The Tribune, in it’s Plan of Chicago series, editorialized on Sunday about the fundamental problem of children growing up without a father.  It should be common sense, but the editorial spends its time citing studies that demonstrate the significant disadvantages faced by children of single parents, needing to justify itself in the face of the risk of “offending those who think that pointing out the perils of single-parent households amounts to blaming the victims, or that noting the value of... Read more

The latest article making the rounds of my small world concerns the future of doctoral students:  “Finding Life After Academia — and Not Feeling Bad About It.” The article features Ph.D.s or Ph.D. candidates in the humanities who have left the academic world (in which they were generally still searching for a job, or in one case dissatisfied with the job they had found) in order to make their way in the business world, or in nonprofit or government employment, and it... Read more

This story, “Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle” appeared in the Washington Post a while back, and a reader, Jim, linked to it in a comment on my prior post on food stamps.  I had read it before, and was disturbed by the “binge-buying” on the first of the month, but now I want to look at it more closely in terms of the couple that’s being profiled: They’re young — she’s 21, his age is... Read more

Beginning today, the temporary increase in food stamp benefits ends, causing recipients to see “cuts” in their benefits.  (“Cuts” in quotes because of this game that politicians play about what’s temporary vs. permanent.)  And CNN is profiling families who will face hardship — or, should I say, “hardship.” The first family receives $800 a month.  The head of the household is 55, and disabled on account of emphysema (due, the story says, to a lifetime of bartending in smoke-filled rooms,... Read more

That’s one of the top links at cnn.com today, bringing one, oddly, to a “small business”-categorized report that hookers, er, sorry, sex workers are flocking to Obamacare.  The article profiles a “sex worker” (actual activities unspecified) who calls herself “Siouxsie Q” who’s happy to be buying health insurance.  Like any self-employed individual, she didn’t have health insurance from her employer and, the article tells us, prior to Obamacare, “she and her partner recently reviewed their healthcare options and found that a... Read more

You know, I used to think of myself as a “crafty” sort of person — back when I was a kid and crafts meant needlepoint and sewing.  Now sewing is obsolete, when the fabric costs more than the completed piece of clothing, and the crafts of the 2010s are scrapbooking and jewelry-making, neither of which suit me (I don’t have the eye for, or interest in, scrapbooking, and the only jewelry I wear is my wedding ring), but once a year... Read more

This opinion piece by Kay Hymowitz in the LA Times, linked to by National Review, gets back to the issue I’ve been thinking about lately: fatherless kids, particularly boys, and the seemingly endless cycle. Apparently, this is a condensed version of an article in the City Journal, but that’s not available online yet. Nothing that Hymowitz says is particularly novel, except that there are cross-country studies that indicate that these “Boy Problems” exist even in generous social welfare states such... Read more

I could come up with hundreds of links like this one, the Washington Post’s 4 Pinocchio rating for Obama and friends’ claims that “if you like your health plan, you can keep it.”  But the reality is, anyone who followed the law knew this was a lie.  It was clear that the requirements were being upped, including identical coverage/pricing for men and women, full coverage of the “10 essential benefits,” a laundry-list of preventative care, and other plan design requirements which substantially... Read more

OK, you guys have convinced me: I’m planning on, experimentally, making a point of blocking out a certain length of time in the day to commenting. But I’ll pair that with not commenting on the blogs I usually follow, to try to keep the amount of time I spend on this blogging project under control. I’ll report back on whether this seems to work out or not (or whether my comments are lame enough that they’re less satisfactory than nothing... Read more