Category Archives: Music

Political Retributions, and Values

Posted on Tuesday 3 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Three and a half years after my heart and kidney transplants, I’m doing fine; About Biden’s pardon of his son, and the impending takeover of the FBI to pursue retribution; Robert Reich understands why he did it; Yet another essay … Continue reading →

Posted in Lunacy, Music, Narrative, Politics | Comments Off on Political Retributions, and Values

Stories Are Not Evidence

Posted on Wednesday 18 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

Posted in Economics, Lunacy, Music, Narrative, Politics | Comments Off on Stories Are Not Evidence

Today’s Examples of Tribal Antics

Posted on Monday 5 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Sometimes the antics of the tribalists are on the front page of the New York Times, two days in a row. Though that shouldn’t be surprising, given that they’re half the population. Today’s topics: Trump’s latest attacks against Harris; How … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Music, Politics | Comments Off on Today’s Examples of Tribal Antics

Life carries on and on and on and on

Posted on Tuesday 23 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Heather Cox Richardson taking a future historian’s perspective on recent political events; The irony of Republicans accusing Democrats of staging a coup; Paul Krugman on how Republican accusation of immigrants taking away “black jobs” is wrong in so many ways; … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Politics | Comments Off on Life carries on and on and on and on

So we cheated and we lied and we tested

Posted on Monday 8 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump’s dementia; The Heritage Foundation’s threat of violence unless they get their way; And a graphic from Fb: “If you don’t scream, I won’t hurt you”; Trump disavows Project 2025; And a song by Crosby, Stills & Nash. Continuing from … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Music, Politics | Comments Off on So we cheated and we lied and we tested

Once You See It

Posted on Saturday 6 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How issues in politics 100 years ago resemble those of today; How Republicans and Democrats live in radically different universes; What the “genius” of the American Founders were thinking; Zbigniew Preisner’s film score for Damage Once you see it, or … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Nature, Morality, Music, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Once You See It

Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 3

Posted on Monday 24 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Summaries and comments about three more chapters of Steven Pinker’s THE BLANK SLATE; And YouTube tracks from one of my favorite film scores: Richard Robbins’ for The Remains of the Day. I’ll try to get through the rest of book … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Music, Science, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 3

Beware Intuition and Common Sense

Posted on Tuesday 18 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Three tracks today: Steven Pinker on how democracy and enlightenment values are not intuitive (even though they’ve led to the betterment of humanity); Items about conservative meanings of ‘truth’ and ‘facts’; how evangelicals think sex is only for purposes of … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Music, Politics, Science | Comments Off on Beware Intuition and Common Sense

Politics as Fantasy, as Competing Stories

Posted on Tuesday 11 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Three topics for today. The Hunter Biden verdict this morning, and how conservatives explain it to fit their conspiracy theories; Religious dimwittery about installing the Ten Commandments into schools; and Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito’s presumptuous allegiance to Christian godliness … Continue reading →

Posted in Morality, Music, Narrative, Politics | Comments Off on Politics as Fantasy, as Competing Stories

Guilty Guilty Guilty; Over and Over and Over

Posted on Thursday 30 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump found guilty today on 34 charges; we oldsters remember the Doonsbury cartoon about Nixon: “Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!”, which is apropos here; With a comment from David Brin, who has been saying the same things about Republicans, over and over … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Music, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Guilty Guilty Guilty; Over and Over and Over