Quick Read
Too often our reaction to ideas with which we disagree is to mock them or to dismiss them from the conversation. Although the impulse is understandable, and I’m certainly guilty of it, doing so is a mistake. Listening is how we understand, not only as a check on our own biases, but also as a…
Obama has always had a talent for talking out of both sides of his mouth. On one hand, as Nina Bookout catches for Victory Girls, he’ll say things like this, reminiscent of the Democrat convention speech that put him on the national political map: Right now, it’s easy to focus on what divides us, and there…
It’s interesting to see information like this, in the New York Post, coming from Steven Koonin, who was undersecretary for science in the Obama administration’s Department of Energy: … both research literature and government reports state clearly that heat waves in the US are now no more common than they were in 1900, and that the…
Most people who pay attention to these sorts of things know that the South Kingstown school department has the dubious distinction of having as one of its governing school committee members, Sarah Markey, an actual organizer from the National Education Association of Rhode Island (NEA-RI), which is the state-level union representing the district’s teachers. That…
Curiously, for all the national news that makes its way into Rhode Island–based media, stories like this, from Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations, don’t seem to get much airing: When Fulton County, Ga., poll manager Suzi Voyles sorted through a large stack of mail-in ballots last November, she noticed an alarmingly odd pattern of uniformity in the markings…
One of the silver linings of having most of the more-progressive precincts of the nation shut down (a silver lining more than offset by the rest of the storm, of course) was that it limited progressives’ access to other people’s children. Thus, controversies over drag queen story hours were limited to related incidents, like the…
In the midst of a public health debates that seem to have become stuck in the ruts of political battles, it’s nice to be reminded of the advances that are being made. Glenn Reynolds highlights one example from the City University of New York (CUNY) Advanced Science Research Center: Recent studies suggest that new brain…
Last week, an Australian news source noted how extreme Rhode Island politicians are when it comes to imposing mandates on companies that serve our elderly parents and grandparents. Connecticut just put a big ol’ circle around another area in which Ocean State politicians are extremists without concern for the average resident, as Douglas Hook reports…
Over on Tiverton Fact Check, I’ve posted an estimate of the extra revenue the town government may find flooding in over the next year: Along with the increasing cacophony of birds and fireworks, we know we must be well into spring in Tiverton as one hears the familiar calls of the town-government budgeters: “Raise taxes. We…
John DePetro writes that he’s in communication with a federal officer who claims Rhode Island and Warwick fire officials have been providing misleading information: According to a Federal officer, the Rhode Island Fire Marshall’s office mislead Federal officials as to the suspicious fire May 11 at the law office of House Speaker Joe Shekarchi. The…