of-living benefits are inevitable for more than 360,000 teachers and retirees outside of Chicago. In an interview with Crain’s editors and reporters, Richard Ingram, executive director of the underfunded Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, said state politicians will have few other options if they…
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Illinois – Worst Financial Shape Ever
Bloomberg L.P., the big New York financial data firm, is holding its fall municipal-financing conference on Wednesday, and guess what the title is for the special panel on the Land of Lincoln? Try Land of Entropy. Yes, sports fans, the panel titled “Illinois Treading Water” is set for 1:45 p.m. and, according to a synopsis,…
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Fast and Furious Killed 14 Teenagers
“Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more…
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Obama Releases Al Qaeda Killer of U.S. Soldier
Omar Khadr was recently released from Gitmo. What did he do again? Khadr killed Sergeant First Class (SFC) Christopher Speer. Khadr’s advocates said this wasn’t true because Khadr was incapacitated during al Qaeda’s firefight with American troops. But they were wrong. Khadr ultimately admitted that he killed SFC Speer. While Khadr killed one American medic,…
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MSM is a Fundamental Threat to Democracy
In case you don’t know, Pat Caddell was part of team Jimmy Carter. He is no right-winger or tin-hat wearer. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBR4g6cBYeA?rel=0] It’s safe to say if you were not aware that U.S. embassies all over the Middle East and Northern Africa we under attack then the MSM is pretty much carrying water for Obama.…
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Problems in Pennsylvania Schools
Well over 100 educators will eventually face state disciplinary charges for cheating that could lead to the revocation of their professional certificates, Tomalis said. But that could take years, and the results of state disciplinary board hearings in Harrisburg would be disclosed only if educators were disciplined. In Philadelphia, 53 district-run schools and three charter…
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Jimmy John’s Leaving Illinois, Florida Bound
Jimmy John Liautaud is moving part of the sandwich chain that bears his name to Florida next year, making good on a threat issued in 2011 after Illinois hiked its corporate tax rate. The founder of Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches said during a Sept. 18 panel discussion in Chicago that he will relocate the company’s…
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China Crushes Man by Steamroller
A villager in northern China attempting to resist a forced government relocation by remaining on his land was brutally crushed to death by a road flattening truck on the orders of a Chinese government official. … The victim, He Zhi Hua, refused to accept a paltry payment from the government which has forcefully evicted Changsha…
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How Carter Beat Reagan
Remember when Jimmy Carter beat Ronald Reagan in 1980? … In a series of nine stories in 1980 on “Crucial States” — battleground states as they are known today — the New York Times repeatedly told readers then-President Carter was in a close and decidedly winnable race with the former California governor. And used polling…
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