Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly

Sinéad O’Connor, and That Small Town Song

Posted on Thursday 27 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Recalling Sinéad O’Connor.

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Horror and Exasperation

Posted on Wednesday 26 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

How young people are progressive, a problem for the GOP; Thomas Edsall on Republican and Democratic attitudes about masculinity; Climate experts express “horror and exasperation as global predictions play out”. Sometimes you have to wonder what conservatives are conserving. On … Continue reading →

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Demographic Shifts

Posted on Tuesday 25 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Issues with the increasing number of old people in the US; Issues with the fragmentation of evangelical churches. Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams, 23 Jul 2023: Live long and flounder: An aging expert on the looming crisis of our longer lifespans, … Continue reading →

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Gays, Small Towns, Climate Change Backlash

Posted on Monday 24 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The increased visibility of L.G.B.T.Q. people as a sign of progress in a multicultural global society; Versus the sentiments of a country song called “Try That in a Small Town”; And global backlash against climate change policies as an indictment … Continue reading →

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Three Philosophical/Scientific Matters

Posted on Sunday 23 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m spending most of today’s blog hour doing some housekeeping on the blog itself. For today’s post, just one item, sorta deep, sorta light. Big Think, Scotty Hendricks, 18 Jul 2023: 3 advances in philosophy that made science better, subtitled … Continue reading →

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Living in History

Posted on Saturday 22 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

We’re living through the hottest month and year in history. And it’s only going to get worse; Wondering why Trump fans adore him despite his incoherency and insincerity; And how conservative objections to LGBTQ books in a San Diego library … Continue reading →

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Scientific Reality and Ideological Imagination

Posted on Friday 21 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Reality check about warp drives; Reality perspective about the Kardashev ladder; My evolving ideas about traditional vs. honest science fiction; How the latest conservative panic appears in the new film Sound of Freedom; How House Republicans are openly discriminating against … Continue reading →

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Debates, the Political Divide, and Savannah Morality

Posted on Thursday 20 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Again, why debating is performance art and not about arriving at truth; How the political divide is mostly about hatred on the right toward the left; How all of this makes sense given understanding of basic human nature, the “Savannah” … Continue reading →

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Conservative Politics and the Flaws of Human Nature

Posted on Wednesday 19 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

How linguistic anthropology and narrative psychology explain the appeal of Trump and other right-wing authoritarians; Why that everyone, not just conservatives, is pessimistic about the world, despite the evidence, is more evidence of how human nature, shaped in humanity’s ancestral … Continue reading →

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Dictatorship and the Rejection of Democracy

Posted on Tuesday 18 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Reactions to yesterday’s NYT piece about Republican plans to make Trump a dictator, abandoning the Founding Father’s idea of a democracy with a balance of powers; Climate change as precisely a subject that *should* be politicized, if politics is anything … Continue reading →

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