In Depth
After his speech for a gathering of (mostly) Portsmouth Republicans, Mayor Laffey took a sweeping path to not answering a question about whether he’ll challenge Lincoln Chafee for a seat in the U.S. Senate. It didn’t take much listening between the words to hear a “yes” — albeit an indeterminate one. Considering that the sweeping…
Peggy Noonan’s latest editorial discusses the world of blogging. She makes the following general comments: The bloggers have…freedom. They have the still pent-up energy of a liberated citizenry, too. The MSM [main stream media] doesn’t. It has lost its old monopoly on information. It is angry. But MSM criticism of the blogosphere misses the point,…
While we have focused on the case of Bill Felkner and Rhode Island College quite a bit, it is worth noting that the “phenomena” of campus bias is by no means restricted to our little corner of the nation. The American Enterprise Institute held a symposium on Monday (transcript can be found at AEI) on…
Within my recent post on gambling is the observation, which is by no means an original thought, that government makes much revenue off of vice. The ironic flip side is that as government tries to “legislate morality” in the sense that they attempt to modify behavior (I’m thinking cigarettes here) by raising the cost, they…
For the record, I thought I’d register my opposition to the placement of a casino in Rhode Island. However, I do support the people of Rhode Island being able to vote on the matter, so long as it is presented legally (unlike the fiasco last summer). During the controversy last summer, I posted about a…
Julia Steiny provides an example of a school that has improved through the work of its teachers. When the Rhode Island state authorities designated North Kingstown’s Stony Lane Elementary only “moderately performing” last year, the school staff was miffed. Indeed, they were so not-okay with the label, brainstorming about how to ramp up their students’…
Joseph Buffardi, of Cranston, believes that introducing the concept of merit to teachers’ career advancement is a utopian idea: In a perfect world, one could make a case for instituting merit pay for teachers. But this is not a perfect world. As a public-school faculty member for over 30 years, I will grant that not…
As I’ve suggested before, this case may not have been a big deal if decided in court, and it will probably be even less so since the judiciary didn’t get involved at all: The [Tiverton] School Committee still has to work out some legal details, but it decided to extend the health-care benefits of retired…
This aspect of the article to which Don links in the previous post particularly caught my eye: Ban anyone, other than a “recognized employee of a news organization,” from videotaping or taking photographs of House sessions and House committee meetings “without the express permissions of the speaker.” I’m aware of the tendency of the blogosphere…
