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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» Previous Views from Medina Road (2003-2013)
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Recent Posts
- People Would Rather Believe Than Know
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- A Couple Interesting Things About Reality
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- This Much is Reality… and This Much is Fantasy
- The Anticipation of Unintended Consequences
- Dispatches from the Real World
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Meta
Category Archives: Conservative Resistance
Cynicism, Lies, Incompetence
Recalling Reagan and his cynicism about the government; And lies about Hurricane Helene response, climate change, and about everything over one 24-hour period; My anticipation of how long it will take for Trump fans to realize how incompetent and moronic … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Human Nature, Lunacy
Comments Off on Cynicism, Lies, Incompetence
The Real Trump Mystery, and My Explanation
Thomas B. Edsall on The Real Trump Mystery, and how base human nature explains this; Fareed Zakaria on how Trump’s economic ideas would stunt growth and spur inflation; Because Trump doesn’t understand money; Short items about Roseanne Barr accusing Democrats … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Economics, Human Nature, Politics, Psychology, Religion
Comments Off on The Real Trump Mystery, and My Explanation
Reality v Tribal Solidarity
How Fox News denies reality, because that’s what their fans want to hear; NYT on Trump and the condemnations by those who’ve known him; How Trump’s promise to round up immigrants echoes what Putin is doing; Adam Lee on historical … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Tribalism
Comments Off on Reality v Tribal Solidarity
Utopias, Dystopias, and Tribalism
Follow-up to yesterday’s topic about utopias and dystopias, and Star Trek; How Trump and Vance have no idea about the reasons for Obamacare; Robert Reich on how Trump appeals to base hatefulness; Charles M. Blow on Trump’s bigger agenda; And … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Economics, Star Trek
Comments Off on Utopias, Dystopias, and Tribalism
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
Comments Off on Education vs. Conservatives
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
Comments Off on Distrust of Science and of Public Schools
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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Friends and Neighbors, Conformity vs. Liberty
How the Walz/Vance debate revealed two different views of America: conformity v liberty; How we depend on friends and neighbors, and Oprah’s DNC speech; How morality evolved, and religion merely captured it; Brief items about crowd sizes and looks; taking … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Culture, Politics, Religion
Comments Off on Friends and Neighbors, Conformity vs. Liberty
Things That Don’t Change
In particular, the reactions by conservatives to things that do change. Topics today: Illegals and the military; How poor poll results must be fake; The American struggle between reason and ignorance; How one small town is indeed deeply conservative; Considering … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Politics
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Weird and Demented
The weird news story of the day is something Trump said yesterday at a press conference in Florida. Here’s the first place I saw it: Salon, Nandika Chatterjee, 9 Aug 2024: “I call complete B.S.”: Trump made up a story … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics
Comments Off on Weird and Demented
