Category: sociology
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The Boston Globe calling…
I received an email from Michael Paulson, a religion reporter for The Boston Globe, yesterday asking me if I had time to talk about a new study coming out today. The study is the latest wave of the American Religious Identification Survey. Having worked with the principal investigators – Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar –…
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new publication – Fighting Over “Mormon”
An article I co-authored with Michael Nielsen just came out in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. It takes a look at some claims made by the LDS Church concerning the coverage of the FLDS raid in Texas last year. If you’re interested in more details, let me know.
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never underestimate the power of the human libido
As I was walking into my building today, a recurring thought hit me, one that was spurred by the opening scenes to the movie Amelie a few years back: Just how many people are having sex around the world at any given point in time? Yeah, so, I’m weird, big deal! This didn’t occur out…
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insurance discounts
Not sure if anyone will be interested in this, but I occasionally talk about this issue in my classes and finally found a document to illustrate my point. Our health care system in the US makes little to no sense, in large part due to health insurance companies. From what I understand, health insurance companies…
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I’m all the rage in South Dakota!
Okay, so I’m prone to hyperbole. Anyway, Debi found a blog by a Ken Blanchard, a commentator on politics in South Dakota, who mentioned Sociology’s distaste for all things genetic and biological. As a sociologist who embraces biological explanations for behaviors where appropriate and supports sociobiology, I had to comment. He liked my comment enough…
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everglades, Miami Beach, and someone famous!
Last year we snuck away during our winter break for a quick getaway to Myakka River State Park. This year we opted for a quick weekend getaway to the Everglades. We were waiting to arrange the trip based on the schedule of the contractors who are working on our house. As seems to often be…
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domestic partner benefits report
Here’s another report I ended up putting together recently because I was interested in domestic partner benefits: Summary Report on Domestic Partner Benefits (DPBs) Ryan T. Cragun Assistant Professor of Sociology Definition domestic partners are non-blood relatives who share the same residence, intend to do so indefinitely, are not currently married to someone else, who…
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healthcare wait times – US vs. Canada
In my Introduction to Sociology class I was discussing the various approaches to health care: private pay/insurance companies vs. single-payer or universal pay (government sponsored). During that discussion one of my students raised an issue that is often raised in this debate. She had heard that because health care is free in Canada, wait times…
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The True Meaning of Christmas…
I should really be doing other work, but after reading the news this morning, it dawned on me that what I really wanted to do was write a short blog post about “The True Meaning of Christmas.” (NOTE: For all the readers of my blog who are religious, this is your cue to stop reading…
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It was just a matter of time…
…before a Wal-Mart Employee was trampled to death in the mad rush of consumerism on Black Friday. When shopping deals are based on a first-come, first-served basis, you can only expect people to trample each other. The structure of the situation facilitates misbehavior. It could be solved with a lottery system. This doesn’t absolve the…