Stupid vs. Evil

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Robert Reich’s take on what the two US political parties think of each other, and my interpretation of conservative thinking;
  • About Pete Hegseth and how he sees moral purpose in war as a weakness;
  • Another item about parental rights, concerning social media; and my thoughts about this complex subject.
– – –

Another take on the spectrum of human nature.

Robert Reich, 10 Mar 2026: Why do Americans hate each other while Canadians love each other?, subtitled “Could it have something to do with our politics? With the sociopath in the Oval?”

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Whiteson & Warner, DO ALIENS SPEAK PHYSICS?

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitle: “And other questions about science and the nature of reality”
(Norton, 2025, 254pp, including 12pp of bibliography and index)

Here’s a book that’s remarkable in an unusual way: I didn’t hear about it from anywhere, not in a review, not referenced from somebody else’s book. And I had never heard of the authors. I saw it in a bookstore, and bought it on impulse. (Well the blurbs from Sean Carroll, Carlo Rovelli, Phil Plait, and Daniel Dennett helped.)

It was a good decision, because the book speaks to a profound issue, even if it’s a little too wiseacre and jokey for my taste. As if they didn’t a serious reader to be interested?

The question the book asks could be rephrased, would aliens perceive the universe the same way humans do? Continue reading →

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Clown Shoes, and Republican Obsequiousness

Posted on Wednesday 11 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Marco Rubio in clown shoes;
  • Republicans think oppressing trans kids is more important than parental rights;
  • Trump’s delusional faith in himself;
  • That photo of the prayer group in the Oval Office is being mocked in China;
  • Motivated thinking sees that the Bible warns against socialism;
  • That medical ship never went to Greenland, but one MAGA guy complains it’s not getting enough press coverage.
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As noted yesterday, this item wins the prize, for this week certainly, maybe for the month or the year, for demonstrating Trump’s idiocy and his cabinet’s obsequiousness. Covered widely today in the news and on Facebook.

The New Republic, 11 Mar 2026: Marco Rubio Roasted for Wearing Clown Shoes Trump Bought Him, subtitled “Donald Trump has bought everyone in his Cabinet the same pair of shoes—evidently without checking what size people wear.”
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Certainty is the Enemy

Posted on Tuesday 10 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • And Trump is certain about his own moral authority;
  • And how the long-anticipated End Times have yet to appear;
  • Paul Krugman on how Pete Hegseth is being deliberately dumb;
  • Short items about Erika Kirk, Hegseth’s Bible reading, money spent on the war so far, Trump gives his staff ill-fitting shoes they fill obliged to wear;
  • And the last two movements of Philip Glass’ Symphony #5.
– – –

I think I may have just said this, in so many words: Certainty is the enemy. Because others are just as certain about opposite things. And the world will not survive such conflicts of moral certainty; survival of the human race, in the long term, is about getting over tribal mentality. The morally literate, responsible, thing to do is to be certain of nothing, live your life by principles instead, and let others judge your moral maturity by your actions, and principles, not your commitments to this or that god or holy book.

Salon, Chauncey DeVega, 10 Mar 2026: Trump’s moral crusade is dangerous for America — and the world, subtitled “The president casts himself as the ultimate authority on good and evil — and believes it is his job to enforce it”

Donald Trump imagines himself as a moral crusader fighting the forces of evil at home and abroad. But his morality is not guided by ethics, humanism or respect for the common good. The president instead relies on himself, something he made explicit in a January 2026 interview with the New York Times. “My own morality,” he replied when asked if he observed any constraints on his power to use the military, including invading other countries. “My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

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Malcolm Gladwell, THE TIPPING POINT

Posted on Tuesday 10 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: “How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”
(Little, Brown, March 2000, 279pp, including 20pp endnotes, acknowledgements, and index)

This was a popular and well-received book when published back in 2000, and launched Gladwell‘s book career. Most of his books follow a similar pattern: identifying counter-intuitive things about how the world works. In this book, the theme is in the subtitle. In BLINK, it was about the power of snap judgments (contradicting considered wisdom *not* to rely on intuition); OUTLIERS explores the role of environment (and by extension, chance) in success stories. I read those too. Next was WHAT THE DOG SAW, a collection of essays, which I haven’t read, then three others, which I didn’t even buy. Most recent is REVENGE OF THE TIPPING POINT, in 2024, which revisits some of the themes of the first book, from different perspectives.

