Fiat Lux
Speaking of taking risks in pursuit of a better career — all I can say is, bravo, Ezra. You hit the nail smack-dab on the head.
The modern job market has an overwhelming amount of risk in it. The government’s job, then, should be to eliminate what risk it can so Americans are free to make occupational decisions unfettered by fears about health care or retirement benefits. That’s why we need rock-solid Social Security protected from the fluctuations of the market. That’s why we need government-guaranteed health care that can follow you from job to job. By reducing the risk in job switching, American workers are given increased occupational freedom, which means a higher chance of finding fulfilling, worthwhile, enjoyable and important work. It enables the free market to work better because we’re removing the perverting, risk-increasing influence exerted by job-specific benefits. And Democrats are handed a coherent economic philosophy that has something to say about the modern workplace and renders our social programs natural extensions of that outlook.
Over the past few days I’ve been mentally composing bits of a typical “the year that was” look back on Scott’s and my past year. The usual thing – mention a few personal highlights and low notes, maybe make a few political comments, and close with something upbeat about the coming year. But frankly I just don’t feel enthusiastic about pulling it together into a full blog post. It’s not the worst year we’ve been through, but it was far from the year I hoped it would be. And I’ve already blogged most of the major high and low notes anyway.
2005 will bring a real change – I start my MBA program at USF in the 3rd week of January. It’s been more than 15 years since I was last a full-time student, and as the day gets nearer I find that I am more than a little nervous about the whole thing.
I’m not such a mature adult that I don’t still have the same kinds of anxieties I had those many years ago when I last started at a new school — Will I do well? Will people like me? What should I major in? And there are new anxieties I didn’t have back in my college days — Have I made the right decision? Can we really afford for me to be more or less non-income producing for so long? Will I be able to get a better career out of this endeavor, even at my age?
I’m better able to handle anxiety now that I used to be — I’ve had a lot of practice at it — but these are the things that occupy my mind as 2004 rolls to a close. What 2005 will bring I don’t know. I’m eager to find out, though.
Maybe it seems trivial in the face of the ongoing mega-disaster in Southeast Asia (I’m waiting for the death toll to pass 100,000 – it’s pushing 80,000 so far), but actor Jerry Orbach has also died.
In performances that spanned half a century, the Bronx-born Mr. Orbach came to embody two beloved New York archetypes: the musical matinee idol, to which he gave a refreshingly modern spin with his rugged and idiosyncratic persona, and the shrewd, irascible cop, a role he honed to a razor’s edge as Detective Lennie Briscoe on “Law & Order.”
Orbach was a star in the original casts of Chicago, Promises Promises, and The Fantasticks, and appeared in productions of The Threepenny Opera, Carnival, and the Gower Champion production of 42nd Street, among many other stage credits.
Unfortunately I never had the pleasure of seeing Orbach perform live, although I’ve certainly seen plenty of episodes of Law and Order.
At least 2004 is almost over. Maybe we’ll get a rest from bad news for at least part of 2005. Although somehow, I doubt it.
About 6 weeks or so ago I talked about how abortion is scarecely available in a lot of America these days. Here’s a CNN piece to back that up: a look into the only abortion clinic in Mississippi and more.
Hat tip to Larry (yes I still do read your blog) for the link.
Today is Scott’s and my 8th wedding anniversary. We exchanged cards and cooked up some nice steaks for dinner, but don’t really have the time or money to do much else to note the occasion. Hopefully by the time our 10th anniversary rolls around we’ll be in a position to celebrate in higher style — like maybe a vacation.
What matters most, though, is that we’re still together and happy. The rest is icing on the cake.
It’s looking like Yushchenko won the latest Ukraine elections. Good. At least democracy works some of the time.