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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Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly
How About a Nobel Prize for Belligerence?
More about Trump’s actions vs his aspirations. You’d think Trump were running to win a Nobel Prize not for peace, but for belligerence. NY Times, David French, 7 Sept 2025: It Doesn’t Seem Wise to Let Trump Decide What War … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Culture, Lunacy, Politics
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Simple Conservative Answers to Complex Problems
RFK Jr blames autism on Tylenol; Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize but at every turn advocates war; Robert Reich on Trump and the art of extortion; They’re redacting the Epstein Files of Republicans only, is the rumor; Philip Glass: … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Morality, Music, Politics
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Jesse Bering, THE BELIEF INSTINCT
Subtitled: “The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life” (Norton, hardcover, 2011, 252pp, including 47pp notes, additional reading, and index.) (UK title The God Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny and the Meaning of Life, also 2011) I … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Psychology, Science
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And the Moon Rose Over an Open Field
Paul Krugman, with graphs, wonders why the right rejects progress; Robert Reich on why we don’t trust Donald Trump — because he disregards the truth; Hemant Mehta on how the “nones” aren’t exactly “godless”; How Trump is a Russian asset; … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Music, Politics, progress, Religion
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Conservative Logic, or Illogic
A note about my post about Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE; Florida ends vaccines mandates, because you shouldn’t be forced to follow laws, right?; How the GOP suddenly realizes some people should not be allowed guns; How Trump has learned to … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives
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Margaret Atwood: THE HANDMAID’S TALE
(Houghton Mifflin, Feb. 1986, hardcover, 311pp) This is the US first edition hardcover, which I bought when it came out (it’s the first printing too), though the book was published in Canada the year before, in 1985. It’s 40 years … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Morality, Religion, science fiction
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How history, and current events, become approved stories
Humans live by stories: comparing the story of Jesus to the story of the stolen 2020 election; Short items about Cracker Barrel; RFK Jr the vax quack; how women are not people; erasing the existence of gay people from public … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, History, Narrative, Politics
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Are There Any “Good Republicans” Left?
Why there seem to be no good Republican politicians; How happy Republicans are to cut benefits to the poor; How Texas is pushing Christianity on public schools; Scientists denounce the administration’s climate report, full of errors and cherry-picked data, that … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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LA Weekend Trip, and Certain Types of Principles
We drove from Oakland to LA (Santa Monica area) Friday, and returned home today, avoiding all the predicted holiday weekend traffic by leaving early each time, around 9am. We celebrated my birthday and my partner saw his new granddaughter for … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Personal history
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Greed, and Heaven
Thom Hartmann on the motivation of Republicans: Greed; Brief items about Trump as dictator; why Trump talks about heaven; Robert Reich on how to respond to Trump’s lies about “crime wave” (point out Trump’s violations); the suspended postal shipments to … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Human Nature
Comments Off on Greed, and Heaven
