Paul Kelleher
@paulkelleher.net
Moral and political philosophy, climate economics, bioethics
Author of *The Social Cost of Carbon* (OUP 2025) | Faculty @UWMadison, posting in personal capacity
Likes: Boston Celtics ☘️, bouldering, ebikes, funding public ed.
paulkelleher.net
Author of *The Social Cost of Carbon* (OUP 2025) | Faculty @UWMadison, posting in personal capacity
Likes: Boston Celtics ☘️, bouldering, ebikes, funding public ed.
paulkelleher.net
Pinned
Here's a little story of about a big-time Christmas tree dad-error and a seemingly hopeless quest to fix it.
Every year, out of respect for our original hardwood floors, I place the xmas tree stand on an Amazon box---so it won't scratch or otherwise mar. 1/n
Every year, out of respect for our original hardwood floors, I place the xmas tree stand on an Amazon box---so it won't scratch or otherwise mar. 1/n
Dry Hard is a Christmas movie.
Horrible parents: we gave our kid a sled for Xmas even tho it barely snows anymore (and when it does it’s gone in 2 weeks). #wisconsin #climatechange
December 25, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Horrible parents: we gave our kid a sled for Xmas even tho it barely snows anymore (and when it does it’s gone in 2 weeks). #wisconsin #climatechange
I bought a Fraser Fir hoping for a crane. No dice.
they don’t tell you when you buy a christmas tree at the christmas tree farm that you could take it home, decorate it, and then be relaxing in your living room seven nights later when A BAT suddenly flies out and starts CRASHING AROUND YOUR HOUSE
December 25, 2025 at 12:47 AM
I bought a Fraser Fir hoping for a crane. No dice.
Reposted by Paul Kelleher
Leaving out some bitcoin for Santa this year.
December 24, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Leaving out some bitcoin for Santa this year.
Christmas Eve, that day each year when I serve dinner guests lobster, and only the other native New Englanders at the table need me to open theirs because they never learned and studiously refuse to do so.
December 24, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Christmas Eve, that day each year when I serve dinner guests lobster, and only the other native New Englanders at the table need me to open theirs because they never learned and studiously refuse to do so.
Had never heard of this brand before last summer when my wife ordered several pairs of trail runners for me to try ahead of a trip to Acadia and these were by far my favorite. (I have large feet and stores often don’t have my size; hence the order-to-try method.)
The Swiss sneaker brand On outran Nike. Now it’s betting it can beat tariffs, too. on.wsj.com/48TStww
This Sneaker Brand Keeps Raising Prices—and Consumers Don’t Seem to Care
First, the Swiss company On outpaced Nike. Now it’s betting it can beat tariffs, too.
on.wsj.com
December 24, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Had never heard of this brand before last summer when my wife ordered several pairs of trail runners for me to try ahead of a trip to Acadia and these were by far my favorite. (I have large feet and stores often don’t have my size; hence the order-to-try method.)
Reposted by Paul Kelleher
How I [almost, accidentally] submitted a paper with a fake, AI-generated citation. 🧵 (1/8)
December 23, 2025 at 6:12 AM
How I [almost, accidentally] submitted a paper with a fake, AI-generated citation. 🧵 (1/8)
What’s your nomination of a great book that too few people even know exists?
This is a great book, and far too few people even know of its existence. Colin Grey, Justice and Authority in Immigration Law. (Bloomsbury 2015).
December 23, 2025 at 2:20 PM
What’s your nomination of a great book that too few people even know exists?
Reposted by Paul Kelleher
If you haven't checked out the new edited volume that @whatisitliketobeaphilosopher.com has put together, you should! Too Weird to Believe, Too Plausible to Deny
“Good outcomes don’t magically change a wrong into a right.”
Krista K. Thomason,
Too Weird To Believe, Too Plausible To Deny
Krista K. Thomason,
Too Weird To Believe, Too Plausible To Deny
December 23, 2025 at 1:04 AM
If you haven't checked out the new edited volume that @whatisitliketobeaphilosopher.com has put together, you should! Too Weird to Believe, Too Plausible to Deny
Reposted by Paul Kelleher
It's worth watching for yourself.
cecot-60mins.mp4
drive.google.com
December 23, 2025 at 12:32 AM
It's worth watching for yourself.
Reposted by Paul Kelleher
Thread.
here's the 60 minutes cecot video part 1 of 5 - recorded/uploaded by and all credit to @jasonparis.bsky.social
I just reduced background noise, chopped the 14 minutes into 3 minute segments each compressed under 100 mb for bsky's limits, cropped and rotated a few degrees for easier viewing on here
I just reduced background noise, chopped the 14 minutes into 3 minute segments each compressed under 100 mb for bsky's limits, cropped and rotated a few degrees for easier viewing on here
December 23, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Thread.
Reposted by Paul Kelleher
I just watched it and now it's gone. It was about 13 minutes. Very few of the Venezuelans had any violent criminal past according to ICE. Conditions were terrible at the prison. Noem's visit was to different part of prison and Salvadoran prisoners were prop for her visit.
I just uploaded @jasonparis.bsky.social 's recording of the segment CBS News pulled from "60 Minutes" to YouTube:
WATCH: Segment CBS News Pulled From "60 Minutes"
YouTube video by Phil Lewis
www.youtube.com
December 22, 2025 at 11:22 PM
I just watched it and now it's gone. It was about 13 minutes. Very few of the Venezuelans had any violent criminal past according to ICE. Conditions were terrible at the prison. Noem's visit was to different part of prison and Salvadoran prisoners were prop for her visit.
