Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly

Things That Don’t Change

Posted on Sunday 18 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

In particular, the reactions by conservatives to things that do change. Topics today: Illegals and the military; How poor poll results must be fake; The American struggle between reason and ignorance; How one small town is indeed deeply conservative; Considering … Continue reading →

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Ta-Nehisi Coates: BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

Posted on Saturday 17 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Here is the next memoir I read, after Joan Didion’s, as inspired by that NYT list. This is a statement by a black intellectual to his 15-year-old son, about life as a black person and the struggles and dangers he … Continue reading →

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Preferred Relativism

Posted on Friday 16 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A story about the right’s “50-year-plot” to wreck democracy, and attendant thoughts about how conservatives reject one kind of relativism, and embrace another; The credulousness of conservatives; Notes from the fringe: vaccines; rationalizing Hannibal Lecter; Democrats are wolves; wives afraid … Continue reading →

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Nones, and Genre

Posted on Thursday 15 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Why did the rise of the “nones” begin in the 1990s? Thoughts about how science fiction is, or is not, a “genre”. Here’s an article I stumbled upon today, from 2019 in The Atlantic, by a writer I’ve see a … Continue reading →

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Seculars, Human Nature, Abstraction

Posted on Wednesday 14 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Some more abstract, intellectual topics for today. As the rise of ‘nones’ increases, what will society look like in a hundred years? How people are instinctively nice, more often than religions give them credit; An idea from S.I. Hayakawa about … Continue reading →

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They’re Losing It

Posted on Tuesday 13 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump and conservatives deny everything they don’t like by blaming “they” or the “Deep State”; And hurling words like “communist” without meaning; Why are we living in a future dominated by idiots?; Donald Trump doesn’t understand oceans; And the brother … Continue reading →

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Joan Didion, THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING

Posted on Tuesday 13 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Inspired by that NY Times list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, I read three short memoirs that I already had copies of in my library. Here’s the first. (These will be briefer ‘short takes’ compared to … Continue reading →

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Why Do You “Believe”? Who Do You Trust?

Posted on Monday 12 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

One item for today, about which I think is a key principle. NY Times, Zeynep Tufekci, 12 Aug 2024: The Problem Is Not A.I. It’s the Disbelief Created by Trump. This triggers off the recent news items about Trump’s skepticism … Continue reading →

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Reason for Hope, Despite

Posted on Sunday 11 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Let’s begin with a positive story. Salon, Rae Hodge, 11 Aug 2024: A daring escape from cynicism: Scientist explains why “hopeful skeptics” are outsmarting doomers, subtitled “A new book from a Stanford neuroscientist aims to prove that cynicism blinds us … Continue reading →

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Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 5

Posted on Saturday 10 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Final post summarizing this Brian Greene book. Earlier: post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4. The final three chapters return to the cosmic scope of the book’s overall theme, exploring what we’ve concluded about the far future and the … Continue reading →

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