Eric Zorn’s Change of Subject column links to a New Republic article on the anti-adoption movement — birthparents who feel they were deceived by adoption agencies, and their supporters.  Among the deceptive practices they list are money given them for pregnancy expenses, pressure to decide in the 24 hours after childbirth, promises by the adoptive parents to keep the birth mother in their life, and failure to provide information on the father’s responsibility to provide child support, welfare benefits available,... Read more

Yeah, I know, exciting topic — but really: it’s actually timely and relevant to provide a bit of background on pensions. Public pensions are quite a bit in the news — in particular, how underfunded they are, and the fact that their liability valuations, under accounting principles for government, uses a discount rate based on the expected return on plan assets, so, typically about 7 – 8%. As an actuary accustomed to private-sector pension plans, this just feels bizarre. Of... Read more

This is not a new book by any means — it was published in 2007 — but I decided that if I wanted to write about healthcare to any degree, I needed to go back to this book, which was quite eye-opening when I first read it. (I don’t think it was that long ago — I was surprised at the publication date, since most of my reading comes from the new book shelf at the library, but maybe this... Read more

Per this article linked to from Drudge, scientists have “cured” an artificially-created Down Syndrome-like condition in mice, which is extraordinary. Apparently, DS people have a brain that’s simply smaller than an average brain, and the procedure in question increased brain growth in newborn baby mice. The scientists are hesitant to say that htis could be replicated in human newborns, and cite the risk of brain tumors (though the article doesn’t indicate whether the mice experienced this side effect or whether... Read more

I had said in an earlier blog post that I wasn’t going to write about Syria, and it still goes against my general approach for this blog (that is, I want to try to say something different — if I just repeat things everyone else says, I don’t feel as if I’m accomplishing anything with this blogging project).   The Anchoress has a pretty good summary of the situation which I’d just copy and paste entirely and it would express much of... Read more

This author at Forbes pokes a lot of holes into the CATO “welfare pays more than work” study. Go read it and let me know what you think. (My on commentary is on the to-do list.) Read more

According to this report from ABC News, Whole Foods is building a store in a food desert in the impoverished Chicago neighborbhood of Englewood. Which is fine, as far as it goes — the city has found a developer to put a vacant plot of land to productive use. But is it worthy of celebration? Maybe the TIF subsidies will enable Whole Foods to offer its products at a lower price. Maybe it’ll draw from whatever middle-class areas exist in... Read more

So I’m back to food deserts, due to a comment I received which interpreted my prior comments as criticism of the box-toting woman making her way, via bus, home from the grocery store, rather than of the activists pressing for more stores rather than transportation improvements. This is what I’m thinking: it seems obvious to me that, were I in that situation, I’d buy myself a utility/shopping cart, pronto.  Something like this:   ($36.99 at Amazon) or this: ($47.99) or maybe this,... Read more

No.  Next question? That’s one of instapundit.com’s rhetorical devices, but it works well here, because this shouldn’t even be an issue. In this case, Instapundit links to Breitbart, who quotes from a Huffington Post article quoting Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as promoting employer efforts to expand their employees awareness of loan forgiveness programs: Teachers, soldiers, firefighters, policeman – public sector careers invariably involve some effort, some inconvenience or some sacrifice. People give up higher incomes... Read more