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
- So Many Villains
- How the Right Is Crazy Desperate to Connect Charlie Kirk’s Killer to Things They Don’t Like
- Jerry A. Coyne: FAITH VS. FACT, post 4
- Kneejerk Accusations
- The Real Americans?
- Jerry A. Coyne: FAITH VS. FACT, post 3
- Charlie Kirk, and the Simplex Republican Mindset
- Jerry A. Coyne: FAITH VS. FACT, post 2
- Intellectual Vacuity, False Christian History, and Stories
- Jerry A. Coyne: FAITH VS. FACT, post 1
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Meta
Category Archives: Politics
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
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Distracted by Politics, Again
Eventually I’ll get to more serious subjects. Though arguably politics is the most serious subject, because politics is about psychology and that involves how humans perceive and believe everything else. But there is a reality beneath politics (or should it … Continue reading
Posted in Music, Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on Distracted by Politics, Again
AI Is Telling People What They Want to Hear?
Tom Tomorrow on “defunding the police”; The unreliability of AI, with an example of John Scalzi; An essay about how the future will be mundane; Several links on Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska; Slate’s handy summary of people in … Continue reading
Posted in authoritarianism, Politics, Technology
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