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)-
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- The Conservative War Against Liberals, and Cat Toys
- Academic Freedom, Good Citizens, and Moving Forward
- Cory Doctorow on Project 2025 and Long Knives
- The Psychology of Trump and His Supporters
- The Clueless Conservative War on Reality
- Conservatives, Conspiracies, and Reality
- Credulity, Innumeracy, and Alarmism
- Timothy Ferris, COMING OF AGE IN THE MILKY WAY
- Three Perspectives on Trump’s First 100 Days
- Edward O. Wilson: LETTERS TO A YOUNG SCIENTIST
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Meta
Category Archives: Politics
Clearly, We’re Seeing an Infestation of Alien Mind Parasites
This infestation is growing. The symptoms include paranoia, megalomania, delusions, and the perception of demons and/or global conspirators around every corner. The interpretation of extraordinary events (that have rational causes that they do not believe in), but rather see as … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics
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Bill Adair, BEYOND THE BIG LIE
Subtitled “The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do It More, and How It Could Burn Down Our Democracy” (Atria, Oct 2024, xxiii + 273pp, including 55pp of acknowledgements, sources, notes, and index.) This is a recent book, just published … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, conservatives, Politics
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Conservative Reactions to the Los Angeles Fires
The past few days have been fodder for examples of (conservative) lies, evasions, and misrepresentations, as they react to the fires in Southern California. Conservatives blame the LA fires on the vast world-wide conspiracy theories they are obsessed with; Two … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Lunacy, Politics
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So Predictable
Trumps lies, or evades, or misrepresents; Conservatives blame everyone they don’t like for the California wildfires; Anita Bryant dies; she was an outlier in her time, but now typical of MAGA; Heather Cox Richardson on the California fires; How Jimmy … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics
Comments Off on So Predictable
Conservative Reality, and Reality
The state of the American economy, vs. conservative dystopian fantasies; How conservatives whitewash the events of January 6th, 2021; How Meta is obeying in advance by removing fact-checkers, and wondering why conservatives object to fact-checkers (where the answer is obvious); … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Narrative, Politics
Comments Off on Conservative Reality, and Reality
George Lakoff, THE POLITICAL MIND
Subtitled “Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain” (Viking, June 2008, 292pp, including 20pp of acknowledgements, notes, and index.) Note that the paperback edition from 2009 changed the subtitle to “A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Human Nature, MInd, Politics
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Knee-Jerk Conservative Reactions
Conservatives react to the incidents this past week in New Orleans and Las Vegas by blaming their favorite bogeymen. Immigrants! Diversity initiatives! Without evidence, or rationale. As conservatives reject reality, reality-based scientists are rejecting the coming conservative administration, by moving … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Politics
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Remembering Y2k; a Political Commentator admits he was wrong; Fallibilism; Reading Lakoff
Back to interesting ideas. Heather Cox Richardson recalls Y2K, 25 years ago on January 1st, and how since the problem was fixed (by the scientists and tech guys) some people felt the problem had never been real. As always, she … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Nature, Politics, Technology
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End of Year Summaries
David Brooks’ favorite essays include one about how Trump’s people have no clue about how to fix complex problems, and one about why people believe *true* things; Two pieces from The Atlantic about 77 facts from 2024, and important breakthroughs … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Politics, Science, Social Progress, Technology
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Children, Adults Who Think Like Children, and Adults Who Don’t
Trump doesn’t need to keep his promises because he’ll just claim that he has, and blame his enemies when it’s obvious he has not; How the threat of government shutdown reveals the Republicans as the party of “no”, recalling William … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology, Religion
Comments Off on Children, Adults Who Think Like Children, and Adults Who Don’t
