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Paul Turner

@pst1953.bsky.social

58 followers 30 following 130 posts

Retired with more time now for history and science. One of the ex-X jackals who have moved here.

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Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 1d

And did so even if it meant accepting students less qualified by their traditional standards (which might include “family” or “character”) than those who prepped at Andover. The demand now is to give up this core value under duress and adopt its opposite (with a dash of xenophobia).

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 1d

A founding mission of many or even most U.S. colleges was to extend the benefits of higher education to those beyond its reach due to geography, race, sex, religion, or poverty. Others, including the most elite, remade themselves in the 20th century by adopting this as a core mission …

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 1d

Absolutely, and who could have imagined what might become a hot button in 2025. But beyond scientific truth, to demand no “institutional positions on political controversies unrelated to a school’s core mission” assumes the right to define core missions. DEI is now used as scary pejorative, but …

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 1d

Plenty of people are both naive and malign.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 1d

An insightful and disturbing column, with the ironic touches we expect. Whenever I hear a barely disguised antisemitic trope I will say to myself, “perhaps the hummus eaters were Romans.” I believe your thesis: Kelly learned the hard way to be a weathervane and now in full grift mode is good at it.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 10d

Krugman this morning has the best and most succinct take on Hegseth’s speech. After calling it both morally vile and profoundly stupid, which it was, he adds, “Hegseth seems to have gotten his ideas about what an effective military looks like by watching the movie 300.”

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 11d

I don’t mean to be picky about someone doing a fine job exposing wrongdoing, but I don’t think Kreis should label this a war crime. It’s simply a crime: murder to be precise. The laws of war have nothing to do with it.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 15d

Let’s see. Take away medical coverage from millions? Check. Slap tariffs on drugs? Check. Close rural hospitals? Check. Then tell people they need to see the doctor five times for routine childhood vaccinations instead of once. Makes sense to me.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 15d

I thought of your book yesterday while reading Rick Atkinson's military history of the American Revolution. During the Continental Army's brief occupation of Canada the commanding general made self-inoculation against smallpox a capital crime. He then died of smallpox.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 15d

I like the semicolons fine, but should you switch to commas I suggest inserting "or" before the third clause. More seriously, I think that the parallelism of using "whether" three times would read better than "whether" once and then "if" twice.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 15d

/3 They ignored her when she asked why she was stopped, but she knew. She is a U.S. citizen born in Mexico and, in her words, "looks Mexican." (Thank you Justice Kavanaugh.) They said that an Illinois drivers license is not proof of legal residence. Fortunately she had her U.S. passport with her.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 15d

/2 I would imagine fear, anger, and outrage all come out at once. A friend of mine, on her way over to our home, was pulled over by unmarked cars, blocking her front and rear, from which emerged masked men with no badges or identification who demanded answers to their questions and identification.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 15d

No matter how sincerely you object to the cruelty and illegality of ICE's methods, no matter how many stories you hear and videos you see, the emotions hit deeper when it happens to someone you know. I can only imagine how it feels to yourself be the subject of this authoritarian bullying.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 16d

I‘m still skeptical.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 17d

Heaven’s basement is a masterpiece of euphemism.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 18d

I thought this was one of the funniest things I ever read. I am curious whether my daughter agrees, although I understand she may have been raptured today and unable to see this.

Janel Comeau 🍁 @verybadllama.bsky.social · 18d

I have taken
the Tylenol
that was in
the medicine cabinet

and which
they think probably
is the reason
you like trains

forgive me
but that’s bullshit
you got autism
from your dad

Reposted by Paul Turner

James Gleick @around.com · 18d

World Power Humiliates Itself;
Sends Crackpot to Address U.N.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...

Live Updates: Trump Attacks U.N. and Lectures Nations in Address to General Assembly

www.nytimes.com

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 18d

It is a remarkable essay that stimulates understanding of tensions that will always arise from making the decision to tolerate, legally, even speech you find loathsome. It may even be at its best in the moments you say to yourself, “Hey. I’m not sure I agree with that.” Some comments are good too.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 25d

It runs in the family.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 25d

Funny you should mention Neal Stephenson. Recently I read his introduction to David Foster Wallace's book on infinity, Everything and More, and your Einstein in Berlin popped up as an (implicitly good) example of a type of popular science writing: that by a non-expert using biography as a framework.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 25d

You were always right to say this to people on the left, and it’s coming back to haunt us now. Suggesting that speech can be a form of “violence” if it offends us or makes us uncomfortable was always dangerous. Now it is tool of oppression in the hands of Pam Biondi and her ilk.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · 25d

You bring joy to so many every day. Glad it’s going so well. I’m now old that I never even think about my (first) cancer, but not quite old enough that I can’t remember it.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · Sep 7

The Crime trained us well.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · Sep 7

Yes. Definitely.

Paul Turner @pst1953.bsky.social · Sep 5

CBS won't be where I get the news either. I'm 71. I grew up watching Walter Cronkite. I can remember Edward R. Murrow's Harvest of Shame. It was my go-to network for outer space and assassinations. Now it'll be Fox Lite. Or even if it isn't, I won't be watching because I can't trust it. Goodbye.