The Little Sisters and Contraception: more geeking out

Last updated on: July 18, 2015 at 7:43 am By Jane the Actuary

So we bloggers at the Patheos Catholic channel (and elsewhere) have pretty much exhausted ourselves with respect to the Obama administration’s (non?-) “accommodation” for the Little Sisters’ belief that providing contraception for their employees is a violation of their First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. See here, for example, at Public Catholic, which also provides a link to the court decision. But it’s not a simple situation, so I spent some time looking at the court decision, the... Read more

Geeking out: empty-nester spending and retirement

Last updated on: August 16, 2016 at 9:45 am By Jane the Actuary

Whew — I haven’t spent much time on retirement and related issues lately, but I’m getting tired of all the social issues, especially from a Serenity Prayer perspective (that is, recognizing that any amount of blogging I do isn’t going to make a difference). Andrew Biggs, of the American Enterprise Institute, writes in Fortune, among other spots, with the perspective that we don’t have a retirement savings crisis, just a few bobbles, and thus don’t need to throw ourselves into a... Read more

In case blogging is light. . .

Last updated on: July 15, 2015 at 7:26 pm By Jane the Actuary

My birthday present just came in the mail! Read more

New study: between 5% and 64% of women regret their abortion

Last updated on: January 22, 2016 at 8:09 am By Jane the Actuary

OK, that’s not the claim in the actual study. The study itself, “Decision Rightness and Emotional Responses to Abortion in the United States: A Longitudinal Study” as linked to by Time magazine, among others, says that approximately 95% of women completing each follow-up interview reported that having the abortion was the right decision for them and this is the figure that’s being cited, repeatedly, in the media. But the data? Women were recruited, at some point during the abortion process,... Read more

The 100,000 Opportunities Initiative

Last updated on: July 14, 2015 at 11:13 pm By Jane the Actuary

As reported by Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune: Chicago will be the kickoff site for the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative, a new coalition of big businesses hoping to provide jobs or training for disadvantaged 16- to 24-year-olds. The initiative, which includes companies like Starbucks, CVS and Wal-Mart, comes as teens continue to be displaced from entry-level jobs by older workers and college graduates, despite the rebound in the nation’s job market. . . . The coalition’s goal is to provide apprenticeships, internships, training,... Read more

True or False?: “The world would be a more peaceful place if. . .”; plus: what I don’t understand

Last updated on: July 14, 2015 at 7:11 pm By Jane the Actuary

“if Israel had made the necessary concessions to provide for a Palestinian state.” “if Israel had never occupied the West Bank.” “if Israel didn’t insist on being a Jewish state.” “if Jews hadn’t returned to Palestine to begin with.” I don’t really expect that any of my readers would say “true” to these questions (except in the trivial sense that you can have “peace” solely by means of one group simply not fighting back), but I’d bet that, Obama, and the... Read more

Tell me about London!

Last updated on: July 12, 2015 at 11:12 am By Jane the Actuary

Here’s a request: We’re looking at vacation options for 2016 (yes, I know it’s early!) and are considering a longer, combined-with-work stay in London. The trick is that we’d have to find something to keep the kids busy, or maybe hire a part-time babysitter/tour guide. Anyone have experience with the city? (and thanks for your advice!) Read more

Guess what? Our number system has nothing to do with the age of maturity

Last updated on: July 12, 2015 at 11:03 am By Jane the Actuary

Here’s an article in today’s paper, a piece from AP: “Teen Truckers? Bill Would Drop Big-Rig Driver Age to 18.” The article itself is about a bill allowing commercial truck drivers under the age of 21, who are allowed in various states, to begin work as truckers at the age of 18, to cross state lines in their driving among states which create interstate compacts. The article reports: The change was sought by the trucking industry to help address a... Read more

Update on the Colorado LARC experiment

Last updated on: January 22, 2016 at 8:12 am By Jane the Actuary

Remember Colorado’s experiment with free LARC (that is IUDs and implanted contraception) for teens and poor women? This article in the New York Times reports that The birthrate among teenagers across the state plunged by 40 percent from 2009 to 2013, while their rate of abortions fell by 42 percent. Which led me to ask, what was the overall impact on fertility? Turns out, the TFR dropped from 1.98 in 2009, to 1.79 in 2013, or from 25th in the nation... Read more

Part-time student? The Rahmfather* says no.

Last updated on: July 10, 2015 at 7:33 am By Jane the Actuary

(* Yes, I’m stealing this from John Kass.) It’s well-established that graduation rates at community colleges are rather low; after all, a part of the intention behind the establishment of Arrupe College, as described the other day, was to counter these low rates, which were cited as 5% nationwide, 7% in Chicago. And there are many reasons for this: some students are only interested in a certificate program or a small grouping of classes, others take classes without a real... Read more