Eric Scheske

Happy New Year. It's a holiday, so I won't be blogging. Expect regular blogging to resume after the Epiphany. In the meantime, enjoy your families.

H.I.F. A few fun facts from the, um, "Interesting Facts" Twitter account [https://twitter.com/WhatTheFFacts]: At Andrew Jackson'Â’s funeral in 1845, his pet parrot had to be removed because it was swearing. 70% of murders in Detroit go unsolved. In 2012, the

It's New Years Eve, the beginning of the official end of the secular holiday season. For serious Catholics and traditional Protestants, the holiday season continues through Epiphany, but for the other 99% of the population, the holidays start to end tonight. And the 99% typically do a pretty

H.I.F. All lies, all the time: “The ACA was not designed to reduce costs or, the law's name notwithstanding, to make health insurance coverage affordable for the vast majority of Americans,” says health care consultant Kip Piper, a former government and insurance industry official. “The law

From Bottom Line Personal [http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/]: Just in time for New Years resolutions: "Goals Are for Losers and Other Success Secrets from "Dilbert's" Creator Scott Adams." Link [http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/content/article/self-improvement/goals-are-for-losers] .

H.I.F. Retail sales of alcohol are up 10% over the past year. Link [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-22/how-americans-are-celebrating-recovery] . That's a pretty phenomenal number.

Did you go see The Wolf of Wall Street? I thought about going to it, but after reading this open letter [http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/12/wolf_of_wall_street_prousalis.php?page=2] from the daughter of one of the protagonist's partners in crime, I

H.I.F. I remember reading (5? 10?) years ago that 10% of Americans are ex-Catholics, so this is no surprise: "According to recent demographic surveys, it seems there are presently 30 million people in the U.S. who identify themselves as 'former Catholics.'" Link

H.I.F. "The halo effect discussed earlier contributes to coherence, because it inclines us to match our view of all the qualities of a person to our judgment of one attribute that is particularly significant. If we think a baseball pitcher is handsome and athletic, for example, we

Let me be as blunt yet precise about this as possible: If you are a Tolkien fan, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug sucks. I am not making an unqualified statement about the cinematic merit of the film. I am simply speaking as a long-time Tolkien fan. I bristled