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)
» Blogspot Views from Medina Road (2003-2010)-
Recent Posts
- Government Suppression, and Dr. Noc
- Steven Pinker, ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 5
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- Steven Pinker, ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 4
- Frogs, Religion, the Ballroom, Bigotry, and Dictators
- Kindergarten Anthropology, and Ordering Things Into Existence
- Steven Pinker, ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 3
- Documenting My Reading; Holiday Shopping; and Tr*mp
- Do People Actually Believe the Things That They Say?
- Steven Pinker: ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 2
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Meta
Category Archives: Conservative Resistance
Peter Watts essay: “Understanding Sarah Palin, or, God Is In the Wattles”: Summary and Comments
From the book Peter Watts Is An Angry Sentient Tumor: Revenge Fantasies and Essays (Tachyon, November 2019), a selection of posts from the blog of Peter Watts, which has been running since 2007. Watts is the noted author of high … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, Evolution, Religion
Comments Off on Peter Watts essay: “Understanding Sarah Palin, or, God Is In the Wattles”: Summary and Comments
Links and Comments: Sustainability and Rural Living
Problem? Or solution? Sarah Smarsh: Something Special Is Happening in Rural America. Subtitle: There is a “brain gain” afoot that suggests a national homecoming to less bustling spaces. Writing from Wichita The nation’s most populous cities, the bicoastal pillars of … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Social Progress
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Links and Comments: Suffering Death without Religion; Fox News; Fundamentalism
New York Times: Surviving the Death of My Son After the Death of My Faith, subtitled, I had lost the one thing that could have numbed my pain. By Amber Scorah. A woman leaves her religion, gets on with her … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Psychology, Religion, Ten Commandments
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Suffering Death without Religion; Fox News; Fundamentalism
Junger: TRIBE
Sebastian Junger’s TRIBE: On Homecoming and Belonging (Grand Central/Twelve 2016) is one of several short, relatively ‘incidental’, books I’ve read in the past month — ‘incidental’ in that they’re mostly off-topic to my more serious themes of science, philosophy, and … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, Social Progress
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Links and Comments: Petty Rage; EO Wilson; Rutger Bregman; Conservative Causes; Zealots
Paul Krugman’s March 11 column, The Power of Petty Personal Rage discusses incidents about plastic straws, hamburgers, and Captain Marvel. The point is that demented anger is a significant factor in modern American political life — and overwhelmingly on one … Continue reading
Posted in Changing One's Mind, Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Petty Rage; EO Wilson; Rutger Bregman; Conservative Causes; Zealots
Links and Comments: Anti-Vaxxers
From Sunday’s New York Times, essay by Frank Bruni: The Real Horror of the Anti-Vaxxers, subtitled “This isn’t just a public health crisis. It’s a public sanity one.” (The print title was “The Anti-Vaxxers’ War on Truth”.) How many studies … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Psychology
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Kakutani: THE DEATH OF TRUTH
Michiko Kakutani’s THE DEATH OF TRUTH: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump (Tim Duggan Books, 2018) is, remarkably, the first book by the long-time and influential book reviewer for the New York Times, now retired. It has extensive … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, Politics
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Nichols, THE DEATH OF EXPERTISE
Tom Nichols’ THE DEATH OF EXPERTISE: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters (Oxford, 2017) is one of the better in the batch of recent books I’ve read about current events and how they reflect issues of science … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, Culture
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Links and Comments: World Getting Better; Choosing What to Believe; Questions for Atheists; Mathematical Ideas; Trumpian Cruelty
Vox: 23 charts and maps that show the world is getting much, much better. From 2014, but updated this month. These data echo the theme of Steven Pinker’s recent books. File under: human progress, despite conservative paranoia and fears \\ … Continue reading
Posted in Atheism, Conservative Resistance, Human Progress, Mathematics, Psychology
Comments Off on Links and Comments: World Getting Better; Choosing What to Believe; Questions for Atheists; Mathematical Ideas; Trumpian Cruelty
Links and Comments: Unread Books; Psychology and Logic; GOP Paranoia; Political Extremes
From recent weeks’ NYT. Essay by Kevin Mims: All Those Books You’ve Bought but Haven’t Read? There’s a Word for That. The print title, October 14, was “The Importance of Unread Books” subtitled “Why a personal library should include books … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology
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