Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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» Previous Views from Medina Road (2010-2013)
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Recent Posts
- The Absence of Empathy
- Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 4
- Cave Man Morality and the Normalizing of Racism
- Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 3
- Bill Gates and Climate Change
- Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 2
- Survival, Revelations, Falling Standards
- Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 1
- Troubled Children, Cognitive Collapse, Cave Man Morality
- Politics is more about tribal human nature than about solving problems
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Meta
Monthly Archives: September 2025
Military Orders, and Coal Obsession
About the Trump/Hegseth speeches today to US military leaders; Short items about how psychotic drugs are to blame for Charlie Kirk’s killing; how the Rapture has been rescheduled; and how marriage equality is to blame for Charlie Kirk’s murder; Paul … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Lunacy, Politics
Comments Off on Military Orders, and Coal Obsession
Medbed Fantasies and Trump’s Dementia
Slate, Heather Cox Richardson, and Robert Reich on Trump’s AI video about “medbeds”; Reich explicitly links it to Trump’s dementia; Short items about the Michigan mass shooter, government enforcement of Turning Point Clubs; tariffs on foreign-made movies; and banning the … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Psychology
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Steven Pinker, Right-Wing Threats of Violence, and Ligeti’s Atmospheres
Steven Pinker’s new book, and how he applies its ideas to understand the Charlie Kirk matter; Right-wing The Daily Caller explicitly calls for violence; Trump seems to believe in “medbeds,” a science-fictional idea born of MAGA fantasies; And rumors about … Continue reading
Posted in Music, Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on Steven Pinker, Right-Wing Threats of Violence, and Ligeti’s Atmospheres
The Crisis in War-Ravaged Portland, Oregon
Trump thinks Portland OR is ravaged by war, and presumably some of his followers believe him; Another example of threatened violence from the right; Trump is out for revenge, obviously; How Trump simply defines people who don’t like MAGA policies … Continue reading
How to Understand How the World Actually Works
How pediatricians deal with Trump’s advice; How the shooters aren’t necessarily right-wing or left-wing, but simply internet trolls (and anyway, Trump is lying); While there are right-wingers vowing to take out “progressive leftism”; Headlines about Trump’s corruption, Hegseth’s warrior culture … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Politics, Religion, Science
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What Astonishes Me
A UK journalist’s characterization of Trump, and America; Why voters keep shrugging off the corruption of Trump and his staff; Robert Reich’s characterization of the current occupant of the Oval Office; And how what astonishes me is how so many … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Politics, Psychology
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Simplistic Takes About Autism and Everything Else
Simplistic wrong thinking about autism; Heather Cox Richardson on Trump’s UN speech; And The Bulwark’s take on that speech; And of course the Rapture didn’t happen. – – – The autism issue is just another example of how conservatives flatten … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics, Religion
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The Imbecile
Trump tells pregnant women to fight and not take Tylenol; The leucovorin-Dr. Oz connection; About Trump’s bonkers UN speech; Reactions from AlterNet, PolitiFact, NY Times; Still baffled why people like Trump. – – – Which is worse, Trump and RFK … Continue reading
Most Beliefs Aren’t About What’s Real, They’re About Conforming to Tribal Mythology
Three more core principles today, illustrated by an essay by a “former creationist” and how she found “following the science” clashed with her culture — and how this conflict is born of ancient biology; How universities would like to teach … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution, Psychology, Religion, Science
Comments Off on Most Beliefs Aren’t About What’s Real, They’re About Conforming to Tribal Mythology
A Core Theme: The Mismatch of Human Nature
One of the emerging themes on this blog over the years is the idea that human nature evolved over millions of years to enable survival in an ancestral environment that most people no longer live in. In my own reading … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution, Human Nature, Politics
Comments Off on A Core Theme: The Mismatch of Human Nature
