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
- Five Years On; and, More About Morality, in a Way
- Morality, and the Bible, Again
- The Secret to Happiness, and How Best to Use Your Time
- Superficial Christianity on Full Display
- 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
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Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly
Five Years On; and, More About Morality, in a Way
It’s almost five years since my heart transplant, on May 26th, 2021. Yesterday and today, another round of visits and tests. Blood tests, echo-cardiogram, EKG, visit with cardiologist, cardiac right/left catheter angiogram (an actual surgery). Here’s about last year’s visit … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Personal history, Religion
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Morality, and the Bible, Again
Oh goodie, another essay about morality. And one that apparently challenges the standard conservative complaint that things (the state of society; morality) are getting worse all the time. It’s simply not true. OnlySky, Jonathan MS Pearce, yesterday: We are becoming … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Human Nature, Morality, Religion
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The Secret to Happiness, and How Best to Use Your Time
A couple matters of personal psychology for today. NY Times, guest essay by David Epstein, 12 May 2026: The Nobel-Winning Psychologist Who Believed He Found the Secret to Happiness [gift link] If in making decisions you are often guided by … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology
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Superficial Christianity on Full Display
Things said at last weekend’s prayer rally, and how they strike me as unhinged from reality; Heather Cox Richardson’s take: a turning away from “Enlightenment values of natural rights, equality, and self-government to one that requires Americans to accept that … Continue reading
Settling Back Into the Middle Ages
This is about the religious rally in Washington DC this weekend. And the limitations of human nature. NY Times, guest essay by Katya Underman, today: We Are Sliding Back Into the Middle Ages My comments before reading the essay: One … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology, Religion, Science
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The World Marches On, With or Without the US
An idea to anticipate, not react to, car accidents; How American under Trump and MAGA is moving exactly backwards in dependence on fossil fuels; Florida is whitewashing the history of slavery; Men who want women to be quiet: this idea … Continue reading
Posted in Lunacy, Politics, Religion, Science
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Haidt’s Graduation Speech, and More
Jonathan Haidt’s graduation speech: choose your attention, do hard things, make personal connections; Like billionaires, what Christian nationalists have is never enough: now they want to inscribe “In God We Trust” on every Federal Building in the US; Amanda Marcotte … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology, Religion
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Messier objects; Rebecca Solnit; Jonathan Haidt
A chart showing the actual relative sizes of the Messier objects; Rebecca Solnit on the potential for imminent revolutionary change; Jonathan Haidt’s graduation speech, today. – – – Now this is cool. The Messier objects, fuzzy objects in the sky … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Psychology, Social Progress
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Categories, Scales, a Public Health Triumph, and How the So-Called Experts Have Been Right
Conservatives like categories, especially binary ones: two examples. Including the claim that what makes a man gay is liberalism; NYT updates its Autocracy Index, 12 markers of democratic erosion; Conservative panic over falling reproduction rates seen instead as a public … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Politics, Psychology, Science
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Dan Barker, CONTRADUCTION
(UK: Hypathia Press, 2024, 111pp, including References but no index) Dan Barker (Wikipedia) is an atheist writer who was once an evangelical Christian pastor. I read one of his earlier books, LIFE DRIVEN PURPOSE (review here), which challenged Rick Warren’s … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Philosophy, Psychology, Science
Comments Off on Dan Barker, CONTRADUCTION
