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)
» Blogspot Views from Medina Road (2003-2010)-
Recent Posts
- How the War on Woke Reflects the Basics of Human Nature
- The Core Motivation of Trump, and MAGA
- A New Low
- Illegal voting, ulterior motives, resentment, racism
- The War on Truth; and Religion
- Christian Hypocrisy: The Beatitudes, vs. the Reality in Minneapolis
- Current Events; Nihilism and the Meaning of Life
- Which Part of Science Do Science Deniers Dispute?
- Shermer, Zakaria, Clinton, Bruckner
- “I Love the Poorly Educated”
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Meta
Category Archives: Politics
How history, and current events, become approved stories
Humans live by stories: comparing the story of Jesus to the story of the stolen 2020 election; Short items about Cracker Barrel; RFK Jr the vax quack; how women are not people; erasing the existence of gay people from public … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, History, Narrative, Politics
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Are There Any “Good Republicans” Left?
Why there seem to be no good Republican politicians; How happy Republicans are to cut benefits to the poor; How Texas is pushing Christianity on public schools; Scientists denounce the administration’s climate report, full of errors and cherry-picked data, that … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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The Disappearance of Linus
Distracted the past couple days by the disappearance of Linus. I mentioned this on Facebook last night. Maybe he’ll come back. Click for much larger image. I posted this on Facebook, yesterday the 26th. Our beloved Linus, who appeared exactly … Continue reading
Posted in authoritarianism, Human Nature, Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on The Disappearance of Linus
Conservative Motivations and Magical Thinking
Recalling how conservative motivations echo Hutson’s 7 laws of magical thinking; Examples of banning flag burning, removing the rainbow crosswalk in Orland, and French Gallic culture; Hemant Mehta examines why the Jehovah’s Witnesses have relaxed their prohibition against higher education; … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Music, Politics, Psychology
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Frightened Conservatives’ Paranoid Fantasies
Tribal thinking: Jan 6 rioters: good, pardoned; prosecutors following law and order: bad, fired; Troops for Chicago, New York, Baltimore? It’s the revolt of the rubes; With a US map showing the concentrations of blue and red; How Gavin Newsom … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics
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Working Definitions, and Examples
Reviewing basic definitions of evil, sin, morality, woke, and fake news, with examples: The Trump admin and MAGA would like to take over all the big cities; How the far-right agenda is entering the mainstream; Do Republicans actually believe in … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Politics, Religion
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Everything Old and Simple; Conservatives, the Conceptual Ceiling, and Cognitive Dissonance
Conceptual ceiling and conservatives; Thoughts about how humanity might survive, via deliberate cognitive dissonance: “One mindset to maintain the tribe and ensure near-term survival; another to solve problems that threaten long-term survival.” Which one is right? Both are, in different … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
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Liberal and Conservative Goals
Why conservatives inculcate young thinkers, and liberals don’t (need to); Christian pastors in Kentucky want to shield children from LGBTQ books; why not shield them from the Bible? Which influence is worse? It depends on your goals, which are driven … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology, Religion
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Further Reports on the Current Crisis
Robert Reich on groveling and inept and unprincipled people; Heather Cox Richardson on our idiot-child president; By wanting to banish mail-in ballots nationwide, Trump attacks states’ rights, a conservative principle for centuries; On the same theme, Thomas B. Edsall looks … Continue reading
Posted in Lunacy, Politics, Psychology
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The Ultimate Cognitive Bias, and Political News
Steve Stewart-Williams about an attempt to identify the one cognitive bias to rule them all: the confirmation bias; Political notes: How Trump claims victory yet again; how even Fox News noticed that not much was accomplished at that summit; And … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on The Ultimate Cognitive Bias, and Political News
