Views from Crestmont Drive

Driving the I5, and Varieties of Dining Experience

Posted on Saturday 28 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Another quick trip from the Bay Area to LA over the past few days of the Christmas Holiday, constrained as usual by work schedules.

It’s a 370 mile trip, from our place in Oakland to the West LA area where we stayed. We had good fortune in that our drives there and back slipped between the series of rainstorms that have hit Northern California over the past couple weeks. Continue reading →

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The Certitude of the Religious

Posted on Monday 23 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

David French asks and tries to explain why Christians are so cruel;
David Brooks writes about his experience of faith;
And Kurt Gray about misunderstanding human nature.

– – –

Of course I’m sure they would deny this. Passing the truth along to other people, even imposing it on them, isn’t cruel, it’s kind, to their way of thinking. This is what all the missionaries thought, and still think.

NY Times, Opinion by David French, 22 Dec 2024: Why Are So Many Christians So Cruel?

Continue reading →

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Children, Adults Who Think Like Children, and Adults Who Don’t

Posted on Saturday 21 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump doesn’t need to keep his promises because he’ll just claim that he has, and blame his enemies when it’s obvious he has not;
How the threat of government shutdown reveals the Republicans as the party of “no”, recalling William F. Buckley;
In Louisiana, don’t say vaccine;
How to reduce crime via proven solutions, and not prayer.

– – –

NY Times, Frank Bruni, 19 Dec 2024: What if Trump Doesn’t Need to Keep Any of His Promises?

Short answer: all Trump has to do is tell his fans that he *has* kept his promises, and they’ll believe him. Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off

So Are We to Live in an Authoritarian Oligarchy?

Posted on Friday 20 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

The un-elected Elon Musk seems to be running the country this week;
How the Drone Panic reveals a need to believe, in *something*.

So not only is our incipient administration authoritarian, it’s authoritarian and being run by an oligarch!

NY Times, 19 Dec 2024: Elon Musk Flexes His Political Strength as Government Shutdown Looms, subtitled “The world’s richest man led the charge to kill a bipartisan spending deal, in part by promoting false and misleading claims about it.”
Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology, Religion, Supernatural | Comments Off

Psychological Underpinnings

Posted on Thursday 19 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

The drone panic is about human psychology;
So is the fear of vaccines.

– – –

Once again, the drone panic is not about drones.

NY Times, Zeynep Tufekci, 19 Dec 2024: How to Make the Drone Panic So Very Much Worse

The writer begins by recalling a similar panic from decades ago that I only recently heard about.
Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Psychology | Comments Off

Notes from Inside the Universe

Posted on Tuesday 17 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Vox answers questions about the drones;
A piece by Rahm Emanual inspires my own thinking about how much it matters which party is in power, every election cycle;
Trump wants to expel immigrants but is happy to hire them;
Nancy Mace is worried that the drones might be coming from “outside the universe”;
Once again about vaccines, safer than they have ever been.

One more piece about the drones, from Vox, which fancies itself a site that “explains” things. (Curiously, it’s filed under “politics.”)