A couple days ago, I again griped that Illinois seems both unable and unwilling to fix its problems. Just look at a sentence like that, with “Illinois” as the subject, the actor, as if those who live in Illinois are not in charge of their own fate. And, true, this past year, the people of Illinois elected a reform-minded (at least in his commercials), stand-up-to-the-unions Republican governor, so that’s something, but our prior governor Pat Quinn claimed to be just... Read more
In other news this week (because, remember, I don’t like what’s going on in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, or Garland, any more than you do, but I’m not particularly well-equipped to talk about it): USA Today published an op-ed by one Sean Dunbar, “Why I Won’t Let my Wife Quit her Job,” and The Federalist published a critique, “Modern Feminism Means Forcing Your Wife To Work.” The quick summary of the former article is that the author’s wife, when pregnant with... Read more
Here’s the backstory: back in 2013, Illinois lawmakers approved a bill curtailing at least some of the more generous aspects of Illinois pensions; now, as expected, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that, based on a provision in the 1970 Illinois state constitution, the law is unconstitutional and the state must never, for an employee’s entire working lifetime, reduce pension accruals or ancillary benefits. Reuters has a quick summary of the issue, and here’s a more in-depth article at the Chicago... Read more
Go read this article from the Washington Post, “When no gender fits: A quest to be seen as just a person.” This dates from September 2014, but appeared as a “related” article to a more recent piece (on abortion, so not terribly related). The article profiles a young woman, heading off to college, who considers herself “non-binary, agender, and use[s] they/them/their pronouns.” She wants hormone treatment, not to develop a male physique, but because “In Kelsey’s mind, the body that... Read more
Last week, I lamented that there were two unanswered, indeed unasked questions regarding the Obama library: cost to taxpayers and actual content of the library. Today, the Tribune says, in an article primarily focused on local businesses concerned they could get pushed out as a consequence of future development, that the Obama library would bring “a projected $600 million in economic development to an impoverished neighborhood that has long been overlooked.” At the same time, the article says, “Over the... Read more
Have you ever been wished Happy Mother’s Day by the cashier at the grocery store? This happened last year, I think for the first time, and was a very strange thing. I wasn’t even with my kids, let alone looking stressed out by caring for them. I didn’t have a cart full of diapers and baby formula. I imagine she distinguished the mothers from the non-mothers in her line by the sheer volume of groceries, or else indiscriminately wished every... Read more
So here he is: my first attempt at an amigurumi animal, based off a panda bear pattern from the internet, but, as you can see, done as an ordinary teddy bear. I finished it off in time to give to my youngest as a birthday present (his 8th birthday, but he’s not too old to enjoy it), but I’m not sure that I’ve found my new (non-blogging) hobby, as crocheting him was a major pain, especially the arms and legs,... Read more
Let me tell you about myself. I’m short. My driver’s license says 5’3″ — that’s rounding up. To be sure, I’m the tallest woman in my extended family, on my mom’s side. It’s the Greeks, or at least my Greek grandfather. But I really, really don’t like being short. My oldest son grew taller than me a couple years ago by now, the stool is a permanent fixture in the kitchen, and I really hate having to literally look up at... Read more
Here’s the story: Yesterday one of the Patheos bloggers, Seasons of Grace, linked to an article on iflscience.org describing a “Suicide Bear” — a robot invented in Japan to provide assisted suicide to the elderly, allowing them to chose from multiple mechanisms for suicide, from suffocation to strangulation to lethal injection, all done in an automated fashion at the touch of a button. The article states that this is all for the purpose of providing suicide options to the elderly,... Read more
The Federalist had an interesting piece yesterday, “Media Say Obama Is A ‘Bookworm.’ Are They Sure?” which didn’t cover any particularly new ground, but covered the old ground interestingly-enough: the media fawns over Obama’s supposed intellectual prowess, while at the same time deriding George W. Bush, and labeling claims that he reads, and reads a lot, as a pack of lies, where, in truth, W has made so many references to books he’s read and their content in so many... Read more
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