Marc Comtois

RI Approves Abstinence Education

By Marc Comtois | December 4, 2006 |

Heritage of Rhode Island has overcome intitial objections put forward by the RI Dep’t of Education and has received approval to implement it’s “Right Time, Right Place” abstinence education program in RI’s schools. The key concession seems to be that the “only” of the heretofore proposed “Abstinence-only” program has been dropped. “Heritage’s ‘Right-Time, Right-Place’ curriculum…

Appealing to the Parenting Class

By Marc Comtois | December 1, 2006 |

Yuval Levin has written a piece that is getting some attention around the web. In it, he identifies what he calls the “parenting class” as being the new group to whom politicians will need to appeal: The worry of middle- and lower-middle-class families arises from a genuine tension between the two things they most eagerly…

Give Locally, it’s More Effective

By Marc Comtois | December 1, 2006 |

I posted a couple weeks ago about Arthur Brooks’ findings that conservatives are more charitable than liberals. Last night, John Stossel (via Karen Woods) looked into whether or not we are “Cheap in America” and found that it was a myth. Working off of this, Woods draws a couple conclusions: Bureaucracies, government ones and even…

If Medicare Part “D” Ain’t Broke, Will Sen. Whitehouse Still Try to Fix it?

By Marc Comtois | November 30, 2006 |

I remember during the recent RI Senate race that Senator-elect Whitehouse made much of Healthcare, and, in particular, the “broken” Medicare Part “D” program (prescription drugs). In fact, it was number one on his Health Care reform To-Do list. While he was holding “the hands of seniors who are desperately afraid that they’ll wake up…

Bleeding the (Blue)blood out of the New England GOP

By Marc Comtois | November 30, 2006 |

First, the New York Times focuses the soft-filter lense on the now dwindling ranks of GOP moderates in New England and : It was a species as endemic to New England as craggy seascapes and creamy clam chowder: the moderate Yankee Republican. Dignified in demeanor, independent in ideology and frequently blue in blood, they were…

Rhode Islander Nails Popular Science Award

By Marc Comtois | November 28, 2006 |

Heather M. Lightner in the Jamestown Press: Every year the editors of Popular Science review thousands of new products and technologies in order to find 100 breakthroughs in 10 different categories: automotive, computing, gadgets, home entertainment, personal health, aviation and space, engineering, home, recreation, and general innovation. This year, in addition to the “Best of…

Achorn: GOP Lost to Dems Get Out The (Straight-Party) Vote Effort

By Marc Comtois | November 28, 2006 |

Edward Achorn backs up what many have already concluded: the Democrat margins of victory were attributable to straight-party (mostly Harrah’s “inspired”) voters: On Nov. 7, the straight-party system worked its wonders for Rhode Island Democrats. Some 61,357 voters cast a straight-party ballot for the Democrats — a whopping increase of more than 23,000, or about…

Brown University Let’s the Evangelicals Back In

By Marc Comtois | November 28, 2006 |

After telling the Reformed University Fellowship that they wouldn’t be allowed on campus just, well, “because,” Brown University has had a change of heart. But they still haven’t been forthcoming as to why the RUF was banned in the first place. Yesterday, Ethan Wingfield, president of the Reformed University Fellowship, said he was pleased at…

Mayor Avedesian, the RI GOP and the “Drift to the Right” Bogeyman

By Marc Comtois | November 27, 2006 |

This past Friday, John Howell of the Warwick Beacon reported: While Republican candidates across the state and the country were washed away, Warwick’s Mayor Scott Avedisian not only withstood the pull of the outgoing tide, but defied the odds by notching a nearly 68 percent win over challenger Donald Torres… “He’s really studied government, so…

Healey: Question 1 Results Prove Viability of Voter Initiative

By Marc Comtois | November 25, 2006 |

Robert Healey, Cool Moose Party Lt. Governor candidate, writes in a letter-to-the-editor that appeared in Friday’s Warwick Beacon (and probably in other local papers): In the aftermath of Question 1 there is an interesting point for those who support Voter Initiative. Too often labor and others with vested interests in maintaining the status quo of…