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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Meta
Category Archives: Politics
DNC and Late August Goings-On
Last night was the end of the Democratic National Convention, with Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech as nominee for president, and it’s been well-covered in all the news media. Most of us thought Harris did quite well, as she bridged from … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history, Politics
Comments Off on DNC and Late August Goings-On
Friends and Neighbors, Conformity vs. Liberty
How the Walz/Vance debate revealed two different views of America: conformity v liberty; How we depend on friends and neighbors, and Oprah’s DNC speech; How morality evolved, and religion merely captured it; Brief items about crowd sizes and looks; taking … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Culture, Politics, Religion
Comments Off on Friends and Neighbors, Conformity vs. Liberty
Neopatriarchy, Tax Cuts, Conflict Entrepreneurs, and How the Nonreligious Might Save Humanity
Catching up on odds and ends today. The Right’s “neopatricarchy” is nothing but a prioritization of tribal morality — that nothing matters than having more children; Republicans are famous for bribing voters with tax cuts; now Democrats are doing it … Continue reading
Things That Don’t Change
In particular, the reactions by conservatives to things that do change. Topics today: Illegals and the military; How poor poll results must be fake; The American struggle between reason and ignorance; How one small town is indeed deeply conservative; Considering … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Politics
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Nones, and Genre
Why did the rise of the “nones” begin in the 1990s? Thoughts about how science fiction is, or is not, a “genre”. Here’s an article I stumbled upon today, from 2019 in The Atlantic, by a writer I’ve see a … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Religion, science fiction
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They’re Losing It
Trump and conservatives deny everything they don’t like by blaming “they” or the “Deep State”; And hurling words like “communist” without meaning; Why are we living in a future dominated by idiots?; Donald Trump doesn’t understand oceans; And the brother … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Politics
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Why Do You “Believe”? Who Do You Trust?
One item for today, about which I think is a key principle. NY Times, Zeynep Tufekci, 12 Aug 2024: The Problem Is Not A.I. It’s the Disbelief Created by Trump. This triggers off the recent news items about Trump’s skepticism … Continue reading
Posted in Epistemology, Politics
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Reason for Hope, Despite
Let’s begin with a positive story. Salon, Rae Hodge, 11 Aug 2024: A daring escape from cynicism: Scientist explains why “hopeful skeptics” are outsmarting doomers, subtitled “A new book from a Stanford neuroscientist aims to prove that cynicism blinds us … Continue reading
Weird and Demented
The weird news story of the day is something Trump said yesterday at a press conference in Florida. Here’s the first place I saw it: Salon, Nandika Chatterjee, 9 Aug 2024: “I call complete B.S.”: Trump made up a story … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics
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More About the Weirdos
Why folks in Louisiana are obsessed with placing Bibles in every classroom; The books Utah is banning from all classrooms; How JD Vance’s shifting religious beliefs have aligned to the ancient authorities; And short items. When I was growing up, … Continue reading
