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
- Distracted by Politics, Again
- AI Is Telling People What They Want to Hear?
- The Fringe Is Becoming Mainstream
- Why Totalitarians Prefer Crackpots and Fools, as We Are Seeing Under Trump
- Nostalgia Bias, and Christian Intolerance and Hypocrisy
- Music as Language
- Short-Term Thinking As the Problem, As I’ve Been Saying
- Nevil Shute: ON THE BEACH
- MAGA and Cultural Stagnation
- Trump the Bully Seems to Be What Many People Want
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Meta
Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly
Stories Mislead You About the Reality of the World
Crime on TV v crime in reality; Conspiracy theories on TV v conspiracy theories in reality; If stories mislead about reality, then what is science fiction about? – – – I’ve mentioned before that my understanding is that there … Continue reading
Posted in science fiction
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Stories, Traditions, and Science
Why does MAGA hate science? Why do right-wing folks think Democratic policies have failed? And Paul Krugman on the top 10 political websites on Substack. – – – A significant essay, for my concerns. Salon, Kirk Swearingen, 19 Jul 2025: … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Politics, Science
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Only Certain People Count
Today’s news about Stephen Colbert; Conservatives have finally managed to cut funding to PBS and NPR; David Brooks on Trump winning the race to the bottom; Sure enough, EPA is firing hundreds of scientific experts; Fareed Zakaria on how Obama … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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Incompetence, Greed, or Sabotage?
Elizabeth Kolbert on the Texas floods and the administration’s undermining of climate research; How the Trump administration wants to discourage wind and solar projects; Recalling the Scopes trial, 100 years ago this month, and America’s continued antipathy toward science and … Continue reading
Posted in Music, Personal history, Politics, Religion, Science
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Is the universe friendly, or hostile?
David Wallace-Wells on the Epstein scandal, with items by Zack Beauchamp and Shawn McCreesh; How simple-minded Trump characterizes his adversaries as “evil”; How Trump’s economic agenda is driven by simple-minded lies and misunderstandings; How the question “Is the world a … Continue reading
Posted in History, Human Nature, Philosophy, Politics, Religion
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History and Change
Trump keeps a trophy for himself; Paul Krugman on why the Trump administration is killing science; How MAGA needs stories in which they are the heroes; Why Trump fans aren’t forgiving Trump about Epstein; Heather Cox Richardson about Trump’s “mandate” … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, History, Human Nature, Politics, science fiction
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The problem with the world is not evil. It’s ignorance, and delusion.
Two thoughts from Yuval Noah Harari today; Ramez Naam on how AI models converge on “moderately left-libertarian political viewpoints”; Another piece about how people should be held accountable for tragedies; Heather Cox Richardson summaries the Epstein fiasco; WaPo’s Philip Bump … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Morality, Politics
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Responsibility, Certainty, and Doubt
Defunding weather science and disaster response to save money is like cancelling all your insurance policies to manage your household budget; LAT: Robin Abcarian on the implausibilities of expecting Medicaid recipients to replace deported farmworkers; NYT: Peter Baker on how … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Psychology, Science
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No Necessary Nations
Stephan Marche on how there are no necessary nations, and no permanent global order; Judges, appointed both by Republicans and Democrats, speak out against the Trump administration; Heather Cox Richardson identifies one key failure in the Texas floods, the result … Continue reading
Two Takes on the Problem with Men
David French and Jordan Peterson and competing theories about the problem with men; About cuts to science research; do Republicans not understand investments in the future?; A report about Lara Trump’s show on Fox News; An essay by Tom Nichols … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Politics, Religion
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