Monthly Archives: February 2024

Pushing Back Against Education

Posted on 12 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How nationalist and religious ideologists are against education, example 5,271,009; How Trump has invited Putin to attack American allies; About Biden’s memory, from a neuroscientist; Short items about Nextdoor.com, the Supreme Court, how the Republican problem is metastasizing; How Paul … Continue reading →

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The True and the Real

Posted on 11 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

About the difference between “true” and “real” and recalling Delany’s DHALGREN; An essay about the reality of mathematics, and whether math implies God. Years ago there was a novel — it was Samuel R. Delany’s 1975 novel DHALGREN — that … Continue reading →

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Living Proper Lives, and More from the Fringe

Posted on 10 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

David Brooks on the value of humanist studies; Shorter pieces on the psychology behind Trump; how evangelicals respond to the rise of the “nones”; measle rates rising in Europe; a David Barton case study; Fox News praising a vigilante who … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Spirituality | Comments Off on Living Proper Lives, and More from the Fringe

From Looking Glass to Scary

Posted on 9 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

My “looking glass” take two days ago was a cute way to avoid discussing the “tribalists” or the “cult” but perhaps things are actually getting too serious to dismiss those items as merely bizarre, upside-down-thinking about the world. If it … Continue reading →

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Items about Science, Math, and Philosophy

Posted on 8 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

There are always looking glass items, as I described topics in yesterday’s post, but for today let’s look at more substantial items. It’s been 100 years since Hubble discovered that our own galaxy wasn’t the entirety of the universe; Steven … Continue reading →

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Another Visit Through the Looking Glass to MAGALand

Posted on 7 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

The US is leading the world economically, but not according to MAGALand; MAGAfolks say they venerate the Constitution, yet support Trump as dictator; How prophets assert that Trump is president, and the GOP asserts that Trump did not commit insurrection; … Continue reading →

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Bertrand Russell, THE PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY

Posted on 6 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

This is the third of three short books about philosophy that I read in January. It’s as unlike the other two as those two were unlike each other. (Oxford University Press, 167pp, first published 1912, paperback edition 1959, edition shown … Continue reading →

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Stalwarts? Traditionalists? Tribalists? Cultists? Some Evidence

Posted on 5 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

First, I’d thought to post a summary review of the third short philosophy book I’ve read recently — Bertrand Russell’s THE PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY — but as the day turned out, I had time only to do another round-up of … Continue reading →

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Stalwarts and Progressives: Notes from the (Fringe)

Posted on 4 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Reconsidering how to characterize what I’ve been calling the “fringe”; Taylor Swift and MAGA; Bobby Azarian on why Trump’s supporters don’t believe evidence; Applying the Jack Smith rule to statements from the National Prayer Breakfast. Here’s the thing: I shouldn’t … Continue reading →

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Three brief (non-political) items today.

Posted on 3 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

On entertaining new ideas; Reality and quantum mechanics; Nature as the great recycler. Here’s the first post in a new column that sounds interesting. Washington Post, Daniel Pink, 29 Jan 2024: Opinion | American imagination needs an adrenaline shot. Here’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Science, Thinking | Comments Off on Three brief (non-political) items today.