Category Archives: Politics

Narrative as Denialism

Posted on Tuesday 10 January 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s reading is yet another example of how narratives — stories that simplify the world and make it more understandable, even if they’re completely fictional — dominate so many people’s beliefs, especially in politics, that they amount to a denial … Continue reading →

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Consumerism, and Political History

Posted on Saturday 7 January 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items today.

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The World Is Laughing

Posted on Friday 6 January 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Just one item today. It’s always cool when some remark I make in my blog is amplified the next day by a widely read newspaper columnist. Actually, two or three remarks, from recent days, in today’s column from Paul Krugman. … Continue reading →

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Recurring Themes

Posted on Thursday 5 January 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Not enough time to write a review this afternoon, so I’ll just post a few links about current events. NY Times, Charles M. Blow, 4 Jan 2023: The Burn-It-All-Down Republican Caucus

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Inmates Running Half the Asylum

Posted on Wednesday 4 January 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The news today is full of the chaos in the House of Representatives where the party in control, the Republicans, cannot elect a Speaker of the House (a position that is third in line for the presidency, after the Vice … Continue reading →

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More Year-End Summaries

Posted on Friday 30 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Three about science and tech, three about politics.

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Science, Anti-Science, and Fantasy

Posted on Wednesday 28 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

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Assorted Links from Recent Weeks

Posted on Friday 23 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

About George Santos’s fictional resume, Tucker Carlson’s year of being wrong, Avatar 2’s “ecological Indian” cliche, the hypocrisy of right-wing “free thinkers,” Thomas Frank on the lack of imagination of Democrats, DeSantis and vaccines, book banning, and two religious graphics.

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No Escaping Tribal Warfare

Posted on Monday 12 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Items today about Hasidic yeshiva schools, “common good constitutionalism,” the root cause of violent crime, and the increasingly despicable Elon Musk. We like to think modern society is more advanced than societies of thousands of years ago, and it is … Continue reading →

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Half the Country

Posted on Friday 9 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Quick post late in the day, mostly just copying a public Facebook post from Adam-Troy Castro, who writes novels (see pic above) but seems to be better known for his short fiction (see his sfadb.com page), and is apparently even … Continue reading →

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