Marc Comtois

RE:Understand the UN!

By Marc Comtois | December 20, 2004 | Comments Off on RE:Understand the UN!

I heartily recommend reading Andrew’s

Independently Moderate

By Marc Comtois | December 20, 2004 |

In a story by Howard Fineman, Mitch McConnell casts the current political “divisiveness” in its proper historical context: “It’s naive to assume there would be one collection of views widely held by everyone,” he said. “I’m amazed at all this hand-wringing over the level of discourse and partisanship. It leads me to believe nobody has…

Reminder: Don Hawthorne on WARL Tonight

By Marc Comtois | December 15, 2004 | Comments Off on Reminder: Don Hawthorne on WARL Tonight

Just a reminder that Don Hawthorne will be appearing on the Rick Adam’s radio show on WARL 1320 AM tonight from 8-9 p.m. If you’re in the Greater Providence area, you should be able to pick it up over the air. If not, they do stream.

Relevancy of the Humanities and Questions Unasked

By Marc Comtois | December 15, 2004 | Comments Off on Relevancy of the Humanities and Questions Unasked

In the course of yet another article about bias in our univerisities, William Pilger (a pseudonym), a conservative tenured professor in a southern university, managed to both display the value of a humanities education and the reluctance (and reason) that students show for engaging in any type of classroom discussion that may touch on current…

RE:Where is the Moral Outrage

By Marc Comtois | December 9, 2004 |

I became more interested in bias in academia when I re-entered “the academy” to pursue an MA in History (at Providence College). Thankfully, I have not personally felt any real “quashing of dissent.” Although I have heard a few pithy political asides in the course of unrelated lectures, my experience at Providence College has been…

Warwick School Board Election: A Litmus Test

By Marc Comtois | December 8, 2004 | Comments Off on Warwick School Board Election: A Litmus Test

Yesterday I “braved” the rain to vote in a special election that sought to winnow down the candidates for an open school committee seat from 5 to 2. Dr. Saleh R. Shahid and Lucille Mota-Costa emerged as the winners. Shahid is a registered Republican who has unsuccessfully run for both the State Legislature and State…

The Politics of Charter Schools

By Marc Comtois | December 7, 2004 |

While visiting The Learning Community Charter School in Pawtucket, Governor Carcieri floated the idea of removing the state’s charter school cap, which limits each school district to two charter schools (except Providence, which is allowed four). Predictably, there are those who disagree with the Governor about removing the cap, even though recent studies have shown…

Science and Religion

By Marc Comtois | December 3, 2004 |

Last week I noticed a story about a school district in Georgia placing a disclaimer on its high school biology books that stated that “Evolution is a theory, not a fact.” The local tie-in was that the author of the textbook, Kenneth Miller, is a Brown University professor. The ACLU and others have filed to…

Freedom of the Press: To Whom Does it Extend?

By Marc Comtois | December 2, 2004 | Comments Off on Freedom of the Press: To Whom Does it Extend?

Eugene Volokh, a blogger himself, has a piece in today’s New York Times in which he mentions the Taricani case. However, of more importance is the larger question he seeks to address Because of the Internet, anyone can be a journalist. Some so-called Weblogs – Internet-based opinion columns published by ordinary people – have hundreds…

No Child Left Behind – It’s Working

By Marc Comtois | November 23, 2004 | Comments Off on No Child Left Behind – It’s Working

Presiden’t Bush’s much vilified No Child Left Behind Act appears to be working, at least that’s the conclusion drawn from reading this story in today’s Providence Journal. More than half of Rhode Island’s public schools have jumped into the high-performing category, and school leaders across the state say that’s in no small part due to…