Category Archives: Politics

Primitive Morality, Stories, Politics

Posted on Friday 22 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Oklahoma and child marriage: an example of how modern morality is not (and should not be) beholden to the Bible; A Yuval Noah Harari video on how cooperation throughout human history requires common stories, e.g. religions; An economic experiment that … Continue reading →

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Settling Back Into the Middle Ages

Posted on Sunday 17 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How the US is sliding back into the Middle Ages: demons, teleportation, religious practice; re-enchantment or cognitive limitations? Where real enchantment lies; About the prayer festival on the National Mall; The “universe” of Christianity; Two items about St. Paul. – … Continue reading →

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The World Marches On, With or Without the US

Posted on Saturday 16 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

An idea to anticipate, not react to, car accidents; How American under Trump and MAGA is moving exactly backwards in dependence on fossil fuels; Florida is whitewashing the history of slavery; Men who want women to be quiet: this idea … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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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