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Politics and Religion

2016-05-01T16:01:11-06:00

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.

Is Germany an “unfair trader”? (Spoiler alert: no)

Last updated on: May 1, 2016 at 4:01 pm By Jane the Actuary

It’s like a scene out of high school, in which the slackers seek to sabotage the nerds because the class is graded on a curve, and the nerds’ success imperils the slackers “B.” But it’s playing out in international affairs instead, as the U.S. has put Germany on its new “unfair trading partners” list. Why? Because Germany dares to be fiscally responsible. As described by Deutsche Welle (but curiously, of much less interest to U.S. media; this cbsnews.com article was... Read more

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Germany

trade deficit

2016-04-28T06:23:30-06:00

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.

Q. How much should we care about suicide?

Last updated on: April 28, 2016 at 6:23 am By Jane the Actuary

A. More than we care about breast cancer — at least, based on causes of death data. The CDC put out a Data Brief recently on trends in suicides over the last 15 years which is unsettling, and worrisome. I’m not going to try to get into any in-depth discussion of causes, but the key item is this: the death rate by suicide has climbed 24% since 1999. The rate for women climbed by 45%, from 4 per hundred thousand to 5.8... Read more

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breast cancer

suicide

2016-04-27T15:31:38-06:00

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.

Go, Carly!

Last updated on: April 27, 2016 at 3:31 pm By Jane the Actuary

So this is what happens when you work at home, and have half-an-eyeball on twitter during the day: the clock strikes 3:00, and you turn on the news to see what the Cruz announcement is all about. (OK, actually, I hardly ever do this.) Elections are about choices. . . the Republican party faces a choice today. . . . united behind a positive, forward looking campaign based on real policy solutions. The American people deserve a real choice in... Read more

Politics

Cruz

Fiorina

2016-11-07T09:32:41-06:00

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.

Cookies, Cub Scouts, and Candidates – my Tuesday evening

Last updated on: November 7, 2016 at 9:32 am By Jane the Actuary

Listening to Trump speaking right now – how depressing! Winning 5 states, by substantial margins. Trump moaning that he’s unfairly not being considered the presumptive nominee. Asserting that he’s going to do great in Indiana because (a) Bobby Knight has endorsed him, and (b) Indiana is the location from which Carrier is moving jobs to Mexico. And he repeats his same lines: “we’ll build the wall, we’ll win against Hillary, we’ll bring jobs back to the U.S.” He’s got a... Read more

2016-04-26T08:32:42-06:00

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.

Update on Illinois: Thank God I don’t live in Palatine!

Last updated on: April 26, 2016 at 8:32 am By Jane the Actuary

where the Elementary School District 15 School Board has, as far as I, or pretty much any observer, can tell, given away the farm in its negotiations with the teachers’ union. The School Board has promised raises of 2.5% for the first four years of the contract, and 4% for the last six years, and, yes, that means it’s a 10 year contract, which is unheard of for all the obvious reasons — the fact that so many factors... Read more

2016-08-16T09:53:29-06:00

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 Social Security benefits “earned”? If not, what next?

Last updated on: August 16, 2016 at 9:53 am By Jane the Actuary

That’s the reason, or has, at any rate, always been offered as the reason, why we have an earning cap on Social Security pay — so that Americans can know that these are earned benefits, not a welfare check out of the pockets of the wealthy, and can feel a sense of dignity when they collect their check, and will confidently defend the program as “earned benefits” from those who would wish to dismantle it. It’s been that way from... Read more

Actuarial/Retirement Issues

Politics

Social Security

2016-04-23T08:20:41-06:00

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.

An accidental-shoplifting conundrum

Last updated on: April 23, 2016 at 8:20 am By Jane the Actuary

On Fridays, my middle son has a karate class just after dinner, and it’s just a short drive from the supermarket, so it’s convenient to stop there and get some grocery-shopping done during the class. Most of the time I can finish and be back more-or-less on time; last night it took a bit longer, in part because a buy-one, get-one-free sale wasn’t ringing up that way (clearance items were supposed to have been excluded, but it didn’t say so... Read more

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2016-04-22T12:14:49-06:00

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.

What to do about the very poor? (a follow-up to $2 a Day)

Last updated on: April 22, 2016 at 12:14 pm By Jane the Actuary

So having given a more-or-less straight summary of $2 a Day in my prior post, here are my observations: Edin & Shaeffer start off with “$2/day poverty has doubled since welfare reform” but other than that, the book is pretty void of statistics. What were the baseline numbers? When they say that virtually no one gets TANF these days, and the states use their block grants for other purposes, it really requires some hard data. They also breezily say, offhand, that... Read more

2016-04-22T10:24:28-06:00

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.

From the library: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer

Last updated on: April 22, 2016 at 10:24 am By Jane the Actuary

This book is not a polemic. It largely busies itself with simply explaining the lives of those in deep, deep poverty, both in general and by means of a small number of case studies, with some context to begin with and prescriptions at the end. The book doesn’t assign villians, or launch into partisan rants, and it doesn’t portray the people it follows as either paragons of virtue or deserving of their fate. And the name of the first co-author... Read more

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poverty

welfare

2016-04-22T06:43:57-06:00

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.

Another what-if on locker rooms

Last updated on: April 22, 2016 at 6:43 am By Jane the Actuary

Look, we all get it: an individual who has transitioned is in a position where you can’t just demand they use the locker rooms corresponding to their sex at birth. But at the same time, well, it’s driving me batty when people treat this as only an issue of bathrooms, and something to get past just by not being prudish. So here are a dozen scenarios. Which of these individuals would you feel comfortable using the locker room at a... Read more

Politics

transgender

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