Political Thought
We agree on the rules and the process, in light of inalienable rights, and justice is the result. If the system manifestly is not producing justice, then we adjust the rules and the process. But the process cannot simply be a show we put on to give the impression of rules. That is the context…
Something in Dan McGowan’s Rhode Map column today reminded me of a question I had for Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera. Asked by McGowan what has surprised her in her first 100 days in office, Rivera replied, in part: “I’m surprised by the enormous stress of providing basic city services while, at the same time, tackling…
What are Governor Lincoln Chafee’s three Ts of economic development, again? Is it talent, technocrats, and tolerance? Or is it technology, tolerance, and twee ideological fashion? It can be so difficult to keep these gimmicky strategies straight. This particular strategy is also turning out to be difficult to make work. In fact, it may just…
An article not about what it’s about; sequester demagoguery; softening kids for “effort shock”; and the rise of grassroots fascism. Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…
My previous post referenced the circularly structured political spectrum that Justin proposed a few weeks ago. Samuel G. Howard criticized Justin’s mapping in a post at Rhode Island’s Future, one objection being that choosing individual emphasis versus community emphasis as a defining axis leads to problems that are intractable…I suspect it would be difficult for…
Last weekend, a small number of people turned out at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters, in some combination of protest and memorial for former LAPD officer Chris Dorner, who killed four people in Southern California, before killing himself during a standoff with law enforcement. Meanwhile, in the virtual world, a Facebook tribute describing Dorner as…
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…
It started with an email exchange among the contributors to Anchor Rising. Somebody suggested that moderates are essentially liberals who “believe in economics.” That got my mind (when hungering for procrastination) to filling out the rest of a political spectrum, and it turned into the circle illustrated below. As you can see, there are eight…
Perspective from on high; the empathetic view from my soap box; cover-up as economic development; what happens when that which can’t go on forever doesn’t. Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…
We’ve talked about the problems inherent in “big government” around here for, well, ever. More government means more taxes (ie; “revenue”), more regulations and more of government trying to pick winners and losers. Rhode Island is a perfect example. Despite the myriad problems in our state, our politicians don’t like dealing with the root causes.…
