Views from Crestmont Drive

Choice, Binary Matters, and Projection

Posted on Sunday 3 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Another cool, mostly overcast, party sunny day. This is winter in the Bay Area: lows in the 40s, highs in the 50s. We walked the Montclair Railroad Trail, and checked various shops in the village for Christmas lights. One of the strings of lights we put out on our balcony has failed. But no one in the village — not Lucky (the supermarket), not CVS or Rite-Aid — sells such lights. Well, maybe a trip to a hardware store tomorrow.

Politics and philosophy: NYT essay about how transgender matters inform our ideas about personal choice and how living a genuine life requires the possibility of regrets;
Politics and psychology: Fox News’ go-to themes for how to hook viewers on envy and fear;
More: How GOP politicians trust Walmart customers about the economy over evidence and statistics, to justify their charges against Biden;
More: And a brief item about how Fox thinks *Democrats* are destroying democracy. Projection.

NY Times, Opinion, Lydia Polgreen, 1 Dec 2023: Born This Way? Born Which Way?

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Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off

Personal Jesus and Other Fantasies

Posted on Saturday 2 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

How Russia is cracking down on the Gay Rights Movement, just as American evangelicals would like to do;
A laughable debate about whether the Earth is flat or round, based on Biblical theology;
A take on the economy that suggests that people forget what ‘normal’ looks like;
How George Santos got away with it: voters care more about politicians’ demeanor than what they say;
What to tell kids about Santa Claus, from two developmental psychologists, who don’t extend their ideas into adulthood;
Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”.

NY Times, news article, 30 Nov 2023 (printed in yesterday’s paper, 1 Dec): Russia Declares Gay Rights Movement as ‘Extremist’, subtitled “Activists said the designation could put L.G.B.T.Q. people and their organizations under threat of criminal prosecution for something as simple as displaying the rainbow flag.”

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Posted in conservatives, Economics, Music, Psychology, The Gays | Comments Off

Newsom, DeSantis, Santos, and the Threat of a Trump Dictatorship

Posted on Friday 1 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Political and religious/political items today.

The Newsom/DeSantis debate;
The expulsion of George Santos;
How ‘moderates’ like Nikki Haley would also eviscerate the government (i.e. what “draining the swamp” means to Republicans);
Short items about DeSantis’ Bible; how inflation is fault of people who complain about it buying so much stuff; Christian Nationalism falsehoods; two about the impending Trump dictatorship; Michael Johnson and Kirk Cameron and Scholastic Book Fairs; and Dr. Fauci’s concern about the extreme anti-LGBTQ+ movement.

Salon, Heather Digby Parton, 1 Dec 2023: Newsom humiliates DeSantis on Fox News, subtitled “California Gov. Gavin Newsom not only stood up for his state but made a great case for Joe Biden on Fox News”

I didn’t watch it. Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off

Con Men and Bespoke Realities

Posted on Thursday 30 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

End of November. The sun sets early; the house is chillier. We have our thermostat set to 68. And I think I’m approaching the finishing of one of my long-term projects. And still working on another.

Adam Frank on learning skepticism by growing up in New Jersey in the 1970s, and learning about con men;
David French on bespoke realities.

Big Think, Adam Frank, 30 Nov 2023: The most important lesson about being a scientist I learned in New Jersey, subtitled “I grew up in New Jersey in the 1970s and that experience gave me everything I needed to become a skeptic.”

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Posted in Psychology, Science | Comments Off

Bathing, Evidence, Control, Dating, Social Security

Posted on Wednesday 29 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Why daily bathing (just like trying to kill every germ in sight) may not be healthy;
Items about Republican admissions they don’t have evidence for their claims; how they take credit for what they voted against; how the party of limited government wants to control the every move of women seeking abortions; how Republican voters don’t seem to care about Trump’s plan to subvert democracy;
Amanda Marcotte on how guys who support Trump have difficulty on the dating market;
Robert Reich on Nikki Haley’s plan to gut Social Security.

Here’s one of those stories I find interesting for its counter-intuitive claim.

Big Think, Derek Beres, Oct 2020, updated Nov 2023: A physician didn’t shower for 5 years. Here’s what he found out, subtitled “‘Less is better’ is not a catchy marketing slogan, but one doctor who didn’t shower for five years thinks there’s a lot of truth to it.”

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Posted in conservatives, Culture, Evolution, Politics | Comments Off

Last Questions and Possible Answers, 4

Posted on Tuesday 28 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

This is my fourth and likely last post, following this one in March and this one in June, and this one eight days ago, in which I consider the John Brockman book The Last Unknowns, in which he gathers deep unanswered questions about “the universe, the mind, the future of civilization, and the meaning of life” from numerous scientists and philosophers and other of the “smartest people on the planet.”

This installment includes discussions of:

The issues with living a thousand years;
Humanity’s addiction to religion;
The differences between knowledge, understanding, and wisdom;
The basic question: Why?
And many other philosophical conundrums

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Human Progress, Philosophy, Religion, Science, science fiction | Comments Off

I Don’t Know. Not Everything has Meaning. And Nihilism. Not What You Think.

Posted on Monday 27 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Essay by Anne Lamott about what she’s learned at age 69;
NYT’s Brad Stulberg about traumatic experiences and finding, or not, new meaning;
A summary of my recent thinking about the narrative bias, metaphor, and “meaning”;
Considering what “nihilism” is and is not;
Revisiting Derek Muller’s Veritasium video about “Our Greatest Delusion.”

Washington Post, Anne Lamott, 20 Nov 2023: Opinion | At 33, I knew everything. At 69, I know something much more important.

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Posted in Meaning, Philosophy | Comments Off

End of Thanksgiving Weekend

Posted on Sunday 26 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Late afternoon, Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. Just finished putting lights up on our two second floor balconies, that should come on automatically an dusk. — 5:10pm, they’ve just come on. Oops, except for one string that came on only half-way. Sigh.

Beginning this post at 4:30pm to read some newspaper and web pieces I’ve captured links to but not yet read.

Why George Santos and those like him lie about nonsense;
How social media warps views about the American economy;
How the culture war’s claims that comedy is being suppressed isn’t true;
How young Americans don’t trust religion, or anything else;
And listening to Radiohead’s In Rainbows.

NY Times, Elizabeth Spiers, 24 Nov 2023: The Very Good Reason People Like George Santos Lie About Nonsense

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Posted in conservatives, Music, Personal history, Politics, Religion | Comments Off

Just ’cause you feel it / Doesn’t mean it’s there

Posted on Saturday 25 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Comments about that article that distinguished between “liberals” and “progressives”;
Yet another piece about how “voters feel one way about the economy but act differently”;
An historical overview about how the US economy is no longer the greatest in history;
Music from Radiohead: “There, there”. “Just ’cause you feel it, doesn’t mean it’s there.” Keying to a central theme on this blog.

Relatives in town for a busy Thanksgiving weekend, but I think I have an hour or two to post a few substantial items now.