In Depth

Wilfred M. McClay: The Evangelical Conservatism of George W. Bush

By | May 3, 2005 |

Wilfred McClay offers his thoughts on the nature of the George W. Bush administration: What I want to look at is, specifically, how the administration of George W. Bush seems to have marked a sea change in the evolution of Republican politics, in conservatism, in the present and future alignment of our political parties and…

The Religion of Secularism

By Marc Comtois | May 3, 2005 |

I highly recommend reading Don’s latest post for some important context to the following (hopefully) succinct post. As Don argues, radical secularism can be viewed as its own sort of religion whereby the “state” replaces the religious function and, despite claims otherwise, also assumes the role of the “higher power” [God]. It can be safely…

More on the Misguided Incentives in the Public Sector

By | May 2, 2005 |

Previous postings have addressed the Misguided Incentives that are structurally present in the public sector and how this leads naturally to Pigs at the Public Trough. These observations make Lawrence Reed’s Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy an insightful read. Why does this all matter? Here is another story that illustrates why: Robert Novak has…

Rhode Island Politics & Taxation, Part XVI

By | May 2, 2005 |

This posting continues a periodic series on Rhode Island politics and taxation, building on fifteen previous postings (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV). It also builds on several previous postings on educational issues: There are well-known deep performance problems with public education in America. Yet, receiving…

Morning Roundup 5/2/2005

By Marc Comtois | May 2, 2005 | Comments Off on Morning Roundup 5/2/2005

Nota Bene: This post is an experiment. I thought I’d try providing a bunch of different links to different web posts, articles, stories etc. that I found interesting. The goal is to point to some articles that may be of general interest to conservative readers with enough of a summary to indicate whether or not…

Learning More About How Dues Paid To Big Labor Are Spent

By | May 1, 2005 |

One of the more interesting informational black holes has always been the forced payment of dues by union members and exactly what those funds were then spent on by the union. Thanks to some new reporting requirements that kick in this summer, we are about to get the first real glimpse into what is going…

If You Won’t Deal With Economic Reality, Then It Will Deal With You

By | May 1, 2005 |

The overall economic cost structure of the American airline industry is pathetically unsustainable. This is not news; the elephant has been sitting in the room for years now but most everyone has refused to acknowledge its presence.

Correcting the Bizarre Incentives Created by Campaign Finance Reform Laws

By Donald B. Hawthorne | April 30, 2005 |

Carroll Andrew Morse has a terrific, focused posting entitled First They Came for the Radio Talk Show Hosts… that gets to the heart of the latest fallout from campaign finance reform here in Rhode Island. Once again, we have an example of how legislation has unintended consequences that, in this case, affect our freedom of…

Correcting the Bizarre Incentives Created by Campaign Finance Reform Laws

By | April 30, 2005 |

Carroll Andrew Morse has a terrific, focused posting entitled First They Came for the Radio Talk Show Hosts… that gets to the heart of the latest fallout from campaign finance reform here in Rhode Island. Once again, we have an example of how legislation has unintended consequences that, in this case, affect our freedom of…

Prez’s Press Conference

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 28, 2005 |

Watching the President’s press conference, I’ve reached one clear conclusion. Middle-aged reporters making six-figure salaries don’t care about the future of social security.