Quote with your favorite picture of you from 2025
December 22, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Quote with your favorite picture of you from 2025
It was 1972, and another future for cost-benefit analysis was possible.
December 22, 2025 at 10:03 PM
It was 1972, and another future for cost-benefit analysis was possible.
I'm not quite on board with James's proposal, but I certainly think Democrats and technocrats should stop pretending that CBA is a value-free science. Not only is that just not true, but the hopium of those who said it'll be a bulwark against politicization has been revealed for what it is.
Just to be clear, Democrats should end their embrace of cost-benefit analysis, too. newrepublic.com/article/2046...
The Peak of Trump’s Fact-Free Vendetta Against Regulation
Conservatives once promoted cost-benefit analysis to check the administrative state—until it got better at measuring the huge benefits of regulation.
newrepublic.com
December 22, 2025 at 9:31 PM
I'm not quite on board with James's proposal, but I certainly think Democrats and technocrats should stop pretending that CBA is a value-free science. Not only is that just not true, but the hopium of those who said it'll be a bulwark against politicization has been revealed for what it is.
Reposted by Paul Kelleher
Interesting and important 9th Circuit decision about the free speech rights of professors at public schools, just won by FIRE, likely to be subject of culture war disputes.
/1
cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...
/1
cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...
cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov
December 22, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Interesting and important 9th Circuit decision about the free speech rights of professors at public schools, just won by FIRE, likely to be subject of culture war disputes.
/1
cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...
/1
cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...
Just finished the wonderful audiobook of this. Thanks to whomever in my feed recommended it. Wish I could recall who it was.
“Wood is a precise and pungent writer who conjures the briny, locked-in atmosphere of his setting so completely that one half-expects the pages to be stiff with sea salt...radiant.”
—NYTBR
Longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, Seascraper by Benjamin Wood is now available: https://bit.ly/4pzEgLl
—NYTBR
Longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, Seascraper by Benjamin Wood is now available: https://bit.ly/4pzEgLl
December 22, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Just finished the wonderful audiobook of this. Thanks to whomever in my feed recommended it. Wish I could recall who it was.
“Politics is the expedient fracturing of hard shale” — Max Weber
December 21, 2025 at 3:32 PM
“Politics is the expedient fracturing of hard shale” — Max Weber
Reposted by Paul Kelleher
This is spot on. When I was researching my book on the 2003 heat wave in France, it was 100% detective work with no space for AI. A brief 🧵:
A big part of being a historian is being a detective! Who did this? Why? Where? Why does it matter in the grand scheme of things? You have to learn how to probe, how to uncover, how to read against the grain, how to find unusual sources, how to interpret those sources. How to piece together a puzzle
It also robs students of learning *how* to research.
December 21, 2025 at 3:23 PM
This is spot on. When I was researching my book on the 2003 heat wave in France, it was 100% detective work with no space for AI. A brief 🧵:
Reposted by Paul Kelleher
If I wanted to present to a big funder the ten most interesting, outstanding problems in philosophy, across a variety of subfields, that we in the field want to see progress toward solving in the next ten years, what would your problem be, or who in the field would come up with a good list?
December 20, 2025 at 5:41 PM
If I wanted to present to a big funder the ten most interesting, outstanding problems in philosophy, across a variety of subfields, that we in the field want to see progress toward solving in the next ten years, what would your problem be, or who in the field would come up with a good list?
My bsky wrapped
December 20, 2025 at 6:38 PM
My bsky wrapped
GROSS
Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
December 20, 2025 at 3:43 PM
GROSS
Everyone knows god intended for babies to chew on giraffes
I can only assume the people who made this poisonous-mushroom shaped teething toy for babies are in fact enacting a devious plot to reduce the global baby population
www.thenaturalbabyco.com/products/oli...
www.thenaturalbabyco.com/products/oli...
December 20, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Everyone knows god intended for babies to chew on giraffes
Reposted by Paul Kelleher
Obamacare hugely lowered healthcare cost growth, even if Democrats are scared to say it deanbaker22.substack.com/p/obamacare-...
Obamacare Lowered Healthcare Cost Growth #34,706
The ACA was a huge success in reducing costs, even if Democrats are scared to say it
deanbaker22.substack.com
December 20, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Obamacare hugely lowered healthcare cost growth, even if Democrats are scared to say it deanbaker22.substack.com/p/obamacare-...
Reposted by Paul Kelleher
Last weekend #USDA announced that Wisconsin had detected #H5N1 #birdflu in a dairy cow herd. Today the agency revealed that genetic analysis of virus from the herd shows this event was the result of a new spillover from "wildlife." www.aphis.usda.gov/news/agency-...
Update: Genetic Sequencing Results for Wisconsin Dairy Herd Detection of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza | Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Contact: aphispress@usda.gov
www.aphis.usda.gov
December 20, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Last weekend #USDA announced that Wisconsin had detected #H5N1 #birdflu in a dairy cow herd. Today the agency revealed that genetic analysis of virus from the herd shows this event was the result of a new spillover from "wildlife." www.aphis.usda.gov/news/agency-...