In Depth
As Justin wrote last week, none of us were really surprised that “independent” lawyer Joseph Tarantino sided with the Legislature on whether their members could legally stay on the Lotto Commission given that Separation of Powers had been passed. (He said “Yes”). Now, it has been reported that Tarantino managed to profit financially, too. The…
The problem of intellectual harassment in academia is so pervasive that, I am sorry to say, Where is the Moral Outrage? is now an ongoing series. This posting builds on previous postings here, here, and here. Marc has highlighted several other recent examples of a Brown University professor and Ward Churchill at the University of…
People hold religious, social, or any other beliefs in varying degrees. Some treat them as relative, and whimsically; belief is a matter of perspective, so everybody’s beliefs are equally true, including the changing beliefs of an individual over time. Such people are metastatically dangerous, in their way, but the more palpable threat comes from the…
Miguel Guanipa’s voice of reason has been trapped on my To Post list for a while: Wherever there are children who dare recite the Pledge of Allegiance in a public school, judges who think the Ten Commandments should be displayed in the halls of justice, school principals who dare recite a prayer at a commencement…
According to an interim report by Paul Volcker, Benon Sevan, head of the Iraq/UN Oil-for-food program was as corrupt as was suspected. An interim report by a commission investigating the U.N. oil-for- food program in Iraq said the former head of the program had violated the U.N. Charter by helping a company run by a…
Brown University President Ruth Simmons spoke about intellectual diversity on campus at her Spring Semester Opening Address on Wednesday. After her speech. . .Simmons responded to students’ questions on. . . the impact of faculty sharing political opinions in class. . . Simmons began by telling the audience that one of the questions she receives…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior U.S. Marine Corps general who said it was “fun to shoot some people” should have chosen his words more carefully but will not be disciplined, military officials said on Thursday. Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who commanded troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and is slated to be portrayed by star actor…
The Providence Journal is urging “Governor Carcieri, House Speaker William Murphy and Senate President Joseph Montalbano to sit down together and work out some of the kinks in the implementation of separation of powers.” While kinks should surely be worked out as quickly as possible, I’d prefer that these three Rhode Island leaders sit down…
As a partial follow up to my previous post about the interwoven connections among the (let’s call it) influencing class in Rhode Island, I note that the state’s judiciary has permitted the governor to switch healthcare providers: The state Supreme Court ruled today that the state can award the contract for its employees’ health insurance…
During his State of the Union speech, President Bush introduced an Iraqi citizen with these words: One of Iraq’s leading democracy and human rights advocates is Safia Taleb al-Suhail. She says of her country, “we were occupied for 35 years by Saddam Hussein. That was the real occupation. Thank you to the American people who…
