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Politics and Religion

2017-03-26T18:46:23-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Where does insurance end, and social insurance begin?

Last updated on: March 26, 2017 at 6:46 pm By Jane the Actuary

Insurance: a financial product in which a consumer buys a policy promising payment in the event that some risk occurs, and the insurer prices based on the likelihood of that risk occurring, and its likely severity. Home insurance premiums are based on the risk of that individual house being robbed, or damaged by fire, or storm damage, or the like, and actuaries price that risk based on crime rates in the neighborhood, the proximity of a fire station, the cost to... Read more

2017-03-26T08:03:22-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Veni, vidi, addixi: RIP, Ryancare

Last updated on: March 26, 2017 at 8:03 am By Jane the Actuary

So it’s official: the GOP has had so little support for the “American Health Care Act” that it pulled the plug and is now saying, “well, we tried — on to tax reform!” In other words, bitching and moaning about Obamacare has proven easier than fixing it — not because the fixes were too difficult, but because the Republican leadership just didn’t have the political skills needed to corral a fractious party. To be sure, the Ryancare plan had a... Read more

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health insurance

Obamacare

2017-03-23T10:45:58-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

They’ve caught the bomb threat hoaxer! (and: can you be a Jewish anti-semite?)

Last updated on: March 23, 2017 at 10:45 am By Jane the Actuary

They’ve caught the individual believed to be responsible for hoax bomb threats on JCCs, not just in the U.S., but in Australia and New Zealand as well. In Israel. He’s a teenager. And Jewish. We don’t know much more, except that this was a multi-nation effort, and that he used very sophisticated technology to disguise the origin of the calls, and the agencies that found him used equally sophisticated technology to find him. Here’s a link to the CNN article,... Read more

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antisemitism

2017-03-21T08:19:32-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

American Culture, American Values, and Immigrants

Last updated on: March 21, 2017 at 8:19 am By Jane the Actuary

Can we preserve American culture, and American values, with “other people’s babies”? Representative Steven King found himself accused of white supremacism for a tweet in which he said, in part, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” and in an article at the National Review, Jonathan S. Tobin wrote, in defense of immigrants, that, as was the case throughout our history, the next generation of immigrants would just as surely adopt American values of “liberty, democracy, and the rule... Read more

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immigration

multiculturalism

2017-03-21T08:45:12-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Are you watching “This is Us”?

Last updated on: March 21, 2017 at 8:45 am By Jane the Actuary

Spoiler alerts, for those who care about these sorts of things. I have to admit — I’ve been watching this show while exercising on the exercise bike in the basement in the mornings. And I know that there are a lot of people — on my facebook news feed, for instance — who love, love this show. But, while it’s a fine enough show, I just can’t get emotionally invested in it, because the people and the situations don’t feel... Read more

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television

This is Us

2017-03-20T08:02:49-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It’s the complacency, stupid! My new pet theory on secularism

Last updated on: March 20, 2017 at 8:02 am By Jane the Actuary

Sure, there’s probably tons written about this in the academic literature, but remember, I’m just an actuary, who blogs as a way of thinking about issues that are interesting to me, rather than with (most of the time) a specific agenda to promote. Something that’s always seemed “off” to me is the explanation that secularism is the inevitable result of the prosperity of our current times, so that religious observance will inevitably, absent a catastrophe that sends us back into... Read more

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religious revival

secularism

2017-03-17T12:10:55-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 12:10 pm By Jane the Actuary

Yeah, just a question. No agenda. Open forum — do you celebrate? If so, why? How? And does one need to be Irish to do so? Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thadz/6086081141; public domain; Detail of St Patrick with a shamrock in a stained glass window at the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows at Navy Pier in Chicago. Read more

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St. Patrick's Day

2017-03-17T11:51:22-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Education is not a (positive) human right

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 11:51 am By Jane the Actuary

Perhaps you remember this from history class in school: in the system of slavery as it existed in the American South, it was illegal to teach a slave to read or write. The State systematically denied slaves the ability to gain an education, because they believed that the ability to read and write would enable slaves to fight against their oppression. It could be said that their human right to an education was being denied them, though it’s a trivial... Read more

2017-03-16T11:40:15-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What else we lose when we’re “losing my religion”

Last updated on: March 16, 2017 at 11:40 am By Jane the Actuary

New, must-read article in The Atlantic, by Peter Beinart: “Breaking Faith; The culture war over religious morality has faded; in its place is something much worse.” A few excerpts: [Secularism is] making America’s partisan clashes more brutal. And it has contributed to the rise of both Donald Trump and the so-called alt-right movement, whose members see themselves as proponents of white nationalism. As Americans have left organized religion, they haven’t stopped viewing politics as a struggle between “us” and “them.”... Read more

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multiculturalism

secularism

2017-03-15T12:25:43-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Who needs dental insurance?

Last updated on: March 15, 2017 at 12:25 pm By Jane the Actuary

There’ve been a number of opinion pieces again recently on the question of whether it’s appropriate for health “insurance” plans to pay for routine expenses. To a certain degree, high deductible plans attempt to return health plans to a true insurance model, covering the heart attack but not the doctor’s visit for the flu, but even these plans, under ACA regulations, and, previously, in order to qualify for HRA status with a pre-tax reimbursement account for pre-deductible expenses, are required... Read more

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