Justin Katz
It’s becoming unremarkable to remark upon the lack of substance in the latest round of Obama endorsements. Saying he’ll bring “change” or be “transformative” means little. As Thomas Sowell points out, recent pages of history have their share of stories about transformation toward something worse. Of course, as Sowell notes elsewhere, a con man’s “job…
Thomas Schmeling and Pat Crowley have been engaged in an interesting conversation that began when a commenter told Crowley the following: I’m a democrat and I think the state employees unions are one of the biggest problems with the state at the moment. Public employees paid by tax dollars should not be union (emergency workers…
Video games are getting serious: A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband’s digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday. The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data,…
One needn’t have been an economic guru to understand that, when calamity comes, folks will look to save face. Some will point fingers. Some will bow their heads in contrition, but with resolve. And some will disavow their beliefs in an attempt to do both. Alan Greenspan appears to be doing that last: Greenspan’s interrogation…
This is shocking: DeHayes would not provide the exact contents of the messages, which he said were found on a computer in the Memorial Union, the student life building, and at Swan Hall. In an interview yesterday, he would say only that they were a “characterization” of Obama. DeHayes said a student brought the messages…
Eleven “business and community leaders,” and only one gives the right answer to the question of what ‘can be done in the next 90 days to turn” RI’s economy around. Here’s Strategic Point Investment Advisors President and CEO David Brochu (emphasis added): Governor Carcieri should announce the creation of a business advisory committee, made up…
Bill Clinton’s state of the union speeches encouraged running tallies of impossible promises. Everybody got more, at no cost to anybody. Obama’s tax policy has that feel. There are so many ways to massage the numbers that the various claims are almost as impossible to assess as the likelihood that the candidate will actually follow…
So in the spring, the General Assembly and the governor passed a smoke-and-mirrors budget, and we’re well on our way to the nine-digit midyear shortfall that was obvious from the moment the state’s finances were declared “balanced.” What’s the next grand illusion? A third of a billion dollars in tax anticipation notes to kick the…
In a Sakonnet Times story about the advantages that incumbents have in Rhode Island, Senator Charles Levesque inadvertently gives a small indication of why Rhode Island is in its current predicament: Sen. Levesque makes no apologies for obtaining what he calls “civic support” for the library and reaping a little publicity in the process. “Is…
In case anybody’s wondering, Clothing-gate is a non-story. Governor Palin didn’t hit the streets of New York on a Pretty Woman shopping spree. The campaign sent out aids to outfit a sudden candidate who had an Alaskan wardrobe for a whirlwind tour of the country in an environment in which campaigning has become showbiz. Rich…
