How do you hold bishops accountable without destroying the church?

Last updated on: August 15, 2018 at 7:39 am By Jane the Actuary

That’s the question, isn’t it? In the wake of the McCarrick scandal comes the grand jury’s report on sexual abuse in Pennsylvania, as summarized, for instance, by Bethany Mandel at Ricochet, and at the Catholic News Agency. The report is devastating, with multiple instances of stomach-churning levels of abuse, and with bishops more interested in protecting the abusers than the abused. Most notably, this is not all a matter of the past, and some long-dead bishop, but rather the current... Read more

Die, lice, die!

Last updated on: August 14, 2018 at 9:21 pm By Jane the Actuary

There ought to be a metaphor here somewhere . . . but let’s start with the literal lice, which I had made it through nearly 18 years of parenting without encountering, until this past spring, when my middle son, who had just entered public high school and was eager to leave Catholic school hair length requirements behind and started growing out his hair, got lice from his friends at school. Yikes! We followed the instructions on the bottle. We did... Read more

Immigration and loyalty and Rashida Tlaib

Last updated on: August 13, 2018 at 10:54 am By Jane the Actuary

Here’s an AP report in the Sunday Chicago Tribune: “Palestinian-American candidate is source of West Bank pride.” The article features Rashida Tlaib, a progressive candidate who just won an open primary in Detroit. The story would be an interesting one without the immigration angle, as Tlaib, a 42 year old former state representative generated excitement and cash (over one million in donations, far outraising her five opponents) to defeat the favored, and establishment/union-endorsed Brenda Jones, Detroit city council president, in... Read more

My beef with “institutional sin”

Last updated on: August 11, 2018 at 10:20 am By Jane the Actuary

Regular readers will know that I have more ideas than I do patience for digging out the relevant links to document my claim. But here is my complaint: I dislike the idea of “institutional sin” – that is, the concept that sinfulness can reside in bureaucratic structures. And I dislike it because it exempts those who ought to bear responsibility, from genuinely taking responsibility. And we’re seeing it again with the U.S. bishops, with respect to the twin scandals of... Read more

Are you a public charge?

Last updated on: August 31, 2018 at 9:59 am By Jane the Actuary

The White House is, reportedly, based on the usual anonymous sources, about to publish, via the usual measures of such, a re-definition of what it means to be a “public charge” in such a way as to prevent immigrants who meet the new, more encompassing definition, from being able to move from temporary to permanent residency or from permanent residency to citizenship. Here’s NBC News’ reporting: The Trump administration is expected to issue a proposal in coming weeks that would... Read more

When financial literacy training wheels disappear

Last updated on: August 10, 2018 at 10:28 am By Jane the Actuary

Financial literacy — that’s the new watchword. How can we expect people to save — for retirement, for a rainy day — if they don’t understand, fundamentally, how finances work. How does interest work? What’s inflation all about? How would one even begin to start investing? With respect to the first two of these items, I’ve generally had the sense that people might know how these terms are defined but don’t have a feel for what they really mean in... Read more

74 shootings. No answer in sight.

Last updated on: August 9, 2018 at 9:23 pm By Jane the Actuary

So in the past month-ish Chicago has had two high-profile protests: the first on the Dan Ryan Freeway (I-94 south of the Loop) and the second on Lake Shore Drive on the north side of the city. The first of these was organized by Rev. Michael Pfleger; his list of demands consisted of resources for our communities, national common sense gun laws, jobs, excellent schools and economic development. The second was, near as I can figure, less coherent in... Read more

What’s next for anti-straw-ism?

Last updated on: August 7, 2018 at 3:49 pm By Jane the Actuary

You know, a while back I wrote about straws in a Forbes article, as an example of innumeracy. At the time, I had a link, however tenuous, to retirement planning, to warrant publishing the piece there. This time, it’s just a general irritant so it’s here at Patheos. But let’s start with the fact that the anti-straw campaign has gotten out of hand. First it’s the reports that Starbucks’ “sippy cup” replacement for straws + lids actually use up more... Read more

It’s all about the lye (no soda)

Last updated on: August 4, 2018 at 10:44 pm By Jane the Actuary

I’ve told you about pretzels before. Here’s an update, with a bit of Actuary family life thrown in. My youngest son is 11, going into 6th grade, which means that he’s still daycamp age: he spent three weeks at small-boat sailing daycamp, a week at the School of Rock daycamp, a week at a half-day robotics daycamp, a week at Boy Scout Camp, and spent the past week at a daycamp taking place at the 1880s-recreation farm near us. Yes, in... Read more