Why am I starting this post off with an image of Michigan as a decal on my car? This was a purchase on our vacation to Grand Haven two weeks ago. I’d never gotten the standard stick-figure decal for the minivan, so when my husband suggested this instead, I was happy to accept his offer. Yes, I don’t live in Michigan, though we’ve talked about buying a vacation house there. But, more broadly speaking, I’m definitely a Great Lakes kind... Read more
In immigration news lately (links selected for convenience rather than endorsement of any specific news/opinion site): The Cotton-Purdue “RAISE” bill was introduced, which aims to half the number of immigrants per year while dramatically shifting them from extended family-reunification to skills-based, using a Canadian-style points system. CNN reporter Jim Acosta accused Trump advisor Stephen Miller of, well, being un-American for violating the Statue of Liberty’s welcome for the poorest of the poor by preferring instead the educated. Senator John McCain... Read more
Holland, region of the Netherlands, that is, accessible at Holland.com. Holland, town in west Michigan, accessible at Holland.org. The first Holland has windmills. Lots of windmills. Pictured below, the windmill museum in Leiden. The second Holland has a windmill, too, brought over from the Netherlands in 1964. The first Holland also has canals, and boats, and interesting streetscapes, and the Atlantic coast. The second Holland? Well, there’s a cute shopping district and a state park with a beach and... Read more
Yeah, I’m talking about literal puzzles, and I couldn’t even come up with a better pun than that. This is what I’ve been working on lately: I seem to attempt a puzzle on maybe an annual basis for the past couple years (that is, once free time opened up due to more independent kids). The original intention was for this to be a family project, but I ended up being the only one that really worked on it. And I... Read more
Continuing the series of guest posts, even though I’m back from vacation. Here’s Jane Stoneface’s contribution. I had plans to write something Catholic for Jane’s blog. I even had an outline. But then, in the middle of a busy afternoon, I got a jury summons, which derailed my trains of thought and sent me into a fit of complaining and griping. In the 5 years we’ve been living in my small town, I’ve been summoned for jury duty twice. Some... Read more
Here’s what I’m noticing about Congress’s ongoing attempts to create a credible Obamacare-replacement bill: with each version of an Obamacare-repeal bill, from the House version to the initial Senate proposal to the “skinny repeal” bill of last week, the CBO has weighed in, and the media has repeated its pronouncements, on the Key Question, how many additional uninsured people will there be upon implementation of the bill? A repeal without replacement would increase the uninsured by 32 million. The “skinny... Read more
Some time ago, I wrote a blog post asking, “Is Megan McArdle a freeloader?“, referencing her because she’s told at least part of her (childless) life story in her recent(-ish) book and because there’s at least some degree of overlap between her (admittedly much more numerous) readers and mine. The answer to that rhetorical question was a somewhat lame, “no, not really.” But this weekend’s Economist had a somewhat different take on the issue. The childless, they say, are not... Read more
This isn’t so much a rhetorical question as a real issue for discussion. Here’s an article I came across in my twitter feed earlier today: “This is what reparations could actually look like in America.” Not much is really new here: the author, Chuck Collins, proposes that the funds for the reparations would come from the usual “millionaires and billionaires” and would cover such items as home purchase subsidies, free college tuition for first-generation students, “roots trips” to Africa, endowments... Read more
This, from the New York Times, “A Family-Friendly Policy That’s Friendliest to Male Professors,” which reports on the impact of the standard accommodation for new parents among professors seeking tenure: stopping the clock; that is, allowing additional time beyond the usual seven years after hire. This policy is apparently generally applied rather blindly; all such new parents receive this benefit, regardless of whether they take leave time, put the baby in daycare right away, etc. This policy became the norm... Read more
Last night, the Senate rejected the so-called “skinny repeal,” in which all provisions of Obamacare would stay unchanged except the individual and employer mandate, and the medical device tax. Look, I’m on vacation, and have been very determined to ignore this whole thing for the time being, but my husband stayed up late to watch the vote. This was stupid. I don’t hold this against Trump, because I never expected much of him. But the Senate leadership? You cannot have... Read more
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