Justin Katz
Disappointingly, Julia Steiny’s column yesterday takes a two-dimensional view of poverty programs: … it’s nothing short of glorious that Rhode Island has managed, over the course of three years and with a few strategic investments, to reduce the number of families in poverty by 6 percent. That’s huge. Six percent of Rhode Island’s population of…
Commenter Pragmatist notes, in response to my post suggesting the withholding of pensions to the politically corrupt, that such a law already exists. But the Public Employee Pension Revocation and Reduction Act merely makes it possible for the state to take away a pension (or reduce it): (c) In any civil action under this chapter…
Perhaps it will serve to advance the conversation about immigration if we’re explicit about the choices that we face. To that end: Carlos Avila Sandoval, the Guatemalan consul general for New England, said his countrymen come to the United States to escape the grinding poverty and a long legacy of violence and political instability at…
And things just get worse for the town of Tiverton: Three discrimination suits against the town filed by female employees in Police Department resurrect the controversy involving former Town Administrator W. Glenn Steckman 3rd and his failed attempt to fire Police Chief Thomas Blakey. Blakey was reinstated by the Town Council nearly a year ago.…
The following passage from Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism struck me as relevant to the (thankfully abated) speculation of Barack Obama’s assassination: On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. As if on cue, Dallas was christened “the city of hate.” A young TV reporter named Dan Rather heard a rumor that…
Part of advice columnist Carolyn Hax’s response to a letter asking about etiquette for not telling sexual partners how many have stood where they stand (so to speak) jumped out at me (emphasis added): … since dismissing people as judgmental and insecure without giving them a chance to speak for themselves could reasonably be considered…
For some light, educational weekend entertainment, give Questionaut a try. Solve simple point-and-click puzzles in a well set world in order to spur the characters to quiz you on various topics so that you may rise to the next level. Adults should find the questions pretty easy, but be aware that the makers are European,…
Jon Pincince responds to my most recent post on same-sex marriage essentially by making the counter-assertion: First, of course society should “allow dissenting opinions about the significance of homosexual relationships,” but those opinions should not be written into our laws to deny equal civil rights to those who enter into what some may consider less…
Sometimes historians skip a step or two by juxtaposing their own opinions on historical facts and then applying the “lesson” to the current day with little explanation. Such is the case with Champlain College Distinguished Scholar in History Willard Sterne Randal’s musing on the history of religion in campaigns: No presidential election since 1800 has…
The latest instance of corruption and abuse of position in RI government gave me an idea for legislation: The Rhode Island State Police have charged a Department of Administration employee with felony embezzlement for allegedly stealing cash from the agency. The police said an investigation revealed that longtime state employee Patricia Pirolli, 59, of 15…