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.
» Full Profile
» Facebook profile
» Previous Views from Medina Road (2003-2013)
» Blogspot Views from Medina Road (2003-2010)-
Recent Posts
- False Realities
- Political Extremes and Instability
- This Much is Reality… and This Much is Fantasy
- The Anticipation of Unintended Consequences
- Dispatches from the Real World
- The Overton Window of Deviance
- Shocked, Just Shocked
- Continuing Our Studies of Human Nature…
- Here’s a New One: Terrain Theory
- A Little Knowledge… Is a Dangerous Thing
Categories
- Aesthetics
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Astronomy
- Atheism
- Bay Area
- Bible
- Book Notes
- Cars
- Changing One's Mind
- Children
- Commonplace Book
- Conservative Resistance
- conservatives
- Conventions
- Cosmology
- Culture
- Decline
- Economics
- Education
- Epistemology
- Evolution
- Family History
- Films
- Games
- Heinlein
- History
- Human Nature
- Human Progress
- Humanism
- Humor
- Isaac Asimov
- Links
- Links & Comments
- longtermism
- Lunacy
- Mathematics
- Meaning
- MInd
- Morality
- Movies
- Music
- Musings
- Narrative
- Notes For
- Paperback Sets
- Personal history
- Pet Peeves
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Politics
- progress
- Provisional Conclusions
- Psychology
- Quote at Length
- Quotes
- Ray Bradbury
- reality
- Religion
- Reviews
- Robert Silverberg
- Robert Wright
- Science
- science fiction
- Science Fiction Nonfiction
- Short Fiction
- Silverberg
- Skiffy Flix
- Social Progress
- Space
- Species Reset
- Spirituality
- Star Trek
- Statistics
- Steven Pinker
- Supernatural
- Technology
- Ten Commandments
- The Book
- The Gays
- Thinking
- Travel
- Tribalism
- TV Sci Fi
- Uncategorized
- Website Issues
- Writing
Archives
- November 2024 (27)
- October 2024 (32)
- September 2024 (29)
- August 2024 (37)
- July 2024 (33)
- June 2024 (25)
- May 2024 (31)
- April 2024 (25)
- March 2024 (36)
- February 2024 (32)
- January 2024 (32)
- December 2023 (25)
- November 2023 (31)
- October 2023 (29)
- September 2023 (29)
- August 2023 (31)
- July 2023 (31)
- June 2023 (30)
- May 2023 (28)
- April 2023 (27)
- March 2023 (33)
- February 2023 (29)
- January 2023 (30)
- December 2022 (30)
- November 2022 (29)
- October 2022 (32)
- September 2022 (30)
- August 2022 (30)
- July 2022 (32)
- June 2022 (30)
- May 2022 (33)
- April 2022 (32)
- March 2022 (31)
- February 2022 (29)
- January 2022 (31)
- December 2021 (34)
- November 2021 (32)
- October 2021 (31)
- September 2021 (20)
- August 2021 (8)
- July 2021 (13)
- June 2021 (4)
- April 2021 (8)
- March 2021 (25)
- February 2021 (16)
- January 2021 (20)
- December 2020 (10)
- November 2020 (11)
- October 2020 (15)
- September 2020 (13)
- August 2020 (23)
- July 2020 (27)
- June 2020 (11)
- May 2020 (13)
- April 2020 (10)
- March 2020 (8)
- February 2020 (3)
- January 2020 (5)
- December 2019 (3)
- November 2019 (7)
- October 2019 (12)
- September 2019 (5)
- August 2019 (4)
- July 2019 (5)
- June 2019 (9)
- May 2019 (3)
- April 2019 (2)
- March 2019 (4)
- February 2019 (16)
- January 2019 (3)
- October 2018 (4)
- September 2018 (5)
- August 2018 (9)
- July 2018 (3)
- June 2018 (7)
- May 2018 (6)
- April 2018 (11)
- March 2018 (5)
- February 2018 (6)
- January 2018 (3)
- December 2017 (8)
- November 2017 (11)
- October 2017 (8)
- September 2017 (14)
- August 2017 (12)
- July 2017 (13)
- June 2017 (15)
- May 2017 (21)
- April 2017 (24)
- March 2017 (16)
- February 2017 (22)
- January 2017 (14)
- December 2016 (3)
- November 2016 (1)
- October 2016 (9)
- September 2016 (3)
- August 2016 (4)
- July 2016 (2)
- June 2016 (18)
- May 2016 (11)
- April 2016 (12)
- March 2016 (9)
- February 2016 (9)
- January 2016 (18)
- December 2015 (21)
- November 2015 (17)
- October 2015 (14)
- September 2015 (22)
- August 2015 (16)
