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Paul Allopenna

@paulallopenna.bsky.social

16 followers 94 following 63 posts

Amateur guitarist, even more amateur guitar builder, retired cognitive scientist, interested in all things human rights.

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b-boy bouiebaisse's avatar b-boy bouiebaisse @jbouie.bsky.social
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just watched 74 people speaking at least a dozen different languages become american citizens in a ceremony at monticello, where the speakers were themselves children of immigrants. inspiring stuff and a vivid illustration of what reactionaries want to snuff out

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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And, if we're lucky, John Roberts could be there to call the balls & strikes. If he'd wear a catcher's mask he would, ironically, unmask himself by "donning the tools of ignorance." Change that to Donning...

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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Oh he’s the best! He’s especially good at bipartisanship, which is crucial, isn’t it?

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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Purely from a practical standpoint, which potential alternative candidate could realistically have a good chance at winning?

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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Tony Judt may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I find his writing singularly engaging.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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I keep thinking that you could use quotes from The Big Lebowski as running commentary about this entire cluster f**k and be more coherent than most news orgs right now.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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The dramatic dangers of a second’s thought about another Douthat column

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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They do favor chaos, I agree. I think the two most obvious reasons are that it generates revenue, and they don’t really believe that a second DJT administration will do what it threatens to do.

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Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis's avatar Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis @jeffjarvis.bsky.social
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Fuck you, New York Times. This is under Sulzberger's petty authority. Democracy dies at the NY Times. Damn you.
To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race www.nytimes.com/2024/06/28/o...

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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So, if he were to stick his head where the sun by definition won't shine, will he loose his power and shut up? Maybe not, because he could always run on gas I suppose.

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Chris Geidner's avatar Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social
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Kagan is reading from her dissent. Here's a key part:

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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I just got this and am really looking forward to reading it.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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If stupidity got us into this mess, why can’t it get us out of it?

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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A number of NYT pieces seem to play two roles simultaneously: 1) filler - you gotta publish something every day, and as long as that’s the case, 2) become comment generators, which get people to spend more time on the site and that leads to increased ad revenue.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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I don’t know what percentage of people who write comments to NYT articles are trolls, but visceral anti immigrant hatred is the coin of the realm for the pearl clutching class.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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I didn’t even need to see the byline to guess who wrote this piece.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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floccinaucinihilipilification The longest nontechnical word in English (I believe), roughly it means the desire to see things from a nihilistic perspective.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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If you see this, post a picture you took at sunset

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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A great book, first of all. Second, Brooks is a paradigmatic example of a certain type of writer who feels that talking to a few people, or reading one book, qualifies him as a subject matter expert. Unhappily, he’s not alone.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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Make a band less mild Belle Jar & Sebastian

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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I don’t believe in an interventionist god…

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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Can't hear that without hearing Pig Pen singing. I know that the Dead aren't everyone's cup of bong water, but when they were on (musically, that is), they could really cook. Of course, there were other nights too...

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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Spelling is not genetically specified, which is something I remind myself every day. And, rudeness is in the mind of the beholder (and in this case, I behold nothing rude at all!).

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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Anyone who uses a phrase such as "...pure as a cribhouse whore" gets a well earned tip of the hat.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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“Turducken of heresy” is a phrase that will stay in my head looking for an appropriate context. It’s also a potentially great band name. Well done.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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Our Mr. Brooks seems to be always searching for a fence that he can straddle, which will allow him to eventually fall off on the "right" side at the end of the day with smug self justification.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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I love that one of his demonstrations that he was on the left was that one of his heroes was Hubert Humphrey. It must be difficult to live with such penetrating self awareness.

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b-boy bouiebaisse's avatar b-boy bouiebaisse @jbouie.bsky.social
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conservatives — both litigants and jurists — are twisting and perverting 19th century civil rights legislation, as well as the reconstruction amendments, to neuter the ability of public and private actors to address racial disadvantage www.cnn.com/2023/10/02/u...

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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Well, to be fair, very few of these types of problems are rooted in statistics, but other kinds of problems (judging the effectiveness of a therapeutic treatment, e. g.) can be helped by the proper statistical models (and a thorough understanding of said models).

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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A bit late in the day, but… The Fryer Next Time On the Genealogy of Morsels

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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There has to be a balance between the public opinion/polling side of the equation and doing the things that make sense. To lemmings moving cliff-ward probably polls very well.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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But it is totally lapped up by the pearl-clutching NYT commentariat.

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Paul Allopenna's avatar Paul Allopenna @paulallopenna.bsky.social
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Read the comments to the article in the NYT, but only if you want the top of your head to spin off.

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