What’s the purpose of deferred deportation?

Last updated on: March 4, 2017 at 4:30 pm By Jane the Actuary

For discussion: Here’s a recent New York Times article on illegal immigrants with deportation orders that, for various reasons, the government has not actually acted on. The Times lists a number of circumstances: the individual officially “low priority” or was given a deferral (e.g., a sick child), or the deportation order was issued in the individual’s absence (and that due either to willful refusal to cooperate, or because they had moved or didn’t understand the English-language notice). But here’s the... Read more

Is Stop-and-Frisk the cure to Chicago’s gun violence?

Last updated on: March 4, 2017 at 4:11 pm By Jane the Actuary

That’s what Bill Daley suggests in an opinion piece in the Tribune last Thursday. First, Illinois must require mandatory prison time for illegally carrying a gun in the state. People lawfully owning licensed firearms need not worry. The General Assembly has been studying and preparing to change gun laws while people keep dying. Enough! Act! In 2006, New York increased its mandatory penalty for carrying a loaded illegal gun to 3 1/2 years in prison. Many factors affect violence, but... Read more

College-financing advice wanted!

Last updated on: March 3, 2017 at 1:08 pm By Jane the Actuary

Here’s the reality: my son is a junior in high school. He’s got good grades, but so do plenty of other kids. He doesn’t have anything that gains him any diversity points, and he’s not going to catch anyone’s eye for leadership or community service or just plain being a good communicator, because, let’s face it, he’s not. He had to write a practice application-style essay and it was a very painful exercise to help him through. And here’s the... Read more

The 94 million matter

Last updated on: March 3, 2017 at 2:59 pm By Jane the Actuary

So at his quasi-State of the Union, President Trump (I know, it’s strange to be using that title) said that there were 94 million people out of the labor force, and the AP, in its fact check, said, “you dummy, this number includes all the retirees, and the disabled, and stay-at-home parents, and students, etc., etc., so that’s not any evidence of a real unemployment problem.” OK, actually, they said, That 94 million figure includes everyone aged 16 and older... Read more

Fact-checking Emma Lazarus

Last updated on: March 3, 2017 at 9:20 am By Jane the Actuary

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! From The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus. That’s the story we learn in school, isn’t it? Immigrants were destitute and persecuted, and would have starved had they stayed in their home countries, but the United States offered them refuge. What’s more, we’re told, whenever one... Read more

What’s so “final” about your “final resting place”?

Last updated on: March 2, 2017 at 3:02 pm By Jane the Actuary

This is a little bit of an invitation for readers, as I’ve been thinking about the idea that a cemetery should be preserved forever, the bodies buried there undisturbed. This is not the case in Germany, where cemetery plots are leased and re-used — and I have in mind a fuller blog post on this. But here in the U.S., we’ve got two alternatives: either a “forever” cemetery plot (which means a higher cost or further drive for city-dwellers) or... Read more

What is Obamacare? (not “the ACA”)

Last updated on: March 1, 2017 at 1:31 pm By Jane the Actuary

Just a small ah-ha moment here during lunch break. How often have you heard the following? People who want to repeal Obamacare don’t realize all the great things it includes: the expansion of Medicaid, the elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions and lifetime maximums, the requirement that adults up to age 25 can remain dependents on a health plan, and so on. None of these things can be taken away without causing a great deal of uproar, and, besides, they’re fools,... Read more

Fact-checking the fact-checkers

Last updated on: March 1, 2017 at 9:46 am By Jane the Actuary

It did not take long for the AP to put out its fact-check of Trump’s speech; here’s a link to the version published by the Chicago Tribune. I’ll be the first one to say that Trump’s speech was, by and large, vapid, and full of platitudes. Reason.com put out an alternate “fact-check” identifying 12 whoppers, including the claim that “Every problem can be solved” and “Every hurting family can find healing and hope.” But the AP “fact-check” was itself foolish,... Read more

Trump predictions?

Last updated on: February 28, 2017 at 10:08 pm By Jane the Actuary

Yeah, let’s play this game: what will Trump say tonight? In fact, let’s do this in two parts, though it might be a bit too late. Anyone who reads this before Trump’s address, give us your best guesses about what he’ll say. Then, afterwards, I invite readers to collectively score the guesses and see who wins. Wins what? Don’t know. Don’t have many prizes to give away. The satisfaction of being correct, mostly. Update: Yeah, don’t you want to ask... Read more

The new, old world of bomb threats

Last updated on: February 28, 2017 at 9:40 am By Jane the Actuary

Every day, it seems like, there’s a new report of a bomb threat made to Jewish community centers, causing chaos and disruption, especially when preschool classes are in session. According to the Washington Post, [threat-assessment consultant Steve] Albrecht said that he would not recommend evacuating a JCC each time a threat does come in. For decades, bomb threats have nearly never indicated that an actual bomb was present in a building. “If we evacuate the facility every time somebody makes... Read more