Category Archives: Politics

Categories, Scales, a Public Health Triumph, and How the So-Called Experts Have Been Right

Posted on Wednesday 13 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Conservatives like categories, especially binary ones: two examples. Including the claim that what makes a man gay is liberalism; NYT updates its Autocracy Index, 12 markers of democratic erosion; Conservative panic over falling reproduction rates seen instead as a public … Continue reading →

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Recalling American Life Before Vaccines, Including My Own

Posted on Monday 11 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

A remembrance of America before vaccines; How the DOGE-ing of the Humanities is being reversed, fortunately; Briefly noted: Trump’s intuitive thinking is wrong about vaccines and autism; a Republican who thinks racial discrimination is a thing of the past, as … Continue reading →

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Cooperation Is the Key to Human Advancement

Posted on Sunday 10 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

A counterpoint to zero-sum thinking from Japan, and cooperation; Tennessee shows how to rig an election; Short items on Trump, the Pope, and the Bible; now RFK Jr. is worried about jello; how a Christian conspiracy theorist now admits to … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Human Progress, Politics, Religion | Leave a comment

Is Islam the Best Alternative to Modernity?

Posted on Friday 1 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

What Trump’s latest attempted assassin reveals about modern American life; How right-wing influencers are now praising Islam, as an alternative to liberal modernity; – – – Trying to get a handle on the latest would-be presidential assassin. Slate, Luke Winkie, … Continue reading →

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The Law vs. Tribal Priorities

Posted on Thursday 30 April 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

The Supremes eviscerate the Voting Rights Act, and the partisan flexibility of the law; King Charles visits while Trump claims America is not an idea but an inherited Anglo-Saxon culture; Heather Cox Richardson on the same point; Brief items about … Continue reading →

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Twilight of the Gods?

Posted on Tuesday 28 April 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Pondering how to live in a era without religious assumptions; A related theme in Arthur C. Clarke’s The Songs of Distant Earth; Timothy Snyder on superpower suicide; distrust of the current administration; confused thoughts about racism from the right; And … Continue reading →

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An Assortment of Current Events

Posted on Saturday 25 April 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Trying to catch up on numerous items from recent days, briefly. MAGA and confederates • Firing the National Science Board • A Texas court defies the Supremes about posting the ten commandments • America’s moral code • The new Navy … Continue reading →

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Dismantling Modern Civilization in Favor of Intuitive Superstitions and Religious Verities

Posted on Wednesday 22 April 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Those looking to ancient Greece to justify their current warmongering are getting their history wrong; Parody and reality about Hegseth relaxing flu vaccine requirements for the military; The CDC is suppressing a report on the efficacy of the Covid vaccines; … Continue reading →

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Myths That Endure, and Conservatives

Posted on Tuesday 21 April 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Who are these young Republicans who find MAGA insufficiently radical? Myths that endure: utopia, invisibility, magic, the immortal soul; Trump is going to read the Bible, out loud?? How Pro-Trump avatars are infecting social media; The evidence for the Trump’s … Continue reading →

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The Origins of Conservative Values

Posted on Monday 20 April 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

MAGA wants more teen births (!), with reflection on why most human societies postpone children until adulthood; How Red State restrictions against abortion only stopped the lifesaving ones; Two items about Pete Hegseth and his Christian Nationalist leader, and guns. … Continue reading →

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