Can you be a “pro-life feminist”? (warning: rant)

Last updated on: January 19, 2017 at 8:46 am By Jane the Actuary

The folks at Feminists for Life certainly believe so. A group calling itself the New Pro-life Movement (which seems to exist only as a Facebook page and a loose collection of like-minded people, rather than as a formal organization) pairs pro-life-ism with traditionally “feminist” and progressive causes. And a group called New Wave Feminists sought to be a part of the anti-Trump Washington march because of their alignment on these issues. They were, unfortunately but not surprisingly, rejected by the... Read more

And so it begins . . .

Last updated on: January 18, 2017 at 7:33 pm By Jane the Actuary

Yes, my son is a junior in high school, so I knew that the onslaught of college brochures would be inevitable. But this was an unexpected start to the process: Six letters, all on the same day, all promising to send my son a free book about choosing a college, or doing well in college, or the like, and, when he goes online or returns the envelope, he’ll also learn why X University is the right choice for him. And of... Read more

Healthcare spending: two questions

Last updated on: January 15, 2017 at 9:21 pm By Jane the Actuary

Yes, another set of questions for readers. Easier to ask questions than pontificate, when I’m short on time to do the research to pontificate in an educated manner. First: In the past couple days, there have been two stories in my facebook feed about “lives Obamacare has saved”: the first, a woman who needed some kind of super-pricey weekly infusions in order to keep her unborn child alive and developing, which her healthcare provider told her were not covered until... Read more

Open forum: your predictions, please!

Last updated on: January 15, 2017 at 4:28 pm By Jane the Actuary

On the Saturday following Inauguration Day, protests are planned for not just Washington D.C., but a host of other cities across the country. And these protesters, and countless others, politicians, grass-roots organizers, and pundits, have vowed total and complete opposition to Donald Trump and anything the Republican Party may do. Yes, sure, plenty of Democrats will say this is just the GOP getting what is deserves for refusing to cooperate with Obama in prior years, and I’m not going to get... Read more

Could Betsy De Vos solve the Two-Income Trap?

Last updated on: January 14, 2017 at 12:43 pm By Jane the Actuary

The nomination of Betsy De Vos to head the Department of Education has brought up, again, the question of vouchers and voucher-like systems, at least on twitter and facebook. Here’s what I’ve been thinking. There are reasonable arguments in favor of and against voucher/schools of choice/charter school systems. On the one hand, these systems create winners and losers, and the loser-school systems bear burdensome legacy costs, if the public schools can’t respond to the situation by upping their game. Parents... Read more

Why the adulation?

Last updated on: January 14, 2017 at 12:26 pm By Jane the Actuary

Just to be perfectly clear: I remember Bill Clinton. I remember that many Americans thought very highly of him, and considered his presidency to have been an unqualified success, and deemed criticism of the man to have been unjust and a partisan witch hunt. But I just don’t remember him being the recipient of the sort of adulation that President Obama is currently receiving. The farewells. The tearfulness. The praise that he’s a shining example of a father, a husband,... Read more

Who wants to talk about the latest Trump “-gate”?

Last updated on: January 11, 2017 at 10:10 am By Jane the Actuary

Not me. I’m behind in work at my day job. But here’s a link to a skeptical article at the National Review. You can follow their link to the original Buzzfeed article. Here’s another article, this one by David French. Am I cherry-picking? Do I need to dig into this from a mix of authors? Yes, of course. But I really, really, need to finish a memo for work, and in the meantime, thought it would be worthwhile to open... Read more

Working backwards on immigration, and a Cupich gripe

Last updated on: January 11, 2017 at 9:47 am By Jane the Actuary

Today Cardinal Cupich had a piece in the op-ed section in the Chicago Tribune, titled “It’s immigrants who have made America great.” Most of this is boilerplate: the so-called Dreamers were brought here through no fault of their own, and will make great contributions to this country, and it would be unjust for the government to deport them. As is now increasingly the case, Cupich deploys the rhetoric that they are already “Americans” in spirit, if not legally so. (Bernie... Read more

A bit of irony on minimum wage/immigration advocacy

Last updated on: January 9, 2017 at 8:47 pm By Jane the Actuary

Here’s a piece at MarketWatch.com that was floating around twitter this weekend: “Your food and wine costs are going to rise when Donald Trump takes office.” Why? Because illegal workers make up 16% of all farmworkers. Deport them and the cost for labor will go up, and, hence food and wine prices will increase. Why just “food and wine”? Why not other beverages? It’s not a very well-written article, but you’ve seen this before: this is a job “Americans won’t... Read more

There are (apparently) no snowflakes in France

Last updated on: January 9, 2017 at 8:31 pm By Jane the Actuary

Here’s something that showed up in my twitter feed this morning: “Erasmus tips: How to survive at a French university.” The “Erasmus” in the title refers to a program in the European Union to encourage and facilitate university students studying in other countries, but that’s not relevant. What makes this a worthwhile read is the description of the ways in which French universities are radically different than those in the United States. Among the differences: Don’t expect as much help... Read more