Ripple
As I’ve been finishing off some chores while catching up with podcasts during the blizzard, a thought that’s been forming for a while struck home very clearly. In general, we’ve got two approaches to understanding our existence: top-down and bottom-up. Top down is more concerned with meaning and teleological understandings of purpose. From this approach,…
The stories of the Rhode Island nurses featured in videos that their union is producing to promote COVID vaccination are compelling, but I have to wonder what their real purpose is. If the designers sat down for even a short meeting and gave real thought to who it is that isn’t getting vaccinated, I don’t see…
Isn’t it curious how things that aren’t this are decried when Republicans are in office, but things that are this are not decried when Democrats are in control? Besty Woodruff Swan and Daniel Lippman broke the details this week of a new Capitol Police initiative that involves deep dives into the speech, background, and lifestyle…
We’re thoroughly within one of those episodes in history that future generations read about and wonder how anything so foolish could have been tolerated. Remember when Republicans complained it was inappropriate for President Obama to use Marines to hold his umbrella? Remember when Democrats scrutinized President Trump’s descent down a potentially slippery ramp to discern…
From Preston Brashers’s report, the three Bs appear to stand for “Build Bureaucracy Bigger”: The Build Back Better Act has several provisions that make Congress less accountable for U.S. tax policy and give unaccountable bureaucrats more control. The act would (1) give the IRS more regulatory authority, (2) task IRS agents with finding new revenues,…
As I’ve written before, when considering a state’s mix of all the different taxes, I’m not as bothered by high property taxes as other folks on the hawk side of the taxation spectrum. That said, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) makes a good point that differentiations between different types of property should be…
To be sure, Governor McKee’s rescission of his School Choice Week proclamation was a worrisome move independently of the underlying issue, so we can’t really fault Helena Foulkes, who’s campaigning for his job, for jumping on it. That said, because the underlying issue is school choice, which seeks to expand the educational opportunities for all…
His legislation would essentially make every general election a two-stage affair, with the primary being more like what we think of as the general and the general becoming something more like a runoff. The idea of primaries is to help voters organized into parties find the best candidate within the scope of their party’s definition. …
This can’t be good: In the past few months, I have spoken to dozens of parliamentarians, officials and diplomats across Europe who have simply lost faith in American leadership. One very senior British MP told me last week that Biden’s foreign policy was “appalling” and “completely useless”. And this is coming from America’s closest friend…
It’s difficult to argue with this statement from the stepfather of a young woman who died from a fatal hit-and-run accident: “When you say you’re going to do something and you document that you’re going to do it and you’re seen doing it, it can’t be an accident anymore. He murdered Olivia and we want…