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
- What Meaning Means, and if AI Gods Provide That
- Greene and Pinker, and “Piggy”
- Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
- Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 6
- Six Seven and Human Nature
- Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 5
- Status on a Gloomy Day; Why Anyone Should Care
- Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 4
- MAGA Doesn’t Understand What Makes America Great
- Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 3
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Meta
Monthly Archives: October 2025
Democratic Erosion, SNAP, and God-Sized Holes
A NYT Scale of markers of democratic erosion; Heather Cox Richardson’s even-handed assessment of the SNAP crisis; Jerry Coyne dismantles Arthur C. Brooks’ arguments for not dismissing the idea of God; (And my take on how the common conceptions of … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Religion
Comments Off on Democratic Erosion, SNAP, and God-Sized Holes
Notes from the Reality-Based Community
Hemant Mehta on a new wave of atheist content creators; Scientific “groupthink” is a myth, an effect of how our fundamental theories are extremely successful; Richard Dawkins can’t understand how Tom Holland and his readers believe ancient legends and myths … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology, Religion, Science
Comments Off on Notes from the Reality-Based Community
Sam Harris: THE MORAL LANDSCAPE
Subtitled “How Science Can Determine Human Values” (Free Press, Oct. 2010, 291pp, including 100pp of acknowledgements, notes, references, and index) Sam Harris came to fame in the years after 9/11 for writing a critique of religion called THE END OF … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Morality, Religion
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Useful Categories
Five ideas to tell when America has become a dictatorship; A Jesus and Mo cartoon that reflects my discussions of secular awe and religion; Phil Zuckerman on how social justice is secular; Short items about worries of American’s impending population … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Morality, Politics, Science
Comments Off on Useful Categories
Moral Rot
Paul Krugman on food stamps/SNAP; the common conservative belief that recipients are malingerers; and some facts about who actually gets those benefits; The Labor Department’s white supremacist posters; Short items; Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld on Trump’s disrespect, and how he’s … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Morality
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What People Know, and What They Want
What undecided voters say they are concerned about, vs. reality; Tom Tomorrow on effect and cause, within the Trump administration; An OnlySky piece by Michael Carteron about the paradox of modern life; Jerry Coyne on Charles Murray’s “God-sized hole”; My … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Politics, Religion
Comments Off on What People Know, and What They Want
Drizzly
Intro; Are religions by their nature fascist? Latest on the Republican war on science; Peanut allergies go away when infants are exposed early on; Takes on what socialism is. – – – It was drizzly all weekend. Yesterday we attended … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Religion, Science, Social Progress
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Disintegration
The Pentagon Press Corps; Trump’s pardons; Charlie Kirk; The East Wing and the new ballroom, with an analysis that suggests the proposed ballroom is not real; Short items. – – – What’s new? \ Propaganda, not news. Slate, Molly Olmstead, … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Politics
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They’re Already Here
About transcendence, and alien intelligence. More about “transcendence,” and quibbling with that essay I linked yesterday. It said this: Transcendence—basically, the human experience of a higher and deeper reality somehow hidden in our everyday existences, but giving hints of itself … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Psychology, Science
Comments Off on They’re Already Here
Transcendence, and Science Fiction
Writers keep puzzling about the idea of transcendence and its association with religion; I’ve proposed an answer; Local news about federal agents in Alameda, near me, and how Trump called them off today; Heather Cox Richardson about the destruction of … Continue reading
