Category Archives: Music

As Things Fall Apart

Posted on Thursday 23 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How Trump’s war against DEI isn’t actually about merit; How despite claims of merit, those executive orders were shoddily written; How Trump prioritizes white Christian patriarchy; Comments from Heather Cox Richardson, Paul Krugman, and Robert Reich; How conservative response to … Continue reading →

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What Our Time Will Be Remembered For

Posted on Wednesday 22 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Doing next to nothing, while the world burned. Our time will be remembered for nothing else than our inaction on climate change; David Wallace-Wells searches for a silver lining; A book I’m reading recalls similar conservative resistance to action on … Continue reading →

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Human Nature and Existential Crises

Posted on Monday 13 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Yesterday I had an item and some comments about how the inability of many people to recognize existential dangers like climate change may in fact doom the species. (And explain the Fermi Paradox.) Too many people live in fantasy cultural … Continue reading →

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Political Retributions, and Values

Posted on Tuesday 3 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Three and a half years after my heart and kidney transplants, I’m doing fine; About Biden’s pardon of his son, and the impending takeover of the FBI to pursue retribution; Robert Reich understands why he did it; Yet another essay … Continue reading →

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Stories Are Not Evidence

Posted on Wednesday 18 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How the right “creates stories” to support their worldview (i.e. they’re all about motivated reasoning); Paul Krugman on Trump, tariffs, Stalin, and Lysenko; Items about DeSantis cheating and which party is the party of violence; Items about a brain fever … Continue reading →

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Today’s Examples of Tribal Antics

Posted on Monday 5 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Sometimes the antics of the tribalists are on the front page of the New York Times, two days in a row. Though that shouldn’t be surprising, given that they’re half the population. Today’s topics: Trump’s latest attacks against Harris; How … Continue reading →

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Life carries on and on and on and on

Posted on Tuesday 23 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Heather Cox Richardson taking a future historian’s perspective on recent political events; The irony of Republicans accusing Democrats of staging a coup; Paul Krugman on how Republican accusation of immigrants taking away “black jobs” is wrong in so many ways; … Continue reading →

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So we cheated and we lied and we tested

Posted on Monday 8 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump’s dementia; The Heritage Foundation’s threat of violence unless they get their way; And a graphic from Fb: “If you don’t scream, I won’t hurt you”; Trump disavows Project 2025; And a song by Crosby, Stills & Nash. Continuing from … Continue reading →

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Once You See It

Posted on Saturday 6 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How issues in politics 100 years ago resemble those of today; How Republicans and Democrats live in radically different universes; What the “genius” of the American Founders were thinking; Zbigniew Preisner’s film score for Damage Once you see it, or … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 3

Posted on Monday 24 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Summaries and comments about three more chapters of Steven Pinker’s THE BLANK SLATE; And YouTube tracks from one of my favorite film scores: Richard Robbins’ for The Remains of the Day. I’ll try to get through the rest of book … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Music, Science, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 3