Category Archives: Religion

A Dream of Oceans, and Sunken Cities

Posted on Wednesday 10 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Still enamored by R.E.M., which is why I’ve chosen another of their lyrics for today’s post title. Today: more items about trying to understand the modern world. How false information might be the top global risk in 2024; An example … Continue reading →

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Philosophy of Government, and other matters

Posted on Monday 8 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How that DeSantis/Newsom debate revealed “the space between red and blue states”; Short items about folding paper to reach the Moon (the answer is 42), and Christian ideas about good and evil, beating up gay children, and Trump as God’s … Continue reading →

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Basic Principles of Politics, Economics, and Zealotry

Posted on Friday 5 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Three items today. How the Republican strategy has changed; Zero-sum thinking (by conservatives) vs. division of labor and our modern complex society; And fringe items about God-believers and how God made Trump. There’s a commonly understood explanation for the long-time … Continue reading →

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Leaving Off with 2023

Posted on Monday 1 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s 2024! Let’s see where 2023 left off, based on links I collected over the past week while traveling. Twenty-two items below, including these topics: Thom Hartmann on GOP scams; Roger Rosenblatt on New Year’s Resolutions; Mike Johnson’s alliance with … Continue reading →

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Progress in 2023

Posted on Sunday 31 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

For this last post of the year, I’ll link several year-end pieces about progress in the world, where most people see only continued doom. (I’ll do a separate post, about progress against my goals in my own life, soon.) NY … Continue reading →

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Sources of Meaning

Posted on Thursday 21 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

How the Catholic League finds meaning at Christmas only in its own teachings, while presuming everyone else must be miserable; How Republicans have found tribal meaning in Christian Nationalism; How Republicans search for voter fraud only among populations who would … Continue reading →

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Christmas Presents and Consumerism; Beauty in the Universe

Posted on Monday 11 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Christmas presents, consumerism, and Adam Lee’s take on minimalism; The idea of ‘beauty’ in the universe, as another component of science fiction’s “consilience”; First take on the new Peter Gabriel album. Like many people as we get older, when Christmas … Continue reading →

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Small-town America and Democracy; Competitive Exclusion; and How that Flat Earth Debate Worked Out

Posted on Saturday 9 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

How small-town America hasn’t been good for democracy; How conflicts like Palestine/Israel might be resolved through evolutionary concept of “competitive exclusion”; Quick takes about that flat Earth debate based on scripture; how different Christians claim diametrically opposite things; and Slate’s … Continue reading →

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Dictatorship Promises; What America Actually Is; and Visions from God

Posted on Friday 8 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

A Republican critic of journalist Robert Kagan, who wrote about how a Trump dictatorship (see previous posts) would harass journalists, make Kagan’s point by threatening to harass Kagan; Maybe Trump and his followers *are* what America is; More about Mike … Continue reading →

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In Plain Sight

Posted on Wednesday 6 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

More on Trump’s dictatorship plans– “only on day one” — and how his fascist plans are out there in plain sight; How “pro-life” has different meanings to different people; How Russia’s crack-down on gays as “extremists” echoes values of the … Continue reading →

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