Ls&Qs&Cs: Regressive Agendas

Posted on Tuesday 22 February 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Three posts today about versions of the Republican agenda.

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Science | Comments Off on Ls&Qs&Cs: Regressive Agendas

Ls&Cs: Trust, Doom, Errors, Science Fiction

Posted on Monday 21 February 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Issues today from the NYT letters page, about trust in government and humanity’s doom, and about theological errors. With an endpiece about science fiction reviewing…

Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Politics, Religion, science fiction | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Trust, Doom, Errors, Science Fiction

Montclair Railroad Trail

Posted on Sunday 20 February 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Saturday, per my recent policy to find locations for weekend walks or hikes that we’ve never been to, I found something called the Montclair Railroad trail, shown on the map here (click to enlarge):

Continue reading →

Posted in Personal history | Comments Off on Montclair Railroad Trail

SF and politics; Trek; Retconning; More on Wordle

Posted on Saturday 19 February 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Coincident to yesterday’s post is this essay today in Salon.

Salon, Kyle Galindez, 19 Feb 2022: Why can’t sci-fi and fantasy imagine alternatives to capitalism or feudalism?, subtitled, “The limitless imagination of genre novelists hits a roadblock when it comes to envisioning other political systems.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Narrative, Politics, science fiction | Comments Off on SF and politics; Trek; Retconning; More on Wordle

Berlin in 1993; The Dark 21st Century; Wordle

Posted on Friday 18 February 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s L&Qs&Cs, about where the 21st century is heading after the optimism of the 1990s, with a recollection about being in Berlin in 1993. Today’s endpiece, about Wordle.

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Games, Music, Personal history, Social Progress | Comments Off on Berlin in 1993; The Dark 21st Century; Wordle

Ls&Cs: How the Right Counts on Conspiracy Theories

Posted on Thursday 17 February 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Links today about how conspiracy theories advantage the right, and how this implicitly acknowledges that conservatives can’t win elections based on positions, arguments, or values.

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Psychology | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: How the Right Counts on Conspiracy Theories

Timothy Snyder, ON TYRANNY (2017)

Posted on Wednesday 16 February 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: “Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” and published in February 2017 by Tim Duggan Books.

This is the third book I’ve read or reread recently with a numbered agenda, following the Zakaria book covered in previous post, and Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, posted here.

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Politics | Comments Off on Timothy Snyder, ON TYRANNY (2017)

Fareed Zakaria, TEN LESSONS FOR A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD (2020)

Posted on Tuesday 15 February 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s the next book with a numbered agenda up for summary (following Harari’s 21 Lessons). It came out in October 2020, with journalistic promptness just six or seven months after the beginning of the lockdown, though before vaccines became available in early 2021. (The author is a CNN correspondent who’s also written a couple books.)

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Science | Comments Off on Fareed Zakaria, TEN LESSONS FOR A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD (2020)

L&Qs&Cs: The Unfortunate Built-In Trend of American Politics

Posted on Monday 14 February 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Vox, Ian Millhiser, 14 Feb 2022: Why Democrats can’t get a fair shake in the Supreme Court, in one chart, subtitled, “Republicans get their dream nominees, while Democrats struggle to confirm moderates.”

The core issue is the familiar one that every state gets two senators, so that almost empty states like Wyoming are as well-represented in the Senate as a populous state like California.
Continue reading →

Posted in Links & Comments, Politics | Comments Off on L&Qs&Cs: The Unfortunate Built-In Trend of American Politics

Albany Mudflats and Bulb, and Costco

Posted on Sunday 13 February 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Today we went for a walk along the Berkeley bay shore, thinking to avoid traffic by setting off while that big football game everyone is talking about was playing. But we weren’t paying close attention and left about half an hour before the game began, so we still encountered traffic, on the freeways from home over to the edge of the bay in Berkeley.
Continue reading →

Posted in Personal history | Comments Off on Albany Mudflats and Bulb, and Costco