Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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Meta
Monthly Archives: September 2024
Alarmism About Culture
A disgruntled French intellectual on “deculturation” sounds a lot like MAGA; Shorter items about how a mother died due to Georgia’s abortion ban; how conservatives see everything they don’t like is a judgement from their God; how Trump supporters are … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Culture, Economics, Politics
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Stories Are Not Evidence
How the right “creates stories” to support their worldview (i.e. they’re all about motivated reasoning); Paul Krugman on Trump, tariffs, Stalin, and Lysenko; Items about DeSantis cheating and which party is the party of violence; Items about a brain fever … Continue reading
Passages from Brian Greene and Richard Dawkins
How unusual is this? An esteemed scientist, Brian Greene, with an Opinion piece in a major paper. (I just reviewed his book UNTIL THE END OF TIME ending here.) Washington Post, Brian Greene, 16 Sep 2024: Opinion | Decades later, … Continue reading
Education vs. Conservatives
Why should a ‘diverse’ campus include conservatives who are essentially against education? Paul Krugman on the eternal demonization of immigrants by conservatives; Short items about Vance’s fantasies, his aim simply to get media attention, and Trump’s clueless accusations about harsh … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Education, Politics
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Distrust of Science and of Public Schools
Thomas B. Edsall on the roots of MAGA’s distrust of science; Hemant Mehta on evangelicals and public schools. NY Times, guest essay by Thomas B. Edsall, 11 Sep 2024: MAGA vs. Science Is No Contest [Gift Link] I’ve mentioned before … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Education, Religion, Science
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Regression Toward the Tribal
Let’s see now. Here we are in the 21st century. In the past 500 years humankind has shown remarkable progress on two parallel fronts. Along governance: no longer was the divine right of kings (or tribal leaders) recognized; rather, principles … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Epistemology, History, Human Progress, Politics, Science
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Fear vs. Hope
An essay about “contrasting views of reality” by the American right and the left; Short items about MAGA and pets; Republicans and raunch; Laura Loomer; Buttigieg explains Trump; Lance Wallnau blames witchcraft; and Trump’s new big lie about crime; And … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Politics, Psychology
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The Debate, Politics, and Science
How Kamala Harris defended fracking and did not properly address climate change; How nothing about science came up in the debate; Short items: How MAGA will fall for anything; how Trumps confessed he’s unprepared; how the GOP has become the … Continue reading
Easily Baited
Last night’s debate between Trump and Harris was certainly more entertaining than the debate a couple months ago between Trump and Biden. NY Times, Opinion, 11 Sep 2024: ‘Trump Brought Darkness; Harris Brought Light’: 14 Writers on Who Won the … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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Lies Absurd, and Telling
The latest absurd Republican lie is about cat-eating Haitians, and they don’t care whether it’s true or not, they know it will rile up their base; A Republican suggests that the Great Depression was planned; An article that quotes Republican … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Morality, Politics
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