Category Archives: Culture

Borders and the Fringe

Posted on Tuesday 3 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A speculation by Adam Lee about what will happen when we give up national borders; Items from the fringe about Trump’s three rules; Musk’s preference for high status males; Christian nonsense about evolution; simply lying about the Arlington story; and … Continue reading →

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Cory Doctorow on Marshmallow Longtermism

Posted on Monday 2 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

I read Cory Doctorow’s latest column for Locus Magazine last week, when I browsed through my advance PDF copy of the September issue. It’s a fascinating piece that considers the difference between the political left and the political right in … Continue reading →

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Lukianoff & Haidt, THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND

Posted on Sunday 1 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a book that was published six years ago this month, and which I read one year ago last month. Subtitle: “How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure” (Penguin Press, Sept. 2018, 338pp, including … Continue reading →

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Infrastructure, the Constitution, Changing Minds, and Fringe Items

Posted on Saturday 31 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How expanding America’s highways doesn’t solve their congestion; Ten ways the heat is changing us, including impacts on the infrastructure; Another perspective on issues with the US Constitution; Changing minds, appeals to fear, or persuasion; Fringe items about a fake … Continue reading →

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Robert Reich, THE COMMON GOOD

Posted on Friday 30 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s another shortish book I read recently, not a memoir but a book at the intersection of politics, morality, and human nature, which is itself another theme of my reading the past two or three years. It’s by Robert Reich, … Continue reading →

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About Expanding the Human Population

Posted on Monday 26 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items today on this topic, first an essay in NY Times, then a letters column today responding to it. I addressed a similar piece Saturday. Here’s the NYT essay. NY Times, Victor Kumar, a philosophy professor at Boston University, … Continue reading →

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Friends and Neighbors, Conformity vs. Liberty

Posted on Thursday 22 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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Sebastian Junger: FREEDOM

Posted on Wednesday 21 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Then I looked over my shelves to see if there was some other memoir type book, preferably short, that I could read before returning to another big science tome. I found this, by the same author as TRIBE, which I … Continue reading →

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Tara Westover: EDUCATED: A MEMOIR

Posted on Monday 19 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

And here’s a third memoir I read recently, inspired by that NYT list — though in this case, the book didn’t place on the final list, though it was nominated by a couple of the 500 contributors who revealed their … Continue reading →

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Things That Don’t Change

Posted on Sunday 18 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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