LQCs: The United Mentally Ill States of America? Why Would That Be?

Posted on Thursday 26 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Media Matters, 25 May 2022: Fox News blames everything but guns for Uvalde massacre

Subtitle: Fox blamed anti-police sentiment, kids afraid to snitch, flimsy fences, and psychiatry for America’s most recent school shooting

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LQCs: Gun Ideology, Immune from Evidence; Real Kids vs. Imaginary Kids

Posted on Wednesday 25 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

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LQCs: Children, Guns, and Religion

Posted on Tuesday 24 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

From NYT Letters, printed 21 May 2022:

To the Editor:

The Republican checklist after a mass shooting:

Thoughts and prayers: Check.
This is not the time: Check.
Let’s not politicize: Check.
Guns are not the problem: Check.
Just enforce the laws we have: Check.
More mental health care: Check.
(Repeat.)

Jon Merritt
Los Angeles

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Declinists and Decadence: TV/Movies? Science Fiction?

Posted on Monday 23 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Quillette, Kevin Mims, 20 May 2022: Undiminished by Decadence

Subtitle: “I grew up in the 1960s and ’70s and I’m happy to report that, for the most part, television and mainstream cinema today are orders of magnitude better than they were in my salad days.”

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LQCs: Polarization; Grooming; Sacrifice; Documentary

Posted on Sunday 22 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

My partner had never seen this movie, so we began it last night and will finish tonight.

Meanwhile, this week’s issue of The Week has a nice summary, on its “Best columns: The U.S.” page, of this Washington Post opinion piece…

Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria, 5 May 2022: The abortion battle may be the precursor to even larger struggles.

The Week‘s headline is more pertinent: “Why the U.S. is so polarized.”

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Vangelis, part 3

Posted on Saturday 21 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

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Vangelis RIP, part 2

Posted on Friday 20 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

A few more thoughts today, about Vangelis’ music.
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Vangelis RIP, post 1

Posted on Thursday 19 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

NPR, 19 May 2022: Vangelis, famed film composer and synth pioneer, dead at 79

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Musings: The Sky; Living in History

Posted on Wednesday 18 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

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LQCs: Moral Collapse, the Paranoid Style, Deflection

Posted on Tuesday 17 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

(With an endpiece.)

Paul Krugman is back from vacation.

NYT, Paul Krugman, 16 May 2022: From Voodoo to MAGA to Buffalo

I never thought I’d say this, but I miss voodoo economics.
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