(no subject)

Today's XKCD has me giggling like a wild giggling thing. I honestly have no clue why this is so hilarious, but I suspect the alt text has something to do with it.

a very happy birthday

... to just_ann_now. I see shirebound has you covered for chocolate (at least one of the four food groups IMO), which leaves me to manage the cake.



Specifically cheesecake with apple slices sauteed in brown sugar on top, and a delicious graham-and-almond crust. Just the thing to pair with a cup of tea or cider and sit by the fire rereading Kushner in preparation for the upcoming book. As if you (we) needed an excuse.

Seriously, I hope it was a good one.

new blog post on marriage rates and public policy

In case, anyone's interested, I wrote and posted a blog post last night:

in Search of *Real* Family Values Policies

My blurb from FB:

A while back Love, Joy, Feminism talked about Matt Walsh talking about marriage rates. Basically, Matt Walsh claimed Americans are getting married at later dates than ever before and Libby Anne made the case that he's wrong, that it was the 1950s (our usual reference point for whatever reason) that's a bit of a blip in historical terms.

This post isn't about that whole argument, though. Libby Anne made an interesting side note, that the age at first-marriage was lower in the 1950s than it has been before or since because we had policies that made it easier to get married at a younger age. Basically, if you want people to get married at a younger age, there are much more effective ways to encourage that than just castigating young people for not growing up.

So this is me talking about Libby Anne talking about Matt Wash talking about why people don't get married early. Specifically, in my case at least, about just what kind of issues are most clearly "family values" and what it would take to encourage more people to get married earlier if that's the direction you want to push.

Comments welcome there or here, if you're interested.