Monthly Archives: July 2017

Links and Comments: Trump’s anti-intellectualism; ‘religious liberty’

Posted on Monday 31 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon, Conor Lynch: Draining the swamp — of brainpower: Trump’s corrupt administration is fueled by anti-intellectualism. Subtitle: “Trump got elected by attacking ‘elites.’ But he didn’t mean rich people — only those with education and expertise” Well of course. Only in … Continue reading →

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Link and Comment: What a Contemptible Person

Posted on Monday 31 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Right Wing Watch: David Barton Blames Gay People For High Health Care Costs “The most expensive health care cost in America right now, by far, individually, is for homosexuals. They cost more in the system than any other, hands down.” … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Rules to Escape Trump’s Moral Rot; Escaping New Atheism(?); Optimistic Nihilism

Posted on Monday 31 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

William Saletan, at Slate, takes inspiration from John McCain’s recent speech, during last week’s health care debate: Words to Live By. Subtitle: “McCain’s speech gives us a map for escaping the moral rot of Trumpism.” He says, “To escape the … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Culture, Meaning | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Rules to Escape Trump’s Moral Rot; Escaping New Atheism(?); Optimistic Nihilism

The Best of the Tyrants: TOS #23: “Space Seed”

Posted on Wednesday 26 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

The Enterprise discovers a “sleeper ship” full of hibernating superhuman refugees from 1990s Earth, whose leader tries to take over the Enterprise. This is a classic episode – even disregarding its inspiration for the second Trek movie – with a … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Conservative Authoritarianism, Mysticism, and Selective History

Posted on Wednesday 26 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Right Wing Watch: Breitbart Editor: The Goal Is The ‘Full Destruction And Elimination Of The Entire Mainstream Media’ That is, an authoritarian, conservative government that determines the truth, and no one else is allowed to say respond or criticize, or … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Science and Science Fiction

Posted on Wednesday 26 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Harvard Business Review: Why Business Leaders Need to Read More Science Fiction. Science fiction can help. Maybe you associate it with spaceships and aliens, but science fiction offers more than escapism. By presenting plausible alternative realities, science fiction stories empower … Continue reading →

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Curious Play

Posted on Monday 24 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

On Saturday we saw the play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”, on its US National Tour leg just ending here in San Francisco, with a different cast than the Broadway version, or any previous version, but … Continue reading →

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Mrs. McPherson’s Antidote to Despair

Posted on Thursday 20 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

my husband is dead and it’s lonely now      though still i enjoy the bright sun in my morning kitchen where i      sit and drink coffee and remember. the kids are gone off with their own      lives and … Continue reading →

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More from Cory Doctorow’s Locus Interview

Posted on Monday 17 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

While editing the ‘excerpts’ from Cory Doctorow’s long interview in the current issue of Locus Magazine, excerpts that I posted online on Sunday (here), I captured several other passages from that interview that particularly appeal to the themes of this … Continue reading →

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George Lakoff on the Conservative Moral Hierarchy

Posted on Friday 14 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Retired UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff answers Two Questions About Trump and Republicans that Stump Progressives, a piece that has gotten some circulation the past couple weeks. The questions are: 1) Why don’t Trump supporters turn against Trump even though … Continue reading →

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