Ripple
Really, can’t we do better? Why do we put up with this? The answer to my questions may be that the people who won’t put up with it leave and take their income with them. Then the state redoubles to draw in people who’ll need government services, because that’s what their incentives are.
But I have to wonder: as these groups come forward demanding more money, is anybody — whether journalists or state agencies — investigating the services that are being provided, the mandates imposed on the providers, or the nuts and bolts of the organizations providing them? Such stories typically evince no trace of skepticism about the…
Conversations related to the Washington Trust settlement with the government, requiring the bank to address alleged racial discrimination on its part, indicate two views or standards for handling blame in society. One side is convinced that somebody is to blame for the circumstances of life and that the job of society (particularly government) is to…
The other day, I wondered whether younger folks have any sense of how long-standing is the problem of the huge gray area between journalists within the Palestinian territories (and elsewhere in the Middle East) and the terrorist organizations they’re covering. Whether or not they’re more like terrorist propagandists is a gray area the terrorists have…
Consider this tweet from WPRI’s Ted Nesi as an indication of the dehumanizing aspect of the fashionable “community” phrase: This politically correct practice allows 80 people to stand in for a “community” of nearly 20,000 people. It’s careless identity politics, and it’s ideologically corrupt. How do 80 people get to speak for 20,000? Does Ted…
If “genocide” on the other side of the world justifies defacing statues, vandalizing buildings, and shouting down speakers, it will justify violence.
While I’m catching up on noteworthy items I’ve had on my to-do list, I have to point out that General Treasurer James Diossa’s grandstanding talk about “evaluat[ing] the banking relationship and the state’s business with Washington Trust Company” ought to be disqualifying for him to continue holding his position. I’ve offered my opinion on the…
This tweet from Democrat Attorney General Peter Neronha is a little old, but I didn’t want to let it pass without comment in this space: The people who own property in the state have rights, too. Many, probably most, of them are “people of this great state.” The AG has to enforce the laws as…