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)
» Blogspot Views from Medina Road (2003-2010)-
Recent Posts
- Settling Back Into the Middle Ages
- The World Marches On, With or Without the US
- Haidt’s Graduation Speech, and More
- Messier objects; Rebecca Solnit; Jonathan Haidt
- Categories, Scales, a Public Health Triumph, and How the So-Called Experts Have Been Right
- Dan Barker, CONTRADUCTION
- New Ideas in the World
- Recalling American Life Before Vaccines, Including My Own
- Cooperation Is the Key to Human Advancement
- UFOs, Consciousness, Being Savvy
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Meta
Monthly Archives: April 2026
The Origins of Conservative Values
MAGA wants more teen births (!), with reflection on why most human societies postpone children until adulthood; How Red State restrictions against abortion only stopped the lifesaving ones; Two items about Pete Hegseth and his Christian Nationalist leader, and guns. … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Music, Politics
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Everything Bad Is Due to Progressivism! (says Clarence Thomas)
Reactions to Clarence Thomas’s speech blaming everything he doesn’t like on progressivism — and Hitler and Stalin too! A standard conservative screed. The Project Hail Mary soundtrack. – – – What kind of contorted logic is going on here? Slate, … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, History, Music
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Changing Minds
The World Bank thinks better of free-market absolutism; For some, every thing the least bit unusual is *meaningful*. – – – A couple non-political items today. The Atlantic, Rogé Karma, 16 Apr 2026: A Pillar of the Economics Establishment Admits … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Psychology
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Magicians and Evangelicals and Traditionalists
Penn & Teller advise the Supreme Court about junk science, and the significance of how magicians are less easily fooled than lawyers, politicians, and even scientists; How most Americans think Trump isn’t religious, how MAGA doesn’t care, and the idea … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Religion, Science, Supernatural
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Christian Nationalist Theologians, and Pulp Fiction
Hegseth quotes Pulp Fiction; Vance and others MAGAsplain doctrine to the Pope; Christian nationalists prefer nationalism over Christianity; Homan and Vance tell the Pope to stay in his lane, as if war has nothing to do with morality; Christian media … Continue reading
An Optimistic Big View
Peter Leyden on how the arc of human history is toward cooperation; Once again, evidence shows that same-sex marriage is a “win for children and society”, and I suggest why this may be so; While Stephen Miller resorts to bigotry … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Human Progress, The Gays, Tribalism
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MAGA is for OT, not NT
John Pavlovitz on how MAGA hates the Pope’s Jesus; The Pope denounces the US “delusion of omnipotence”; William Saletan on the GOP acting like bigots; Tom Nichols on Trump’s latest meltdown; Sean Hannity knows better than the Pope; More about … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Religion
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Steven Pinker, WHEN EVERYONE KNOWS THAT EVERYONE KNOWS…
Subtitled: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life (Scribner, 2025, xv + 364pp, including 64pp of notes, references, and index.) This latest Pinker book, which follows ENLIGHTENMENT NOW and RATIONALITY, seems at first glance a bit … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Psychology, Social Progress, Steven Pinker
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The Slow Motion American Train Wreck
Rebecca Solnit on how the US is destroying itself; The significance of Victor Orbán’s loss; How Trump thinks religion is about power, not morality; Trump’s grotesque AI image depicting himself as a Jesus figure. – – – I’ve gradually become … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Lunacy, Religion
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Are All Weddings the Same?
We attended a wedding yesterday, in Alameda, between my partner’s older son’s wife’s sister, and a man from a non-Catholic family, who had converted, and gotten baptized a year ago, in order to marry into my partner’s older son’s wife’s … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history
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