Quick Read
At different times in my life, I’ve found my ability to focus on brainwork hindered by various things. Sometimes, it’s been videogames. Sometimes, binge-watching television shows. Sometimes, social media. Even simplistic games like solitaire, mahjong, 2048, or sudoku. Recently, my chief distraction has been contemplating the construction of reality, especially around the point at which…
The strangest thing that’s ever happened to me as a Eucharistic minister, distributing communion at Catholic Mass, was the time shortly after I’d started doing it that an elderly man threw coins in the ciborium* with his right hand as I placed the Eucharist in his left. I didn’t know how to react or what…
Rather than simply proclaiming doom and destruction at the hands of the unvaccinated, Patrick Anderson dug a bit more deeply into Rhode Island hospitals’ capacity issues for the Providence Journal: Hospitals have lost thousands of employees since March 2020 — to retirement, to less-demanding professions and to lucrative contract health-care work in other states. And yes,…
Headlines are proclaiming the difficulty of finding at-home rapid COVID tests. Some folks might not get what the big deal is, considering that, in the government’s eyes, rapid tests don’t count for anything. My personal research prior to Thanksgiving led me to conclude that rapid tests probably won’t catch every trace of the disease, as…
The threads are multiple and not worth finding and consolidating, but there’s been some social media chatter hereabouts around a dustup between progressive podcaster Bill Bartholomew and freelance COVID commentator Andrew Bostom. Bartholomew was guest-hosting for WPRO, and Bostom called in to argue about COVID-related mandates and then posted audio bragging of having “eviscerated” the…
As elite colleges begin the process of peer pressure among institutions to implement mandates for COVID-vaccine booster shots, an op-ed by Johns Hopkins medical professor Dr. Marty Makary is a must-read: The U.S. government is pushing Covid-19 vaccine boosters for 16- and 17-year-olds without supporting clinical data. A large Israeli population study, published in the…
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island and Brown University now have several years of data in the compilation of their Rhode Island Life Index, which is basically a survey of how Rhode Islanders perceive various aspects of the Ocean State experience. Subindexes contributing to an overall score of 63 (out of 100) include: Quality…
Kelly O’Neill reports for WJAR that the Salvation Army is 11% behind on donations in Rhode Island and 30% in New Bedford. Whether the percentages are “behind the goal” or “behind last year” isn’t clear, but it amounts to tens of thousands of dollars in this area. Rhode Island’s state coordinator, Roger Duperree points to…
With Dune back in the popular culture, all people of good will and right mind should be relieved that it includes one of the most profound moments of the book, captured here in the prior movie adaptation because it was the best clip I could find quickly: The quick summary is this: The priestess…
I’m honestly baffled that a coalition of “open government organizations” would call on Democrat Governor Dan McKee to reinstate executive orders allowing government bodies to meet remotely again: We therefore once again strongly urge you to reinstate your earlier executive orders so as to permit public bodies to meet virtually and thereby allow the public…
