Donald B. Hawthorne

Meaningless talk and inaction in a crisis: Why Rhode Island’s crisis will get worse before it gets better & what to do about it

By Donald B. Hawthorne | May 14, 2008 |

The state of Rhode Island is in a deep financial crisis. Resolving its large budget deficits will require real and significant structural changes to the status quo. The status quo was best summed up in a passing comment by Representative Gorham last night on the Matt Allen show: Gorham talked about how the state budget…

Changing the scope of what is subject to union contract bargaining for RI public employees

By Donald B. Hawthorne | May 14, 2008 |

On the Tuesday evening Matt Allen WPRO show, Matt interviewed State Representative and House Minority Whip Nick Gorham about Gorham’s bill H-7664, which would redefine the scope of issues subject to bargaining for RI public employees. During the interview, Gorham noted that there are very different approaches across the 50 states as to what issues…

Happy Mother’s Day!

By Donald B. Hawthorne | May 11, 2008 |

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms out there! Thanks for all you do. Each corner of the world is made a better place when there is a loving mother there. We always need more loving mothers, too. A special Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom out in California, where she is still going strong…

The Meaning of Easter

By Donald B. Hawthorne | March 23, 2008 |

Selections from last night’s Easter Vigil mass: The Easter Vigil is the turning point of the Triduum, the Passover of the new covenant which marks Christ’s passage from death to life. Easter is about redemption. God has secured the victory: Exodus 14:13-15 – And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see…

Reflections by Bill Buckley and Pope Benedict XVI on our Judeo-Christian/Western Civilization tradition: “…how deep we fall…there is always hope…the one who has hope lives differently…”

By Donald B. Hawthorne | March 19, 2008 |

William Kristol writes: …Bill was a complicated man. In him, admirable but disparate qualities coexisted easily. Bill was at once remarkably ecumenical — and knowledgeably discriminating. He had a taste for profound reflection about man and God — and for fierce polemicizing against socialists and appeasers. He had a real joie de vivre — but…

The NEA’s non-serious proposal on the meaning of ‘balance’ in teachers’ union contracts

By Donald B. Hawthorne | March 6, 2008 |

The opinion page of the February 21, 2008 edition of the East Greenwich Pendulum carried a letter from the co-presidents of the East Greenwich Educational Association, the local branch of the NEA teachers’ union, in which they wrote (not available on-line) the following under the heading of “Teachers union heads seeking ‘balance’ in contract”- We,…

William F. Buckley, Jr.

By Donald B. Hawthorne | February 27, 2008 |

John Podhoretz offered these words about WFB: He was the model of the modern American intellectual. He published a small magazine of ideas whose influence and centrality to the country in which he lived vastly outdistanced publications with 100 times its readership. He wrote a newspaper column for a half-century, twice or three times a…

Michelle Obama: “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country”

By Donald B. Hawthorne | February 18, 2008 |

Michelle Obama just said these words: …What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something — for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well,…

Deep Purple!

By Donald B. Hawthorne | January 24, 2008 |

What a surprise to find Jonah Goldberg mentioning this morning a unique version of the song Smoke on the Water originally by the rock’n’roll band, Deep Purple, in one of his posts on The Corner. If Deep Purple can make The Corner, then it can make Anchor Rising! Now I know something about Deep Purple,…

Summarizing a Conservative World View

By Donald B. Hawthorne | January 21, 2008 |

Mona Charen describes John Hood’s definition as “the best one paragraph summation of what it means to be a conservative I’ve seen in a long, long time.” The conservative movement constitutes an alliance of those who accept unchangeable facts rather than trying to wish fantasy into reality, remake human nature, or avoid economic tradeoffs. Traditionalists…