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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- Here’s a New One: Terrain Theory
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Meta
Category Archives: Religion
SOTU Address and Other Current Events
Some things never change… NY Times, Round Table, 8 Feb 2023: Times Columnists Respond to the State Of the Union I’ll just list the contributors and their headlines. Frank Bruni: Biden showed himself to be a happy warrior. Nicholas Kristof: … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology, Religion
Comments Off on SOTU Address and Other Current Events
Varieties of Fantasy, and Book Notes
Today’s three topics: A conservative’s take on a fantasy novel; A Le Guin fantasy novel; And insights into books by Heinlein and Brockman.
Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Religion
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Real News; Demagogues; Spirituality
Three themes for today: How science is the only news, per Stuart Brand; Demagogues and ideologues on the right; and Ross Douthat’s warning about spiritual experiences that don’t align with his own. Glancing through that John Brockman book The Third … Continue reading
A Crisp, Sunny January Day
Topics for today: Why China’s decline in population is a good thing; Yuval Noah Harari on identity; Moral panic and the right-wing mind; How climate change has been covered in textbooks since the 1970s.
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Psychology, Religion, Science
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A Fundamental Theological Question, via Jerry Coyne
Only time for a quick post today, again, ironically about a fundamental theological issue. What is the essential difference between science and religion, between a way of thinking and a way of not thinking but merely conforming to community traditions, … Continue reading
Self-Replacement?
Today looking at an article about how conservatives worry about the “great replacement” (of US Christian whites by non-white, non-Christian immigrants) and how, ironically, conservative policies invite their being replaced, through simple natural selection. With comments at the end about … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Religion
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Assorted Links from Recent Weeks
About George Santos’s fictional resume, Tucker Carlson’s year of being wrong, Avatar 2’s “ecological Indian” cliche, the hypocrisy of right-wing “free thinkers,” Thomas Frank on the lack of imagination of Democrats, DeSantis and vaccines, book banning, and two religious graphics.
Hanukkah Kitsch and Christmas Shopping
I spent most of this afternoon Christmas shopping. I can make that align with this article about Hanukkah kitsch. New York Times, 18 Dec 2022: Potato Latke Cocktail, Anyone?
Posted in Culture, Personal history, Religion
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Doom and Existential Dread
About the stages of the Republican Party’s terminal illness (doom); and about why conservatives disapprove of same-sex relationships more than any number of other supposed Biblical sins (existential dread); and my explanation for the latter.
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Evolution, Religion
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Ancient Apocalypse, Odds and Ends
The “Ancient Apocalypse” nonsense; Movie trailers; Political headlines.
