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.
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» Previous Views from Medina Road (2003-2013)
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- Wrecking Crews and Historical Cycles
- A Couple Interesting Things About Reality
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- This Much is Reality… and This Much is Fantasy
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- The Overton Window of Deviance
- Shocked, Just Shocked
- Continuing Our Studies of Human Nature…
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Meta
Category Archives: Politics
Links and Comments: Bubbles and B.S.
Trump’s performance at the second vice-presidential debate indicated to numerous people that all he knows about the world are conspiracy-mongering talking points from Fox News and other right wing sites. In some cases all you have to do is read … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Politics, Social Progress
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Bubbles and B.S.
Links and Comments: Against Trump; Roe v. Wade and Personal Choices; Scientists and Stories
Sunday’s NYT Opinion section — typically 10 or 12 pages — was devoted entirely to spelling out (yet again!) why Trump is such an awful president: End Our National Crisis, subtitled “The Case Against Donald Trump.” One section of which … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Narrative, Politics, Science
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Against Trump; Roe v. Wade and Personal Choices; Scientists and Stories
Links and Comments: Sides of History; Myths and Lies; Voting Inequities
Washington Post: Trump brought data from the Fox News universe to a debate centered in reality How Trump, and Fox News (in particular Laura Ingraham), lie with statistics, as the article explains in great detail. It’s all spin, aimed at … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Progress, Politics
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Sides of History; Myths and Lies; Voting Inequities
Links and Comments: Make-Believe worlds and Donald Trump and his supporters
As evidence for my thoughts, in this post Notes for the Book: Magical Thinking, Cognitive Dissonance, Group-Thinking, about how many people live in a kind of make-believe world, for reasons of group solidarity, and despite the inevitable cognitive dissonance with … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Make-Believe worlds and Donald Trump and his supporters
Links and Comments: Abortion, and Mayor Pete
Here’s a transcript of a portion of an interview with Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who ran for the Democratic nomination for president earlier this year. This transcript has been floating around for months, and when … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Abortion, and Mayor Pete
Links and Comments: Cognitive Dissonance and Fox News
As if on cue, following my past few posts, here’s a NY Times columnist today on Why Fox News Is Still in a Coronavirus Bubble. Subtitle: “Humans will do figure eights to make facts suit their fictions. Laura Ingraham and … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Cognitive Dissonance and Fox News
Links and Comments: Republican denial of coronavirus; Trump’s narcissism; Cults and cognitive dissonance
Washington Post: The GOP’s coronavirus denialism finally catches up with its leaders, by traditionally conservative writer Max Boot. He responds to a tweet, by a Republican. “Does anyone else find it odd,” she wrote Friday, “that no prominent Democrats have … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Republican denial of coronavirus; Trump’s narcissism; Cults and cognitive dissonance
Links and Comments: The Debate; Trump and Christians; No Back to Normal
So much to keep up with! The debate last Tuesday. NYT Editorial: A Debate That Can’t Be Ignored. Subtitle: “Americans need to face the man who is their president.” The debate was excruciating to watch for anyone who loves this … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology, Religion
Comments Off on Links and Comments: The Debate; Trump and Christians; No Back to Normal
Links and Comments: America’s Reputation; Facebook; Cognitive Dissonance
NY Times, 25 Sept.: I Feel Sorry for Americans’: A Baffled World Watches the U.S.. Subtitle: “From Myanmar to Canada, people are asking: How did a superpower allow itself to be felled by a virus? And why won’t the president … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology, Technology
Comments Off on Links and Comments: America’s Reputation; Facebook; Cognitive Dissonance
Links and Comments: Trump’s would-be theocratic regime; the perfidy of Fox News
How is it Republicans and Christians see no problem with this? Patheos.com: Leading SCOTUS Candidate Amy Coney Barrett Claims Bible Precedes Constitution. [Later edit: well of course the Bible literally precedes the Constitution in the sense that it came first, … Continue reading
