Category Archives: Conservative Resistance

Links and Comments: This Week’s American Politics; … Heinlein

Posted on Friday 30 October 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

This has been a bizarre week, what with the third debate among Republican presidential candidates, and the reactions from the red-meat base and, on the other side, the intelligentsia who rolled their eyes about all the lies and distortion those … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Heinlein, Lunacy, Politics | Comments Off on Links and Comments: This Week’s American Politics; … Heinlein

Links and Comments from Today’s New York Times: 25 Oct 2015

Posted on Sunday 25 October 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

You can’t escape human nature: Norway Has a New Passion: Ghost Hunting. As traditional religion has faded in many northern European nations, it’s being replaced in Norway by an increased tendency to perceive ghosts at every corner. Ghosts, or at … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Evolution, Narrative, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments from Today’s New York Times: 25 Oct 2015

Links and Comments from Sunday’s New York Times

Posted on Monday 19 October 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Front page article: Indian Writers Return Awards to Protest Government Silence on Violence File this under Conservative [religious] Resistance: …growing activism from conservative Hindu nationalists who seek to suppress forms of expression they view as offensive to their religion. They … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, MInd, Provisional Conclusions, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments from Sunday’s New York Times

Lying with Phony Graphs

Posted on Wednesday 30 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

If the anti-abortion anti-Planned Parenthood folks had a case, you’d think they wouldn’t need to lie with transparently inept graphs that misrepresent the actual data. Scroll down on this link to see an actual chart, legitimately scaled, showing the services … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Mathematics | Comments Off on Lying with Phony Graphs

Lawrence M. Krauss on Ben Carson

Posted on Wednesday 30 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

He says it better than I can (and of course with more authority). Ben Carson’s Scientific Ignorance It is hard to find a single detailed claim in his diatribe that is physically sensible or that reflects accurate knowledge about science. … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics | Comments Off on Lawrence M. Krauss on Ben Carson

The Atlantic on trigger warnings; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the war on reason

Posted on Tuesday 29 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I mentioned a while back the cover story on The Atlantic magazine’s September issue, The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. (Haidt is the author of the book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Morality, Provisional Conclusions, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on The Atlantic on trigger warnings; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the war on reason

We Are in a Post-Reality [Science-Fictional!] World

Posted on Saturday 19 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I saw (part of) the Republican debate this past week, and the responses, and saw how the obvious lies and misrepresentations did not seem to matter to the crowd; it was how the candidates played to the crowd. This seems … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Lunacy, Social Progress, Species Reset | Comments Off on We Are in a Post-Reality [Science-Fictional!] World

Links and Comments: Scientism; the Arc of Moral Progress; Conservative Resistance and Certain Republicans

Posted on Sunday 13 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

What we read from this morning’s newspapers… New York Times, Simon Critchley, There Is No Theory of Everything. An essay (which is longer online than the version in print) about science and the humanities and about a teacher of his, … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Progress, Morality, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Scientism; the Arc of Moral Progress; Conservative Resistance and Certain Republicans

Links and Comments: Conservative Resistance and Fears; Narratives; Reality Checks

Posted on Saturday 12 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon: Kim Davis is the new face of the religious right: Angry, marginalized and increasingly desperate No doubt Davis is a comical figure whose self-righteousness is only equaled by her ignorance both of the text of the Bible she clings … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Narrative, Science, Thinking | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Conservative Resistance and Fears; Narratives; Reality Checks

Links and Comments: Lawrence M. Krauss, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, confirmation bias

Posted on Wednesday 9 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

A fine essay by Lawrence M. Krauss, at The New Yorker: All Scientists Should Be Militant Atheists. He’s reacting both to the current embarrassing kerfuffle about Kim Davis, the Kentucky court clerk who thinks her sincerely held religious convictions trump … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Conservative Resistance, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Lawrence M. Krauss, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, confirmation bias