Marc Comtois
At first glance, it would appear that there is good news coming out the State House today. Just before the stroke of midnight, a key House committee approved a new state budget that includes major cuts in public-employee pensions. The move is expected to save the state and local communities $44 million in the coming…
Anne Applebaum, writing about airport security, also touches on cost-benefit risk analysis. By their own account, federal screeners have intercepted “7 million prohibited items.” But of that number, only 600 were firearms. So, according to the calculations of economist Veronique de Rugy, 99.9 percent of intercepted items were nail scissors, cigarette lighters, penknives and the…
To further enable investigation, here is the rundown on Sen. Clinton provided by Project Vote Smart. Concerning “Issue Positions,” one will be confronted by this disclaimer: In 2000, this candidate was contacted repeatedly over several weeks by Project Vote Smart staff members and by prominent political leaders, and asked to do the right and honorable…
I’m trying to figure something out here. President Bush, and RI Republicans running for statewide office, generally run very strong in South County. According to a report, South County is among the nation’s leaders in marijuana “consumption.” Given that smoking pot is (I think) safely associable to anti-establishment behavior and that South County votes for…
To give credit where it is due, I note that Warwick Democrat Al Gemma has taken a principled stand against the “organizing” of Home Day Care providers. From the ProJo: House leaders succeeded in passing a bill last night that would force the state to negotiate with home-based child-care providers over the terms of their…
Andrew writes about Liberalism’s Dilemma at Tech Central Station.
I am hosting History Carnival #10 at Spinning Clio this week. The History Carnival is a bi-weekly roundup of blog posts that deal with history with the goal of giving the general public an idea of what historians and others are thinking about history and how they are applying it to contemporary matters. There is…
I was at the Gaspee Days parade over the weekend and was canvassed by a representative of Operation Clean Government who was looking for signatures supporting a Voter Initiative referendum question this November. I signed it, with some trepidation, but the proximate situation of the current state of Rhode Island politics won out over my…
One offshoot of returning to school is that it has brought me into contact with several teachers from Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Nearly all of them agree that it is in middle school that a child’s educational future, and by extension post-educational future, is largely determined. If parents and teachers don’t reach them then, very…
This would certainly be good news: In recent months, a number of researchers have begun to assemble intriguing evidence that it is possible to generate embryonic stem cells without having to create or destroy new human embryos. The research is still young and largely unpublished, and in some cases it is limited to animal cells.…