A while back, I wrote a post on “food deserts” and my belief that the fundamental issue was not lack of close grocery-shopping options, but lack of transit options, and said that two modes of transit that were commonplace in Europe — bicycling as a means of transportation (with saddlebags or trailer for carrying goods) rather than just recreation, and mass transit with a shopping/utility cart to bring the groceries home — didn’t appear to exist here, and the inner-city... Read more

So people blog for different reasons — to earn money, to be an author of sorts, to have an outlet for creative expression.  And — I know I’m naïve when I say this — part of my reason for blogging is as a way of working out the question of, “how can I make a difference?”  See, it sounds cheesy even saying it.  But, anyway, the Chicago Tribune is running a new editorial series, “A New Plan for Chicago” and... Read more

I know, you all have been impatiently asking yourselves, “when is Jane going to share her insights on the government shutdown with us, so we can properly understand it?” But it’s very discouraging. The Democrats are quite confident that the Republicans will cave, and that they need only wait for that to occur, and then witness the destruction of the Republican Party and ride a wave of dissatisfaction to recover the House majority in 2014. The Republicans are trapped. If... Read more

OK, spoiler alert — yes. Look, there are multiple ways of thinking about and paying for healthcare. In a place like the UK, publicly-funded healthcare is paid for out of general revenues. In a place like Germany, it’s paid for out of a special payroll tax — at the rate of 8.2% employee, 7.3% employer, up to a ceiling of about $60,000. In the US, of course, ObamaCare included all manner of tax hikes (mostly of the “soak the rich”... Read more

That’s the headline in today’s Tribune business section.  Here’s the link. This makes me sick.  $24 million for 100 jobs — that’s $240,000 per job.  And they’re not asking for a reduction in their corporate income tax, because they acknowledge that they have had “years in which its state corporate income tax is minimal.”  They’re asking to “retain employees’ income tax withholdings.”  In other words, they’re  not asking for a tax break — they’re just plain asking for the state... Read more

So as my faithful reader(s) will know, I’m a reader of the Chicago Tribune — which is largely behind a paywall, and it’s difficult to look at the paper and find the equivalent stories online.  But here are the headlines: Front page:  “Cracks visible in GOP unity” — with two stories, “Illinois workers, visitors get dose of standoff” and “Moderates finding voice amid ongoing stalemate.”  The first is, as you might expect, stories about the impact of the shutdown.  The... Read more

This is a great article on government healthcare spending by Avik Roy at the National Review.  Bottom line:  even without regard to ObamaCare’s new subsidies, the federal government already spends more on healthcare than Germany, Canada, and the UK, on a per-capita and purchasing power parity basis. This is stunning.  Now, I don’t know if this is purely Medicare and Medicaid, or if it also includes community health clinics, the VA, or even spending for federal government employees in its role as employee... Read more

Actually, Banned Books Week seems to have run its course. This is the first year that my Facebook friends haven’t been posting about how many so-called Banned Books they’ve read and sharing the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week website, and I don’t recall any special displays at the library last week either. Good riddance. And, no, I’m not a troglodyte. But I think most of the so-called “book banners” have legitmate concerns. More and more “young adult” literature includes... Read more

Yes, I know that for my readers, this is generally a pretty major challenge — but, look, this isn’t a Big Name blog where you’ll be branded for life as a traitor to the cause for trying to take up my challenge. But imagine that you’re in that negotiating room with Harry Reid and in a moment of candor he says, “yeah, I know, the law has a lot of problems, but I can’t just repeal it.” You’ve got to... Read more

You know the old saying, “when you’re in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging”? Here in Illinois, we do things a little differently. What’s the harm in digging a little more? We’re in debt, have a lousy credit rating, need a big bucket of cash to fund our pensions — but the instant ADM hints they’d locate 100 corporate jobs out-of-state, our top-notch legislators are scurrying to give them tax breaks. Of course, it would be... Read more