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
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- 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
Category Archives: Morality
Undermining and Discrediting
More about Trump’s firing of the head of Bureau of Labor Statistics, with responses at Slate, from David Brin, The Atlantic, PolitiFact, Heather Cox Richardson, and Robert Reich; How Trump is now extorting UCLA; How Trump had references to his … Continue reading
Posted in authoritarianism, Morality, Politics
Comments Off on Undermining and Discrediting
I visit you in another dream
How conspiracy theorists think most people agree with them; How Trump’s administration is purging climate data; How JD Vance thinks some Americans are more worthy citizens than others; Paul Krugman on ICE and New York City; Three items from JMG: … Continue reading
Posted in Morality, Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on I visit you in another dream
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
Comments Off on The problem with the world is not evil. It’s ignorance, and delusion.
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
So Many People to Hate!
ICE now has a budget bigger than all but 15 countries’ military budgets; Why has funding for ICE has ballooned, compared to previous presidents?; Trump says he wants to deport bad people born in the US, too; Trump wants to … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Morality, Politics, science fiction
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Morality Is Relative; Reality Is Not
An undistorted map of the world; Jesse Being on “commonsense”; How morality is circumstantial, e.g. in Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE, which I just reread this week; Website matters involving drop-down menu bars, here and on sfadb.com; Short items about … Continue reading
Posted in Morality, Politics, Psychology, reality, Website Issues
Comments Off on Morality Is Relative; Reality Is Not
Supreme Court, Christian Nationalists, Afrikaners
Amanda Marcotte on how the Supreme Court has been captured by far-right conspiracy theories; How the simplest explanation for what’s going on, on several fronts, is basic white supremacy; About Russell Vought; Trump’s morality and his rationale for accepting Afrikaner … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Morality, Politics, Religion
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Current Politics as Reflections of Human Nature
My daily routine; How Trump would be king and end the rule of law in America, and how this is understandable given base human nature; Paul Krugman on the existential threat of climate change, that conservatives deny or simply do … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Human Nature, Morality, Personal history, Politics
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What Is the Venn Diagram Between Whitewashing and White Supremacy?
Signalgate and white mediocrity; How we are seeing tribal impulses eroding the high ideals designed to overcome them; How the Trump administration is indifferent to refugees… except for whites from South Africa; Jill Lawrence at The Bulwark about Trump’s bid … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Morality, Politics
Comments Off on What Is the Venn Diagram Between Whitewashing and White Supremacy?
OK For Me But Not For Thee
Reactions to yesterday’s story; A comment about how perhaps Americans are actually not very good people; Robert Reich recalls the four pillars of civil society: universities, science, the media, and the law; all the ones the current administration is trying … Continue reading
Posted in Morality, Politics, Social Progress
Comments Off on OK For Me But Not For Thee
