No, not an election postmortem — I don’t believe there is appropriate data that could help identify whether, for instance, droves of Republicans really did stay home by getting suckered into the belief that this somehow made sense as a way of fighting against lizard people, at least not at this point in time. A GRE postmortem because one of my projects over the past month has been applying to graduate school. Yes, again. Readers who pay careful attention will… Read more
December 14, 2020
Let’s talk about ‘Dr.’ Biden
December 14, 2020 By Jane the Actuary
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So there was a dust-up over the weekend about a Wall Street Journal opinion piece criticizing Jill Biden and her supporters for her/their wish/demand/insistence that she be called “Dr. Jill Biden,” because of her academic degree. Is Jill Biden a doctor? Not in the ordinary American usage of the term. Does she merit being addressed with the title, “Dr. Biden”? Under some circumstances, by some people, yes. Is that customary usage actually reasonable? No, not really. Let’s start from the… Read more
November 21, 2020
Actually, workers on Food Stamps is a good thing
November 21, 2020 By Jane the Actuary
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In the news yesterday, the Government Accounting Office released its report on the number and percentage of individuals receiving federal aid such as Medicaid and food stamps who were employed by such major employers as Walmart and McDonald’s. The study was, as is the norm for such studies, not initiated by the GAO, but based on a request from Sen. Bernie Sanders, and, as the rhetoric and reporting on the study makes clear, aimed to criticize those employers for offering… Read more
November 16, 2020
Let’s talk about inflation
November 16, 2020 By Jane the Actuary
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So if I were a credentialed economist, or even had any specialized education in the subject, I’d write this at Forbes. But I’m not/I don’t, so I won’t. But I have spent the greater part of the weekend working with my teen to catch him up in his AP Econ class, and we’ve been going over the various graphs and concepts and, in particular, the connection between monetary supply and inflation that appears to have vanished in the United States…. Read more
November 10, 2020
On Trump, Electoral Fraud, and not believing your lying eyes
November 10, 2020 By Jane the Actuary
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Yes, I’m going to talk about electoral fraud, and I use that phrase deliberately to imply something beyond mere “voter fraud” which suggests merely voters committing fraud, rather than the officials accepting and tabulating the votes doing so. I will precede all of this with the statement that the best outcome of the election, given the alternatives, is that which we (likely) have: Biden as president and a GOP Senate to check his desires. But nonetheless: questions of potential fraud… Read more
November 6, 2020
On paywalls
November 6, 2020 By Jane the Actuary
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Regular readers at Forbes will have noticed that, as of November 1st, there is now a paywall. I’m not happy — understandably so, as this will cut into views of the articles I write at Forbes, which matters both with respect to the compensation I earn and my ability to share my opinions with the world. How much it will impact views, I don’t yet know (and honestly, pageviews have been pretty lousy lately, and I’m not sure if it’s… Read more
November 2, 2020
A rant about medieval hospitals
November 2, 2020 By Jane the Actuary
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Ever have one of those days, when you just can’t focus on the work at hand? I have multiple articles sitting in draft form at my Forbes writing platform — on the Secure Act II, CPI for Social Security, and Illinois’ retirement income tax exemption — and I can’t muster the will to write about any of them, as I’ve been dealing with a tension headache all day and, much as I hate to admit being affected by politics, the… Read more
November 1, 2020
Some Comments on Equity vs. Equality
November 1, 2020 By Jane the Actuary
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Longtime readers will know that I post at this site much less often than used to be the case, what with writing at Forbes and elsewhere instead. One of my projects is running for school board, which, for the moment, consists largely of collecting signatures for nominating petitions due in December (yeah, I have to get moving on that — you don’t really need all that many, but they have to be exactly right to not get stricken), and following… Read more
October 23, 2020
545 separated kids? Why that’s not what it seems
October 23, 2020 By Jane the Actuary
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If Donald Trump was trying to make corruption charges stick on Biden (the media’s refusal to report on the story means they won’t) in last night’s debate, Biden was trying every bit as much to drill home the point that 545 children who were separated from their parents at the border, have not been reunited. What’s more, according to an ACLU court filing, as reported by ABC News, the group working to match up children and families was unable to… Read more
October 23, 2020
It’s debate time!
October 23, 2020 By Jane the Actuary
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It’s the second presidential debate! And here are my comments, live-blog style. Scroll down to the bottom for my ultimate thoughts. But first: I apologize for the picture, which actually does not represent what went on at this debate. The moderator says: mikes will be muted unless it’s your turn to speak. To Trump: how would you lead the country in the next phase? Trump: a world-wide pandemic, spikes in Europe right now. Mortality rate down 85%, excess mortality rate… Read more
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