Today’s nonsense: “Affordable housing” politics in Detroit

Last updated on: September 26, 2016 at 7:52 am By Jane the Actuary

This would be nothing unusual in many metro areas: a requirement that builders of new housing who seek out tax incentives promise to allocate a share of their units as “affordable” according to federal guidelines of affordability for low- and/or moderate-income families. Specifically, we’re talking about a requirement that “any new residential development receiving tax incentives have at least 20 percent of units reserved for affordable housing.” The specific deal described in the Detroit News is for a project where... Read more

Cub Scout update

Last updated on: September 23, 2016 at 9:13 am By Jane the Actuary

Yeah, so in the past week we’ve had bombings and attempted bombings — and a near miss by the sheer luck of a thief helping himself to an abandoned suitcase. Followed by a cop shooting an unarmed — sorry, no, armed man (whose defenders say, “well, he wasn’t pointing the gun at the cops at the time”), which led to protests — OK, riots, in Charlotte, and a further death as one rioter apparently shot another. And then the Instapundit,... Read more

What makes a marriage?

Last updated on: September 20, 2016 at 10:25 am By Jane the Actuary

Catholic teaching says: Consent — and the maturity and mental capacity to be able to fully consent Intention for lifelong fidelity Openness to new life. So, my question to non-Catholic readers is, what do you think the (secular) definition of marriage is? I’m not talking about what makes a marriage successful. I’m speaking more narrowly: under what circumstances would you say, “that’s only a sham marriage”? Conducting a marriage ceremony to enable someone to stay in the country, with no... Read more

Nick Kristof, Anne Frank, and the Syrians

Last updated on: September 20, 2016 at 8:40 am By Jane the Actuary

So over the weekend, Nick Kristof had an article asking, “Would you hide a Jew from the Nazis?” Now, as it happens, I read this over the weekend, and closed out, and when I attempted just now to re-read it I’d hit my monthly article limit. But the flavor of the article was very similar to something he’d written back in August, in which he said, “Anne Frank Today Is a Syrian Girl.” In both cases, his point was... Read more

Bombs, Trump, and a major client deliverable

Last updated on: September 19, 2016 at 7:45 am By Jane the Actuary

Bombs over the weekend. The press seeming more interested in scolding Trump for calling the device in New York a “bomb” prior to the investigators being willing to declare it so, than in the event itself. An unknowingly poorly timed Nick Kristof column in the times saying that we’re killing Anne Frank all over again if we don’t admit every refugee to asks. The near-inevitability that Trump will make major polling gains due to these attacks. Relief that no one... Read more

R.I.P., ITT Tech

Last updated on: September 16, 2016 at 8:20 am By Jane the Actuary

For the longest time, I couldn’t make sense of ITT Tech. After all, here in Chicago, we’ve got the IIT, or the Illinois Institute of Technology, an expensive private university which is perhaps not at the same level as MIT or CalTech, but the same idea, anyway. So what is ITT? Is it related somehow? Ultimately I googled the name and learned that it stands for International Telephone and Telegraph (nothing to do with “Illinois”!), and that’s just because the... Read more

Another reason Catholic doctrine pairs marriage and children

Last updated on: September 15, 2016 at 3:33 pm By Jane the Actuary

Here’s an excerpt from a letter from the New York Times’ “ethicist” column: My wife and are I childless. We can’t have children of our own, and in any case, I have never wanted children. Now we are in our 40s, and my wife is starting the process of adoption. She is very well aware that I do not want to adopt a child, but to keep the peace in our relationship, I go along, under protest. . . .... Read more