Marc Comtois

Less Organized Freedom

By Marc Comtois | July 22, 2010 |

In the latest Claremont Review of Books (sub req’d), Wilfred M. McClay discusses President Obama’s resume, Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln, the Tea Party and Turner’s Frontier thesis as a preamble for his proposition that the path to national renewal lay in a less organized America. There is a danger of overorganization in American life, of…

Winging a “Prayer”

By Marc Comtois | July 21, 2010 |

The banner has been on display at Cranston West High School since 1958. On it is a simple, innocuous prayer. Our Heavenly Father, Grant us each day the desire to do our best, To grow mentally and morally as well as physically, To be kind and helpful to our classmates and teachers, To be honest…

The Tax Burden Shell Game

By Marc Comtois | July 20, 2010 |

The New York Times is the latest to bring attention to the “maverick” independent campaign for governor being run by Lincoln Chafee, specifically highlighting his call for an increase–and broadening–of the state sales tax. [Chafee] would seek to eliminate a series of exemptions to the state’s sales tax, effectively raising the cost of food, clothing…

Tale of 2 Editorial Boards on Climategate

By Marc Comtois | July 19, 2010 | Comments Off on Tale of 2 Editorial Boards on Climategate

The green smoke is emanating from Fountain Street where the ProJo editors celebrate the recent finding that Climategate really was much ado about nothing. Britain’s Royal Society and a panel at Pennsylvania State University said that while a couple of researchers wrote nasty and inappropriate e-mails about climate-change skeptics and didn’t want to share certain…

The Case for Gridlock, Kinda

By Marc Comtois | July 19, 2010 |

In response to recent GOP leadership pronouncements, Kevin Williamson asks why anyone would trust the GOP any more than the Democrats in making budget cuts. Now, the 2009 balloon isn’t shown in this chart (and it may go off the chart if it was), but this shows that no matter who is in control, spending…

The Nation’s Boom Town

By Marc Comtois | July 19, 2010 |

In his post earlier today, Justin wondered if there was a link between the Washington, D.C. suburbs’ educational success and talk of a ruling class that I brought up yesterday. Heh, well… America is struggling with a sputtering economy and high unemployment — but times are booming for Washington’s governing class. The massive expansion of…

Taking on the Ruling Class

By Marc Comtois | July 18, 2010 |

Glenn Reynolds and his readers are commenting on Angelo Codevilla’s piece about the “Ruling Class“. Who are they? Today’s ruling class, from Boston to San Diego, was formed by an educational system that exposed them to the same ideas and gave them remarkably uniform guidance, as well as tastes and habits. These amount to a…

Sailing in the Ocean State

By Marc Comtois | July 9, 2010 |

Yes, we lost the bid to host the America’s Cup, but there is still opportunity to grow our economy by focusing on sailing related business. Warned ahead of time, the state administration immediately took a positive perspective, saying that Rhode Island is likely to host preliminary races that could become as big a benefit as…

Chafee and His Supporters Get National Play

By Marc Comtois | July 8, 2010 |

The national press loves the independent candidate and USA Today (h/t Ian Donnis) is the latest to report about them in this year of the disgruntled voter. RI’s own Lincoln Chafee plays prominently in the story and all of the classic Chafee themes are there. First, there’s the typical RI attitude towards “name candidates” like…

20% Health Care Share in Warwick

By Marc Comtois | July 8, 2010 |

It took them a year and a half, but it looks like the City Council has realized that municipal employees are going to have to pay 20% of their health care (and not a flat dollar amount) every pay period (via Warwick Beacon). The city, which is self-insured, meaning it pays its own health insurance…