Monthly Archives: May 2017

Link and Comments: American Narratives

Posted on 27 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

David Brooks NYT column on May 26: The Four American Narratives. He recalls his own characterization of the American unifying story as an Exodus story: one about people leaving oppression to settle a new promised land. A story that no … Continue reading →

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Accumulated Links I Don’t Have Time to Comment On In Detail

Posted on 25 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Slate: Donald Trump Doesn’t Share America’s Values. The Transcript of His Call to the Philippine President Proves It. \\ The Blaze (which I never look at but I saw via a relative’s Fb post): Fake academic paper published in liberal … Continue reading →

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And Nothing Is More Important Than My Ship: TOS #14 “Court Martial”

Posted on 25 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Kirk faces court martial over the death of a crewman with whom he had a history, in a confrontation that pits human rights against a computerized culture. The enhanced graphics are especially effective in this episode, showing both the Enterprise … Continue reading →

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Correct and Logical Decisions: TOS “The Galileo Seven”

Posted on 25 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

The shuttlecraft Galileo, commanded by Spock, crash-lands on a planet in the midst of a quasar-like phenomenon, where the crew fends off hostile aliens as Kirk on the Enterprise is forced to abandon its search for them.   This has … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Tyson v. Douthat

Posted on 24 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

I started writing up a few notes about the new (small) Neil deGrasse Tyson book, ASTROPHYSICS FOR PEOPLE IN A HURRY, and got sidetracked by a passage that reminded me of a Ross Douthat column from a few weeks ago. … Continue reading →

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Link and Comments: Kids These Days

Posted on 23 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

From Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, a review by Jennifer Szalai of a book by new Nebraska senator Ben Sasse, THE VANISHING AMERICAN ADULT: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis — and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance. The review is … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Reality and Fantasy about Abortion

Posted on 22 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

I don’t have any horse in the race about abortion, per se, except how it is an example of right-wing authoritarian, anti-science thinking. (I’ve seen but need to document the historical background about how abortion wasn’t on the conservative religious … Continue reading →

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Parents, Children, Identities: Andrew Solomon’s FAR FROM THE TREE

Posted on 19 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

This is an enormous book, 962 pages long, 702 of that text (with the remainder consisting of encyclopedic notes, a lengthy bibliography, and an index). The book is about how parents deal with exceptional children, covering ten categories of exceptionality, … Continue reading →

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Sapolsky on religion, and human behavior

Posted on 18 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Via today’s Morning Heresy blog by Paul Fidalgo, this item from Robert M. Sapolsky, a short video on a site called Big Think, called Atheism vs. Religion: Which Is the Healthier Viewpoint?. His thesis is that religious belief, in eternal … Continue reading →

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Link and Comment: Religion v. Reality

Posted on 17 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

One more item from last Sunday’s New York Times: the weekly “Modern Love” column, reader-submitted essays about “the joys and tribulations of love.” White Shirt, Black Name Tag, Big Secret It’s about a young Mormon man sent into the world … Continue reading →

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