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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Meta
Category Archives: Music
Mendacity, Stupidity, or Both; and Arvo Pärt
Speculations about yesterday’s observations; Stupidity and mendacity: removing parts of the Constitution from government websites; American science withdraws; RFK Jr doesn’t believe in mRNA vaccines; Hegseth and academic mediocrity; America has defunded one of the smartest beings on the planet; … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Music
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TV, Juan Crow, Facts and Nonexistent Things, Alfred Schnittke
Trump trusts only TV; Heather Cox Richardson on how Republicans are digging into positions that are contradicted by facts; How the Trump administration’s “Juan Crow” echoes “John Crow”; More nonexistent things that can be banned; Short items about disabling hurricane … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Music, Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on TV, Juan Crow, Facts and Nonexistent Things, Alfred Schnittke
Proselytism, Manifest Destiny, Arvo Pärt
Let Federal employees proselytize! Heather Cox Richardson on manifest destiny; Arvo Pärt. – – – As with that notion about regulating AI to be non-woke, have they thought this one through? Washington Post, 28 Jul 2025: Trump administration urges … Continue reading
Incompetence, Greed, or Sabotage?
Elizabeth Kolbert on the Texas floods and the administration’s undermining of climate research; How the Trump administration wants to discourage wind and solar projects; Recalling the Scopes trial, 100 years ago this month, and America’s continued antipathy toward science and … Continue reading
Posted in Music, Personal history, Politics, Religion, Science
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Darkest Days
Shorter items today. The Supreme Court and “emergencies”; How Trump reflexively blames Biden; And how Trump takes credit for what Biden actually did; The confusion over Epstein conspiracy theories; Trump wants more factories, but is expelling the workers who might … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Music, Politics
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Implications
Do justices not foresee consequences? Heather Cox Richardson on the big beautiful bill; How JD Vance reveals the administration’s true motivations; cruelty is the thing; Jonathan Chait on Republicans’ “incomprehensibly reckless plan”; Robert Reich on conservatives’ animosity to empathy (never … Continue reading
Posted in authoritarianism, Human Nature, Music, Politics
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Stories, Archetypes, Morality
Does anyone take Jung or Freud seriously any more? OnlySky’s Bruce Ledewitz on the contemporary idea of “evil”; Robert Reich on “the worst bill in history” and fact-checking claims about tax cuts; How local communities fight back against ICE; Republicans … Continue reading
Posted in Music, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology
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Can You Hear Me?
Robert Reich reminds us of the three branches of American government, and how, in plain site, Trump is attacking two of them; How Donald Trump doesn’t align with William McKinley so much as William Jennings Bryan. Bruce Springsteen’s “Outlaw Pete”. … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Music, Politics
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This Is What Will Be
How right-wing violence has become normalized; How perhaps “totalitarianism” is better word than “authoritarianism” for what is going on; How Republicans trying to roll back same-sex marriage are fighting a losing battle, cf. that Stephen Prothero book; A psychiatrist explains … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Music, Psychology, Science
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Girls and Boys and Evolutionary Psychology
Apparently there’s a worldwide shift in preference for baby girls over baby boys, reversing an age-old bias; The article cited doesn’t explain the evolutionary rationales for these shifting preferences, but I will; And Sophie’s Choice; And it reveals reasons why … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution, Music, Psychology
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