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.
» Full Profile
» Facebook profile
» Previous Views from Medina Road (2010-2013)
» Blogspot Views from Medina Road (2003-2010)-
Recent Posts
- 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
- Conservative Principles vs. Reality
- Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 2
- Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 1
- Intentional Ignorance
- Discipline, Lies, Ignorance, and Consensus Truth
- Cruelty, Nonsense, and Reality-Checks
Categories
- Aesthetics
- Art
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Astronomy
- Atheism
- authoritarianism
- Bay Area
- Bible
- Book Notes
- Cars
- Changing One's Mind
- Children
- Commonplace Book
- Conservative Resistance
- conservatives
- Conventions
- Cosmology
- Culture
- Decline
- Economics
- Education
- Epistemology
- Evolution
- Family History
- Films
- Games
- Heinlein
- History
- Human Nature
- Human Progress
- Humanism
- Humor
- Isaac Asimov
- Links
- Links & Comments
- longtermism
- Lunacy
- Mathematics
- Meaning
- MInd
- Morality
- Movies
- Music
- Musings
- Narrative
- Notes For
- Paperback Sets
- Personal history
- Pet Peeves
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Politics
- progress
- Provisional Conclusions
- Psychology
- Quote at Length
- Quotes
- Ray Bradbury
- reality
- Religion
- Reviews
- Robert Silverberg
- Robert Wright
- Science
- science fiction
- Science Fiction Nonfiction
- Short Fiction
- Silverberg
- Skiffy Flix
- Social Progress
- Space
- Species Reset
- Spirituality
- Star Trek
- Statistics
- Steven Pinker
- Supernatural
- Technology
- Ten Commandments
- The Book
- The Gays
- Thinking
- Travel
- Tribalism
- TV Sci Fi
- Uncategorized
- Website Issues
- Writing
Archives
- November 2025 (23)
- October 2025 (31)
- September 2025 (37)
- August 2025 (29)
- July 2025 (34)
- June 2025 (28)
- May 2025 (35)
- April 2025 (33)
- March 2025 (34)
- February 2025 (31)
- January 2025 (36)
- December 2024 (26)
- November 2024 (30)
- October 2024 (32)
- September 2024 (29)
- August 2024 (37)
- July 2024 (33)
- June 2024 (25)
- May 2024 (31)
- April 2024 (25)
- March 2024 (36)
- February 2024 (32)
- January 2024 (32)
- December 2023 (25)
- November 2023 (31)
- October 2023 (29)
- September 2023 (29)
- August 2023 (31)
- July 2023 (31)
- June 2023 (30)
- May 2023 (28)
- April 2023 (27)
- March 2023 (33)
- February 2023 (29)
- January 2023 (30)
- December 2022 (30)
- November 2022 (29)
- October 2022 (32)
- September 2022 (30)
- August 2022 (30)
- July 2022 (32)
- June 2022 (30)
- May 2022 (33)
- April 2022 (32)
- March 2022 (31)
- February 2022 (29)
- January 2022 (31)
- December 2021 (34)
- November 2021 (32)
- October 2021 (31)
- September 2021 (20)
- August 2021 (8)
- July 2021 (13)
- June 2021 (4)
- April 2021 (8)
- March 2021 (25)
- February 2021 (16)
- January 2021 (20)
- December 2020 (10)
- November 2020 (11)
- October 2020 (15)
- September 2020 (13)
- August 2020 (23)
- July 2020 (27)
- June 2020 (11)
- May 2020 (13)
- April 2020 (10)
- March 2020 (8)
- February 2020 (3)
- January 2020 (5)
- December 2019 (3)
- November 2019 (7)
- October 2019 (12)
- September 2019 (5)
- August 2019 (4)
- July 2019 (5)
- June 2019 (9)
- May 2019 (3)
- April 2019 (2)
- March 2019 (4)
- February 2019 (16)
- January 2019 (3)
- October 2018 (4)
- September 2018 (5)
- August 2018 (9)
- July 2018 (3)
- June 2018 (7)
- May 2018 (6)
- April 2018 (11)
- March 2018 (5)
- February 2018 (6)
- January 2018 (3)
- December 2017 (8)
- November 2017 (11)
- October 2017 (8)
- September 2017 (14)
- August 2017 (12)
- July 2017 (13)
- June 2017 (15)
- May 2017 (21)
- April 2017 (24)
- March 2017 (16)
- February 2017 (22)
- January 2017 (14)
- December 2016 (3)
- November 2016 (1)
- October 2016 (9)
- September 2016 (3)
- August 2016 (4)
- July 2016 (2)
- June 2016 (18)
- May 2016 (11)
- April 2016 (12)
- March 2016 (9)
- February 2016 (9)
- January 2016 (18)
- December 2015 (21)
- November 2015 (17)
- October 2015 (14)
- September 2015 (22)
- August 2015 (16)
- July 2015 (12)
- June 2015 (14)
- May 2015 (14)
- April 2015 (7)
- March 2015 (13)
- February 2015 (19)
- January 2015 (20)
- December 2014 (11)
- November 2014 (15)
- October 2014 (9)
- September 2014 (3)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (16)
- June 2014 (19)
- May 2014 (34)
- April 2014 (26)
- March 2014 (37)
- February 2014 (27)
- January 2014 (19)
- December 2013 (11)
- November 2013 (8)
- October 2013 (10)
- September 2013 (21)
- August 2013 (13)
- July 2013 (6)
Meta
Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly
Troubled Children, Cognitive Collapse, Cave Man Morality
Paul Krugman about how Trump has ceded the future to China; Tom Nichols on how the Trump administration resembles a bunch of toddlers, and what Americans who care about democracy should do. Salon’s Sophia A. McClennen on how the Trump … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on Troubled Children, Cognitive Collapse, Cave Man Morality
Politics is more about tribal human nature than about solving problems
David French on why Trump gets away with everything; Ezra Klein on how to beat Trumpism: something about Democrats not being so judgmental; Short items about Norman Rockwell, Nigeria and Christians, the welfare queen stereotype, how faith-base bigotry is just … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on Politics is more about tribal human nature than about solving problems
Narrative Closure in A House of Dynamite
And David Brin on the persistent idiocies of the UFO cultists – – – We watched the new film about a potential nuclear war, A House of Dynamite, last Sunday on Netflix, and then I watched it again on Netflix … Continue reading
Posted in Narrative, Psychology
Comments Off on Narrative Closure in A House of Dynamite
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
Comments Off on Sam Harris: THE MORAL LANDSCAPE
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
Comments Off on Moral Rot
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
Comments Off on Drizzly
