Category Archives: Human Nature

Johan Norberg, PROGRESS

Posted on Tuesday 3 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future (UK: Oneworld, Oct 2016, 246pp, including 28pp notes, acknowledgements, and index) Rather as I did with Rutger Bregman a few days, here’s an author who has a new book out recently, … Continue reading →

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The MAHA Veil, Cruelty, and What Trump Supporters are Teaching their Children

Posted on Thursday 26 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

The Bulwark, Jonathan V. Last, 26 Feb 2026: Behind the MAHA Veil, subtitled “It’s not about transparency or choice. It’s not even about ‘natural health’ It’s about making everyone else take their quack cures.” The other day I mentioned in … Continue reading →

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Rutger Bregman: HUMANKIND

Posted on Wednesday 25 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “A Hopeful History” (2019 Dutch; 2020 Little, Brown, xviii+461pp, including 64pp acknowledgements, notes, and index) Still catching up posting about big books I’ve read in recent years. This book came out in 2020 (in the US) and I blogged … Continue reading →

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Does ICE need to come and track you down?

Posted on Tuesday 24 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s all about whether humanity is stuck in tribalistic human nature, or whether, through principles, rules and laws, and agreed-upon values, we can transcend our base instincts. (And, perhaps, become a global civilization, and reach for the stars, as science … Continue reading →

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Competence vs. Competition

Posted on Monday 23 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

As I finish this post, let me see if I can squeeze this in. I’ve never been all that interested in sports, of any kind. I do watch the Olympics, to see performances of skill and beauty, but I don’t … Continue reading →

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Another Take on the Left/Right Divide

Posted on Sunday 22 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Busy day yesterday with events in the city. Stopped at Borderlands Books for the first time in years. Yes, they do carry the SF magazines, but not yet the Jan/Feb issues of Analog and Asimov’s, let alone Mar/Apr. \\\ Here’s … Continue reading →

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Whatever They Can Get Away With

Posted on Friday 20 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Short items today Trump’s move to demolish greenhouse gas standards is based on a (admittedly technical) lie; America is experiencing a tourism slump (because… one guess); About Trump’s “cartoonish” monuments to himself; How Trump makes his own voters suffer; How … Continue reading →

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Are There Superior Civilizations?

Posted on Wednesday 18 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Reactions to a speech by Marco Rubio claiming the superiority of Western Civilization over all others, by Bret Stephens, Eliot A. Cohen, Jamelle Bouie; Noting again Jared Diamond, who explained decades ago why the fact that the Enlightenment et al … Continue reading →

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Religious Motivations

Posted on Tuesday 17 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Jerry Coyne challenges claims of a religious revival in America; Review of a book called “Why I Am Not an Atheist” by Christopher Beha; And a NYT essay by author Christopher Beha. – – – A couple items about religion … Continue reading →

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The Clash Within

Posted on Sunday 15 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How there isn’t a clash of civilizations (e.g. Christian vs. Muslim) so much as a clash between modernity and those who resent it: WOKE vs MAGA; Items about ensuring the “right” people will vote, the erosion of the separation of … Continue reading →

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