Category Archives: Religion

What Is American Exceptionalism, Really?

Posted on Thursday 26 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Lydia Polgreen on how the problem isn’t Trump, it’s America; David French wonders if America is so rich, why are Americans so miserable? Faith that climate change isn’t real; Short items: that classic poll against Arabic numerals; how people who … Continue reading →

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Again, Living in History

Posted on Tuesday 24 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How America has become a dangerous nation; How Christian Nationalists really do want to destroy their political enemies; What that poll about MAGA supporting Trump 100% really means; Brief items about the Supreme Court, a quote from Kurt Andersen about … Continue reading →

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What It Means to Think That God Is On Your Side

Posted on Saturday 21 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Concerning Hegseth, Trump, and Rubio; Also, how do religious sects decide when to reinterpret their scriptures? Items about 100% approval, teleportation, church/state separation, and uncounted COVID deaths; FBers compare reactions to Charlie Kirk’s death to Trump’s reaction to Robert Mueller’s … Continue reading →

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The War, the Economy, and Religion

Posted on Wednesday 18 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Yet more commentators on the stupidity of this war with Iran, from Adam Lee, Suzanne Maloney, and Susan B. Glasser; How the economies under Biden and Trump aren’t that much different; Brief items about why conservatives need guns, Christian Nationalists … Continue reading →

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What Western Civilization is Actually About

Posted on Saturday 14 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Francis Fukuyama, responding to Marco Rubio, on how Western Civilization is more about the Enlightenment than religious faith; And Boston Globe via Steven Pinker on that Tennessee congressman’s anti-Muslim screed; Briefly noted items about Trump’s shoe tests and their Soviet … Continue reading →

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Certainty is the Enemy

Posted on Tuesday 10 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

And Trump is certain about his own moral authority; And how the long-anticipated End Times have yet to appear; Paul Krugman on how Pete Hegseth is being deliberately dumb; Short items about Erika Kirk, Hegseth’s Bible reading, money spent on … Continue reading →

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Gullicism and Literacy

Posted on Monday 9 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Adam Serwer on our “gullible, cynical” America, a condition he dubs “gullicism”; And how this is an absence of “literacy” about how the world actually works; Why everyone thinking “God is on our side” is a problem; John Pavlovitz answers … Continue reading →

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Morality, War, Science, Persecution

Posted on Saturday 7 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Robert Reich on the moral basis of civilization, and how Trump is destroying it; And Reich on how Trump is paying for the war, and giving the rich a huge tax cut; More about the undermining of America’s scientific expertise; … Continue reading →

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You Can Fool Some of the People All of the Time

Posted on Wednesday 4 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump can’t stop telling on himself; Christian media sees the Iran war as signalling the second coming, or the End Times; And some of them want mass deportation of American Muslims; How ICE ‘loses’ property yet finds it when challenged; … Continue reading →

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Whatever They Can Get Away With

Posted on Friday 20 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Short items today Trump’s move to demolish greenhouse gas standards is based on a (admittedly technical) lie; America is experiencing a tourism slump (because… one guess); About Trump’s “cartoonish” monuments to himself; How Trump makes his own voters suffer; How … Continue reading →

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