Eastover

I am from a mixed family.  We range from devout Roman Catholics to more-Jewish-than-you-probably-think-of-when-you-think-of-Jewish.  I am neither, but it has given me a different perspective on the different traditions.  This is the week when my family’s different worlds collide.  The biggest holiday of the Christian tradition coincides with one of the big three of the…

Read More

Curses

I don’t use curse words.  Of all of my behavioral quirks, that is probably the most noticeable.  It isn’t an affectation.  I am not prudish about it or offended when others use them.  I just don’t.  I have one friend that has been trying to get me to swear for almost 20 years now.  She…

Read More

Paid Sick Leave

I was sick this week.  A non-serious, but icky, kind of sick.  I won’t go into the details here.  But, I stayed home from work for a couple of days.  I believe very strongly in not infecting others when I’m sick.  I don’t send my kid to school when she’s sick either, even if it…

Read More

Anger

I hate anger.  Of all the emotions, it’s my least favorite.  I’d rather feel sad or guilty than angry.  Of course, as a human being, I do feel angry from time to time, but I’m not prone to it.  I think most people who know me know that I’m calm most of the time.  That…

Read More

Re-de-segregation?

Today, as I do most everyday, I was scrolling through 3 Quarks Daily.  In case you don’t know, it’s an excellent site.  Once a week, on Monday, they have a collection of original essays.  The rest of the week, they are a high quality aggregator.  Instead of the usual headlines, they tend to feature longer works dealing with…

Read More

Blurry Lines

A couple years ago, I discovered that Kirk Cameron’s father in “Growing Pains” had a kid who had a hit song.  I’ve never heard the song, but I read an article about the fact that he was pre-emptively suing Marvin Gaye’s estate so that the courts would certify that he had not stolen one of…

Read More

Lies My Economist Told Me

There’s this weird feature in life where if people say things often enough, they become common knowledge and people stop questioning them.  The world of economics has raised the art of creating truths like this to its pinnacle.  We all know that governments are no good at picking winners.  We all know that regulation hurts business. …

Read More