Monthly Archives: July 2022

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Posted on 11 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

We watched the entire 10-episode run of the latest Star Trek show, “Strange New Worlds,” which finished late last week, and it was OK.

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Intercessory Prayer and Science

Posted on 10 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

About a month ago I put together a post in part about how belief in prayer reflects a fundamental inability to understand cause and effect in the real, actual, physical world; that post is here. I had a current link … Continue reading →

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Kids These Days, Bauerlein and Will Style

Posted on 9 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Beware cranky old men complaining about kids these days. Surely George F. Will, a renowned (conservative) political commentator, knows better. Washington Post, George F. Will, 8 July 2022: How millennials became aggressively illiberal, censorious young adults

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Ensoulment and Miscarriages

Posted on 8 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a nice essay that observes how the prevelance of spontaneous abortions — miscarriages — doesn’t seem consistent with the theological position of “ensoulment,” the notion that God inserts the just-feritilized embryo with a soul.

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Fiddler on the Roof

Posted on 7 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Over the past couple evenings we’ve watched the movie version of a musical I had never seen before, in any form: Fiddler on the Roof. I was aware it was a big-hit musical, back in the 1960s or ’70s, in … Continue reading →

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Failed Policies? Or Disingenuous Ones?

Posted on 7 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Republican policies have failed the nation — Thom Hartmann explains how. Republican positions have been wrong, wrong, wrong — David Brin explains why. Or have they? The rich are getting richer, and the fundamentalists are getting their way. Perhaps it’s … Continue reading →

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The Gun Nuts, Like the Terrorists, Are Winning

Posted on 6 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

The terrorists of 9/11 won by not destroying the country, but by instilling a paranoia in American society that entails those excruciating TSA lines to board airplanes that involve taking off shoes and belts. By millions of us, every day. … Continue reading →

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Climate Change Denial and Christian Nationalists

Posted on 5 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Today, links about the threats, to American democracy and the survival of the planet, from conservatives, especially the religious ones. NYT, Paul Krugman, 4 July 2022: Another Step Toward Climate Apocalypse

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Independence

Posted on 4 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s always struck me that America (that is, the US) stands defiantly independent against the rest of the world, secure in its self-righteousness and uncaring or even contemptuous of what other countries think about it. After all, they’re not the … Continue reading →

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The Blue Nation and the Red Nation

Posted on 3 July 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” — variations by Bertrand Russell, William Butler Yeats, and others.

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