Civil Liberties
Buzzwords flow through political and ideological debates — at the state level even more so than the federal — to the extent that one has to wonder whether the people using them really subscribe to the ideas that they represent. Consider Democrat Representative from Cranston Brandon Potter, tweeting about the city’s decision to permit construction…
Ellen Liberman’s article in Rhode Island Monthly about police programs using the Flock Safety system is important and timely for a number of reasons: The “Flock hit” is a reference to the Flock Safety system, a network of time-stamped license plate-reading cameras linked to a vehicle’s make, model, color and distinguishing marks. The image information…
Remember that massive infrastructure bill that even Republicans supported? Here’s a little tidbit that slipped through unnoticed: In President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure law there is a mandate that will require all new vehicles to come equipped with advanced impaired driving technology, to curb the amount of people who get behind the wheel after…
U.S. Senator from Rhode Island Sheldon Whitehouse gets a call out in Lora Ries and GianCarlo Canaparo’s Heritage essay about a turn of the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats toward suppressing their domestic opposition: Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Richard Durbin of Illinois described parents’ participation in school board…
Democrat state representative from Warwick David Bennett continues his long streak of bad legislation with an effort to ban nips — those little bottles of alcohol that have been a fixture of liquor stores for decades: Rep. David Bennett, D-Warwick, is tired of spotting discarded nips strewn along the side of the road whenever he…
Perhaps you’ve seen video of Joe Biden shouting about how important it is for his government to seize authority over who counts votes in America: Biden, appearing to admit defeat on ending the filibuster & nationalizing elections, randomly starts shouting: States’ voter reform laws are “about who gets to count the votes! Count the vote!…
Judge Denise Casper of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals made an important point while dismissing an appeal by Providence students seeking to assert a right to more-extensive civics education in public schools: Citing earlier cases, the First Circuit said no other court suggested teaching a specific subject was required by the constitution, save,…
A friend recently told me about a Massachusetts school that is explicitly leveraging peer pressure to influence families’ medical decisions related to COVID. The initiative seems to encourage a form of bullying that is unhealthy for both the students applying and the students receiving the pressure, and it reminded me of past initiatives that gave…
A local musician asks Governor McKee to find another way to address the pandemic, one that doesn’t force him and others to choose between making a living, living according to their values, and leaving the state that they love.
The Cato Institute’s Freedom in the 50 States index has Rhode Island slipping to 41st most free (i.e., 10th least free) for 2021, with the following ranks in its three major subcategories: Fiscal, #27 Personal, #33 Regulatory, #43 Keep in mind, of course, that this is freedom as defined by the libertarian Cato Institute, and…
