This classic image from The Simpsons characterizes this blog well. However, some posts do seem to take off on their own, usually because of forwards from Twitter and Facebook followers that I don’t even see. I have also been getting some traffic from the new social media site sponsored by Wikipedia, called WikiTribune, found at WT.Social. You have put your name in a queue if you want a free membership and it is still evolving, but it is worth checking out.
A heartfelt “Thanks” for your support! Here are some of the most-read posts of 2019:
Seven bets on your Medicare supplement. The top post was a very recent one. In this post I simplified the confusing choice between ten different Medicare Part B “Medigap” insurance plans down to seven basic “bets.” You pays your money and you takes your chances. A follow-up post extended this to Part C Advantage plans, called “The bad Medicare Advantage bet.”
Gun math you should have learned on Sesame Street. After a couple of back-to-back mass shootings in August, I reprised a common theme on this blog to look again at which factors do and do not correlate mathematically to gun violence.
Book Review: A Decent Life by Todd May. I write reviews on recent books because it often helps me reach a new audience, plus I really like the books. I was surprised at the good reception of this review of a book about the ethic of basic decency. Is there perhaps some reason we seem to have a shortage of simple decency these days?
Stop calling them “healthcare insurance companies”. The recurring healthcare questions from the Democratic debates have seemed to keep this post from May floating around, especially on Facebook. The SEC calls these companies by a different name, and most people really don’t know how they really function in the healthcare economy.
Constantine, Putin, Trump and the co-opting of religion. This post from last year has had a recent “resurrection” due to the (finally) emerging split among Evangelical Christians supporting Donald Trump after his impeachment. The tactic of autocratic politicians making a deal with autocratic-wannabe religionists to split power goes back a long way, at least to the Roman Emperor Constantine. A more recent post demonstrating quasi-official government policy favoring one class of religious people over others (and the non-religious) is entitled “William Barr and the binary God”.