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October 2015

October 15, 2015

What if diamond-mining disappeared?

What if -- the engagement ring, as we know it today, disappeared? Thanks to clever...

October 15, 2015

Question for readers: how much should the U.S. grow?

You have perhaps seen the projections: Africa and the Middle East, as well as the...

October 14, 2015

Another reason Bernie Sanders wishes he lived in Europe

Bernie Sanders, as you may know, expressed the desire for the United States to be...

October 14, 2015

Some quick debate observations

I started watching the debate with good intentions -- I didn't take copious notes but...

October 13, 2015

Dear Cardinal Marx (how to revive the Catholic Church in Germany)

Dear Cardinal Marx,* It's been reported in the (U.S. Catholic) news that, as archbishop of...

October 13, 2015

The transgender locker room debate comes close to home

This issue made the news back in September, when students in Missouri protested the use...

October 12, 2015

Church tax, and its consequences

Is there a German schism in the works? That's what fellow Patheos blogger Dwight Longenecker...

October 11, 2015

“If they won’t let me stay in Germany, I will go back home”

That, paraphrased, is what a Syrian "refugee" is quoted as saying in this "greatest hits"...

October 10, 2015

Could armed Jews have stopped the Holocaust?

Yes, and no, and "depends on what the meaning of 'stopping the Holocaust' is." If...

October 09, 2015

OK, I’ll bite. . . Fiorina and the Middle Ages

So reports are that Fiorina is using as an applause line, the claim that her...

October 08, 2015

The constitution is not sacred

Before I start writing, let me just remind you all, and any new readers in...

October 07, 2015

Reading D.C.’s Universal Paid Leave Act

I've been waiting for my lunch break all morning, having first read about D.C.'s proposed...

October 06, 2015

Happy German-American Day!

Yes, this is a real thing, though for many years of German school I'd always...

October 05, 2015

Fame or fantasy? Thinking about mass killers’ motivations

Yesterday I wrote a little piece, "6 thoughts on gun violence"; what follows is an...

October 05, 2015

Immigration and self-determination

Here's the latest news: two items from the Washington Post, as I blow through my...

October 05, 2015

The clickbait – and the reality – behind a shooting news item

"Florida teen fatally shoots masked intruder who turned out to be his father" -- that's...

October 04, 2015

Frankfurt Botanical Garden, September 26, 2015

Yeah, my husband was the photographer here, on an off-day on his business trip, but...

October 04, 2015

6 thoughts on gun violence

1. Yes, once again, half the country is saying "we need common-sense gun legislation" and...

October 02, 2015

Why? (The 2nd amendment, the frontier, etc.)

Shooting. Bad. Again. Yes, someone'll work out a graphic that says that mass shootings aren't...

September 2015

September 29, 2015

You know cancer sucks when. . .

You see a commercial on TV for a new immunotherapy medication. It doesn't promise a...

September 29, 2015

Don’t defund Planned Parenthood – dismember them

Figuratively, of course. But it's kind of fitting, isn't it? Planned Parenthood's abortion providers dismember...

September 27, 2015

Update on Fiorina

So remember when, in that Jane the Actuary sort of way, I spent an inordinate...

September 27, 2015

Popemania has gone too far when. . . (with bonus Pew survey)

So this popped up in my facebook feed today: Yes, it's a fake quote (here's...

September 26, 2015

From the library: Still Alice

Wow. I just finished watching Still Alice, and I still feel weepy, and I should...

September 25, 2015

Are you a financial planner?

I mean that in the sense of "by profession" not whether you more generically plan...

September 24, 2015

The Pope’s Speech

I admit -- this feels like homework. Not in the sense that I feel obliged...

September 24, 2015

Slate gets it wrong on the Holocaust

OK, one might say, "Timothy Snyder gets it wrong on the Holocaust" but no one...

September 23, 2015

In case you haven’t noticed that I haven’t been writing about the Pope

Eh. I dunno. I'm just not all that excited about it. I don't want to...

September 22, 2015

Clock-boy’s story gets odder – with more overreaction

Update on Ahmed Mohamed: The other day I discussed reports that his "invention" was just a disassembled...

September 22, 2015

On VW: I’m still mystified

The news is all over. Shock, horror at what Volkswagen has done. Europeans are getting...