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
- Wrecking Ball Politics. Wentithy.
- These Are the Days, My Friend
- 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?
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Meta
Category Archives: Politics
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
Comments Off on Conservative Reactions to the Los Angeles Fires
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
So Are We to Live in an Authoritarian Oligarchy?
The un-elected Elon Musk seems to be running the country this week; How the Drone Panic reveals a need to believe, in *something*. So not only is our incipient administration authoritarian, it’s authoritarian and being run by an oligarch! NY … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology, Religion, Supernatural
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Psychological Underpinnings
The drone panic is about human psychology; So is the fear of vaccines. – – – Once again, the drone panic is not about drones. NY Times, Zeynep Tufekci, 19 Dec 2024: How to Make the Drone Panic So … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on Psychological Underpinnings
