Category Archives: Politics

Ls&Cs: The Irrationality of Politics

Posted on Wednesday 3 November 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

The results of yesterday’s elections demonstrate several truisms about politics. My favorite take about the current elections is this: Slate, Ben Mathis-Lilley, 3 Nov 21: American Politics Are Controlled by Voters With the Memory of a Golden Retriever

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Ls&Cs: Facebook Feeds

Posted on Monday 1 November 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a NYT piece from almost a year ago, which I neglected to post at the time but which has stayed in my mind sufficiently that I tracked it down to finally post and comment about now. It’s about how … Continue reading →

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Ls&Cs: Cancel Culture; Leaf Blowers; a Smaller Population

Posted on Friday 29 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s thought: It occurs to me that “cancel culture” exists on both the left and right. The left is more apt to target individuals (Jerry Coyne responds to an attempt by the Imperial College London to rename anything named after … Continue reading →

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L&Cs: Christakis on COVID and Altruism

Posted on Saturday 23 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

A Big Picture item: what does our COVID response say about humanity’s capacity for altruism?

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Ls&Cs: Prayer Breakfasts, Social Bubbles, and Talking Too Much

Posted on Friday 22 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Why is there a National Prayer Breakfast? Why do some Christians think death is such a good thing? Is COVID to blame on Maine lobsters? Is the answer to misinformation tighter social bubbles, or simply to stop talking so much?

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Ls&Cs: Visiting Flooded Cities Simply Explained

Posted on Tuesday 19 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Water through the body; human inability to account for long-term threats; how sometimes the answers to conspiracy theories are simple.

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Ls&Cs: You Suggest Having Ice Cream, They Hate Ice Cream

Posted on Thursday 14 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

The principles of an angry 3-year-old; the anti-business party; Supreme Court justices’ motivations.

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Ls&Cs: Look at the (Economics) Evidence

Posted on Wednesday 13 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

More evidence that economics (and psychology) are becoming sciences, not just ideologies. This year’s Nobel Prizes in economics are interesting, Paul Krugman explains, because their recipients applied real-world evidence which turn out to undermine ideological economic theories that that have … Continue reading →

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Ls&Cs: Just a Few Rocks to Look At

Posted on Tuesday 5 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Catching up on one last batch of links and comments collected but not yet posted since I came home from the hospital in June. Not all of them political. And, let’s try something new: placing some kind of relevant photograph … Continue reading →

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Aug-Sep Ls&Cs: Revising the Decline of Credulous, Mansplaining Fossil Fuel Flat-Earthers and Klan Refugees

Posted on Monday 4 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

From early August through early September — back at the beginning of the “pandemic of the unvaccinated”, when Covid deaths in the US hadn’t yet reached 700,000.

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