Marc Comtois

Who owns your stuff?

By Marc Comtois | March 19, 2013 |

When is our stuff actually, you know, our stuff? Recently a stir was caused when cell-phone unlocking—the practice of enabling your cellphone for use on any cell network with any SIM card—became illegal. Now, with legislation pending in Congress to re-legalize(?) the practice, Kyle Wiens writes that we need to focus on “unlocking” much more…

The Story of Rebecka and Jourie

By Marc Comtois | March 17, 2013 |

The piece detailing “EBT day” in Woonsocket in the Washington Post this Sunday was sad and frustrating all at once. That’s what made it a good piece. It showed how Woonsocket has come to rely on 12 days a year for its economic health: the first day of each month when SNAP EBT cards are…

Joyeuse Fête de la Saint-Patrick!

By Marc Comtois | March 17, 2013 |

Why the French? Because I’m the great-great grandson of a girl from County Clare whose family immigrated to Quebec instead of America! On the other hand, my wife’s family came over from Cork straight to Boston….So Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Block Report: Food Stamps Abused For Oxy and Vike

By Marc Comtois | March 13, 2013 |

According to the Waste and Fraud Report formulated by Ken Block and released in a redacted version by Governor Chafee this afternoon (pdf), there’s a whole lotta Oxy and Vike on the market thanks to Food Stamps: We performed a study where we looked at Medicaid drug utilizations for Vicodin and Oxycontin (and all of…

Man Bites Dog: A House Committee Passes Ethics Bill instead of Holding for Further Study

By Marc Comtois | March 13, 2013 |

UPDATE @ 4:30 PM: Kathy Gregg at the ProJo tweeted out: Hear that right? Did Speaker [F]ox just publicly remove J Patrick O’Neill from house judiciary after last nights ethics bill coup. Yes. Thus does O’Neill become the object lesson for what happens when you move to vote a bill out of committee without Speakah…

As the Sequester Dominates the Weekend Political Talk…..

By Marc Comtois | February 23, 2013 |

….keep this in mind. 1) There are no cuts as regular people define them. Just a reduction in the planned for “regular” growth that Washington, D.C. cooks into the budget pie year after year. 2) The sequester was President Obama’s idea in the first place. Bob Woodward: My extensive reporting for my book “The Price…

Summarizing Acculturated‘s Symposium on Manliness

By Marc Comtois | February 21, 2013 |

I stumbled across the Acculturated web site a couple weeks ago and found their Symposium on Manliness to be an interesting read. They used a piece by Kay Hymowitz as a jumping off point: Today, most men in their 20s hang out in a novel sort of limbo, a hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and…

RI #1 In Teacher Absenteeism

By Marc Comtois | February 17, 2013 |

Earlier this week, USA Today highlighted that Rhode Island was the state with the most teacher absenteeism in the country (GoLocalProv picked it up today), according to a study by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. New research suggests that teacher absenteeism is becoming problematic in U.S. public schools, as about one…

As Local Talk Radio Churns….

By Marc Comtois | February 15, 2013 |

First the “Big O”, now Ron St. Pierre. The talk radio landscape is a-changing and one wonders where it will lead. While we can appreciate what both Glenn Ordway and St. Pierre have done, it seems to me like it’s a pretty normal changing of the guard. In short, out with the old and in…

Representing Places as Well as People

By Marc Comtois | February 13, 2013 |

In The Disenfranchisement of Rural America, James Huffman writes: The county by county map of the 2012 presidential election clearly portrays the irony and unfairness of a nation of predominantly red communities governed by a blue, urban, national majority. President Obama won 52 percent of the states and 51.4 percent of the popular vote, but…