Quick Read
The state and federal governments are preparing the country, with the help of the news media, to be pressured to vaccinate young children against COVID-19, despite the documented reality that children are not at great danger from this disease (see here and here, for starters). As part of the performance, the doctor-advocates are making the…
We’ve heard quite a bit about the terrors of eviction during the pandemic and the government-driven closure of our economy, and the talk tends to imply that people who own rental properties don’t need the money — as if the rentals merely contribute side cash to big piles in their basements. That perspective has informed…
Naturally, I’m in agreement with Bishop Tobin and this tweet to Pope Francis, both in substance and in the meta-factor of thinking it needs to be sent: Dear Pope Francis, You have boldly stated that abortion is “murder.” Please challenge President Biden on this critical issue. His persistent support of abortion is an embarrassment for…
Not to be cynical, but the question of this post’s headline is serious. I look at the results for students on the Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS) — with overall proficiency drops from 38% to 33% in English and from 30% to 20% in math — and I think, “So what?” The same goes…
The Rhode Island General Assembly is calling its page for information about ideas and proposals related to its federal COVID handout the “American Rescue Plan Act State Fiscal Recovery Fund Recommendation Portal.” The Associated Press article about the portal maintains that framing: Rhode Island’s legislature has created a website to post the proposals it’s receiving…
Sometimes watching public policy is like a society-wide 4D puzzle, with the fourth dimension being (of course) time. I remember in 2013 when I had to explain to folks behind the scenes why legislation to create a new type of corporation — the public benefit corporation — belonged on the RI Center for Freedom &…
The featured image for this post is the power outage map for National Grid at 7:00 a.m. Power is out across the entire state. It doesn’t have to be this way. Wires could be put underground, except that our government squanders as much money as it can so as to charge us additionally for basic…
I read somewhere not long ago that the thing with alcohol isn’t so much that it lowers inhibitions as that it narrows one’s focus. Having fun in the moment, touching base with your high school friend at 4:00 in the morning, anger at that guy looking at you funny across the bar… these things become…
Understandably, the president and CEO of the New England Cable and Telecommunications Association, Tim Wilkerson, is striving to get out ahead of rumors that the state government might give government-run Internet a try. Not only do such projects have a track record of failure, but also: Rhode Island already is one of the best states in…
The news is national that Rhode Island has become the first state to greenlight sites where users have heavy drugs can go to take them: Rhode Island plans to create supervised spaces for users to inject illegal drugs, in a big test of the idea that reducing harm to drug users is more effective than…