- July 2015 (12)
- June 2015 (14)
- May 2015 (14)
- April 2015 (7)
- March 2015 (13)
- February 2015 (19)
- January 2015 (20)
- December 2014 (11)
- November 2014 (15)
- October 2014 (9)
- September 2014 (3)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (16)
- June 2014 (19)
- May 2014 (34)
- April 2014 (26)
- March 2014 (37)
- February 2014 (27)
- January 2014 (19)
- December 2013 (11)
- November 2013 (8)
- October 2013 (10)
- September 2013 (21)
- August 2013 (13)
- July 2013 (6)
Meta
Category Archives: Politics
No Escaping Tribal Warfare
Items today about Hasidic yeshiva schools, “common good constitutionalism,” the root cause of violent crime, and the increasingly despicable Elon Musk. We like to think modern society is more advanced than societies of thousands of years ago, and it is … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Politics
Comments Off on No Escaping Tribal Warfare
Half the Country
Quick post late in the day, mostly just copying a public Facebook post from Adam-Troy Castro, who writes novels (see pic above) but seems to be better known for his short fiction (see his sfadb.com page), and is apparently even … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on Half the Country
Current Affairs, 6 Dec 2022
Warnock v. Walker; high-IQ stupid people, with comments by David Brin and Charles P. Pierce; restaurant discrimination; and Republicans’ psychological needs.
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics
Comments Off on Current Affairs, 6 Dec 2022
Rainy Saturday; Current Affairs
It’s early December, a Saturday, and it’s been raining all day here in the Bay Area, another cold rain like the storm two days ago. We need the rain; we’re still behind average rainfall for the season. Still, the rain … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history, Politics
Comments Off on Rainy Saturday; Current Affairs
A Chilly December Evening
Topics for today: A French take on Americans; How a Narcissist Knows Nothing. No photo from either of the two linked items here seemed appropriate, so here is tonight’s sunset. In the aftermath of a rainstorm that lasted from before … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on A Chilly December Evening
Ancient Apocalypse, Odds and Ends
The “Ancient Apocalypse” nonsense; Movie trailers; Political headlines.
Links and Comments: 19 Nov 2022
About FTX and effective altruism; political examples in the spirit of the recent Borowitz book; examples of how the media covers events; and a perspective on the American economy under Republicans and Democrats. Image here: today’s sunset.
Posted in Human Progress, Politics
Comments Off on Links and Comments: 19 Nov 2022
Andy Borowitz, PROFILES IN IGNORANCE: How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber (2022)
I hesitated reading this book, because I’ve seen and heard for myself over the years the vacuous platitudes of Ronald Reagan, the jejune idiocies of Dan Quayle, the conspiratorial lies of Donald Trump. So what would be gained by reading … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Politics
Comments Off on Andy Borowitz, PROFILES IN IGNORANCE: How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber (2022)
Post-Election Blue, not Red
Context; Where we are; Connie Willis; Christian dictatorships; More MAGA than ever; Russian delicacy; Lagniappes.
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Politics
Comments Off on Post-Election Blue, not Red
The Day After Election Night, 2022
Short version: The Republicans won a few races, but there was no ‘red’ landslide as some, not just Republicans, had predicted. Though of course a few key races are going down to the wire, so control of the House and … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Politics
Comments Off on The Day After Election Night, 2022
