Quick Read
Yesterday, I got a glimpse of how the other half perceives COVID. A Rhode Island progressive shared a tweet storm by some software guy (not a blue check) collecting every study that could be cited with ominous overtones about the supposed long-term effects of the virus. It was the worst kind of analysis. Each of…
For the second year running, United Van Lines’ study of its customers finds Rhode Island to be have more people moving in than moving out. In fact, percentagewise, Rhode Island was the tenth-most-inbound state. What’s going on? Has the Ocean State somehow become a population draw? This particular data isn’t well enough defined to get…
Honestly, I thought the matter was settled. Judging people and giving them preferential or detrimental treatment based on the color of their skin is wrong. Segregating people and providing opportunities to different groups based on race is bad. I don’t know how it happened, but one is apt to be called a “racist” for saying…
As un-fun as it no doubt was, Patricia Morgan’s experience as a sudden Emmanuel Goldstein for progressives across the country was an opportunity to observe how the mania mob is whipped up. At 10:02 a.m. on December 28, she tweeted the now-infamous comment about the loss of a black friend, presumably over the promulgation of…
One of the bigger local stories in Rhode Island, right now, is the (alleged) killing of an East Greenwich teen by a long-rap-sheet thug who shared beforehand his intention to drive while intoxicated, albeit with his mind on harming himself rather than others. The story is heartbreaking on multiple fronts, but for this post, let’s…
In a wide-ranging discussion loosely related to Internet narratives, Frank Rose and EconTalk host Russ Roberts touch on how immersive stories can draw us into activities outside their delivery — whether buying action figures, chatting with Broadway actors by the stage door, or digging into the history of non-fiction characters. As I set out to…
Criticisms of Allan Fung among Rhode Island Republicans have always struck me as either too demanding for purity or else founded in personal animosity (albeit perhaps with some justification… I don’t know). He was a solid Republican mayor and, from what I could see, a reasonably loyal member of the party. Given the GOP’s position…
Following up on a question I sent to the state Department of Health, spokesman Joseph Wendelken tells me that instances of people being hospitalized while testing positive for COVID, but for whom COVID is entirely unrelated to the reason they’re in the hospital, account for only about 6% of the number. The question gained increased…
Governor Dan McKee implemented an inflexible COVID-19 vaccine mandate on Rhode Island’s healthcare workers in the midst of a healthcare worker shortage. How much did the mandate exacerbate under-staffing? Director of Health Dr. Nicole Alexander Scott was asked this at a press conference on November 16. “It’s a contributing factor that is small in the…
Even as long ago as the late ’90s, when I finished up my undergraduate studies, the seeds of cancel culture were visible. Contrarian that I am, I would often challenge professors’ and other students’ arguments in classes that fostered debate, and some disputants were clearly looking for excuses to invalidate my case out of hand. …