Search Results for: abortion

About Expanding the Human Population

Posted on Monday 26 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items today on this topic, first an essay in NY Times, then a letters column today responding to it. I addressed a similar piece Saturday. Here’s the NYT essay. NY Times, Victor Kumar, a philosophy professor at Boston University, … Continue reading →

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Nones, and Genre

Posted on Thursday 15 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

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 | Comments Off on Nones, and Genre

Weird and Demented

Posted on Friday 9 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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Tribal Antics, Racism, Misogyny

Posted on Friday 2 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Thought for the day. It occurs to me that — at the risk of tossing out another simplistic dichotomy — the OT is pure tribal morality, while the NT, parts of it anyway (Jesus, maybe, though not Paul), presents a … Continue reading →

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The Need for a Fantasy Past

Posted on Sunday 28 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

There are two problems with MAGA. First, it’s regressive in that it’s trying to reimpose primitive tribal values onto a complex, global world. Second, more practically, it’s simply not possible to return to conditions of the past. Today’s items: Why … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Economics, Human Nature | Comments Off on The Need for a Fantasy Past

The Resurgence of Tribal Human Nature

Posted on Saturday 27 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Again, one theme of this blog is the resurgence of tribal human nature and morality, at the expense of the achievements of the Enlightenment: Science and Democracy; With examples today beginning with “childless cat ladies” from the right; How Trump … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 5

Posted on Wednesday 24 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

After being distracted by Texas affairs, politics, Riven, and reading Brian Greene and others, let’s get back to this book and try to finish summarizing it and capturing key points. This and one more post. Earlier posts about this book: … Continue reading →

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Life carries on and on and on and on

Posted on Tuesday 23 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Heather Cox Richardson taking a future historian’s perspective on recent political events; The irony of Republicans accusing Democrats of staging a coup; Paul Krugman on how Republican accusation of immigrants taking away “black jobs” is wrong in so many ways; … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Politics | Comments Off on Life carries on and on and on and on

Subjective Worlds

Posted on Sunday 21 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

First of all, I updated yesterday’s post to include the initial list of falsehoods in Trump’s RNC acceptance speech as compiled by CNN, and read off on TV by its fact-checker in the minutes after the speech ended. For today, … Continue reading →

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So we cheated and we lied and we tested

Posted on Monday 8 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump’s dementia; The Heritage Foundation’s threat of violence unless they get their way; And a graphic from Fb: “If you don’t scream, I won’t hurt you”; Trump disavows Project 2025; And a song by Crosby, Stills & Nash. Continuing from … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Music, Politics | Comments Off on So we cheated and we lied and we tested