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Gullicism and Literacy

Posted on Monday 9 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Adam Serwer on our “gullible, cynical” America, a condition he dubs “gullicism”;
  • And how this is an absence of “literacy” about how the world actually works;
  • Why everyone thinking “God is on our side” is a problem;
  • John Pavlovitz answers overseas friends worried about America: Yes, it’s worse than you think.
  • And my position living in a cosmopolitan city, and fortunately rarely experiencing what John Pavlovitz has observed.
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As I’ve realized recently, ‘literacy’ isn’t just about being able to read and write, it’s about understanding how the world works, which understandings about it are true and which are just stories and are not true, and how the human mind works and is biased to believe certain things and reject others in the name of tribal survival and solidarity.

The Atlantic, Adam Serwer, 9 Mar 2026: Gullible, Cynical America, subtitled “The trouble with believing anything and nothing at the same time”
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Leaving the US, Shalom, Worrying the Mind-Body Problem, the Latest Drake Equation analysis

Posted on Sunday 8 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • About Trump’s misguided “Christian” war, as more and more people are literally leaving the US;
  • Peter Wehner on a word for our trouble times: shalom;
  • Alan Lightman wonders, rhetorically, if our minds transcend the corporeal form (an issue long-since settled);
  • About Iranian scientists and their take on the Drake Equation: 5000 years.
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Salon, Kirk Swearingen, 8 Mar 2026: Trump’s misguided “Christian” war is anything but, subtitled “Some commanders claim the Iran war is serving Christ. Haven’t they noticed the fake Christian in the White House?”

What struck me here is the reference to a news item I saw elsewhere, just a day or two ago. Third para.
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Morality, War, Science, Persecution

Posted on Saturday 7 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Robert Reich on the moral basis of civilization, and how Trump is destroying it;
  • And Reich on how Trump is paying for the war, and giving the rich a huge tax cut;
  • More about the undermining of America’s scientific expertise;
  • Hemant Mehta on the myth of evangelical persecution, at WaPo;
  • How Florida is erasing mentions of racism from a sociology textbook.
– – –

From a couple days ago.

Robert Reich, 5 Mar 2026: The Moral Basis of Civilization, subtitled “Trump is actively destroying it”

About Trump’s Iran war, of course. What is Reich’s moral basis of civilization?

As I have noted before, the moral purpose of civilized society is to prevent the stronger from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Otherwise, we’d be permanently immersed in a brutish war in which only the fittest and most powerful could survive.

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Everything Will Be Better in Two Weeks

Posted on Friday 6 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Ten rationales for Trump’s war on Iran;
  • While some insist it’s not a “war”;
  • Promoting the war with movie clips and video games;
  • Cuba is next, they’re now saying, as predicted;
  • Who is Hegseth to declare the US as a Christian nation?;
  • A creepy Oval Office photo of “laying hands”;
  • John Pavlovitz on how God did not ordain Trump, alleged Christians did;
  • How some conservatives influencers want to return to the days of McCarthysim;
  • The obvious point that renewable energy sources would avoid problems in the Strait of Hormuz;
  • And Trump’s obvious tell he has no idea what he’s doing: everything is two weeks away.
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Back to our regularly scheduled programming. No one in Washington knows what they’re doing. And conservatives are regressive.

The Atlantic, Marie-Rose Sheinerman and Isabel Ruehl: Six Days of War, 10 Rationales, subtitled “The administration has laid out a buffet of reasons for Operation Epic Fury—take your pick.”

On the third day of the war in Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Operation Epic Fury the “most-precise aerial operation in history.” A difficult claim to fact-check. More difficult still has been parsing statements from the White House and the Pentagon to figure out, with any exactitude, why we are at war in the first place. So far, the Trump administration has offered at least 10 separate rationales in just six days.

Imminent threat. To prevent their nukes. To halt the militias. Regime change. Election interference (they did it to us). World peace. For the grandkids. Preemptive hit. Fulfill God’s purpose (a useful go-to for anything). And, the Israelis made us do it.

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Heated Rivalry, Autism, and Conceptual Breakthrough

Posted on Thursday 5 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve only alluded to this show before — note the photo at the top of my January 10th post — but perhaps I have some things to say about the TV series “Heated Rivalry.” On the occasion of this longish essay in today’s NYT. About the show, its portrayal of autism, and how sexual awakening is a type of conceptual breakthrough.

NY Times, critic’s notebook by Wesley Morris, 27 Feb 2026, I’m So Used to Gay Tragedies That I Almost Missed Romance, subtitled “After a lifetime of settling for shame, secrecy and death onscreen, I had my doubts about ‘Heated Rivalry.’ Then it seduced me, too.

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