Our weekend posting began with an investigation of whether the claims of some on the RI left that taxation has no correlation with the number of wealthy residents hold water. They don’t. Which adds a bit of emphasis to my exhortation (with events listed) that right-leaning reformers need to begin to get together. In a sense, we have to organize ourselves against followers of The Organizer.
In a local context, attempts by the establishment left to change the topic from the obvious fixes to Rhode Island policies require a rebuttal and resistance that only an organized movement can provide. That said, when we do come together to act, what Jon Scott calls “New Yankee Republicans” should realize that social issues can’t be cleared from the table, for both strategic and philosophical reasons.
Mac checked in to mention his Wall Street Journal piece on Israel and American policy.
Monique considered the financial equations in Massachusetts healthcare law, and I considered the numbers behind proclamations that the economy is turning around.
A short documentary on a student council president campaign at Brown led me to ponder why our culture won’t grow up. And a Deal Hudson review of Andrew McNabb’s book of short stories led me to ponder the importance of perspective along the line between art and religion. Not unrelated are the speeches that are now available from the Portsmouth Institute conference on William F. Buckley.
It all seems to come together, somehow, in testimony from a woman formerly in the life that the world of stripping and prostitution is a form of modern indentured servitude.
And, by the way, Paul Kelly has still not been allowed to move back into his own home.