Political Thought
The Stephen Hopkins Center for Civil Rights’ panel discussion on the event of Milton Friedman’s hundredth birthday offset “liberaltarian” Brown professor John Tomasi with June Speakman, a Roger Williams professor more inclined to agree with the prefix of the coinage. The panel would have benefited from the inclusion of an unabridged conservative who agreed with…
It’s intriguing to observe the telescoping nature of the “context” to which folks are referring when discussing President Obama’s infamous Friday the 13th Roanoake speech. The damning two sentences continue to be: If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The inferred meaning is that somebody else should…
President Obama’s teleprompter style has been the subject of substantial (often mocking) critical commentary, and with some justification, as this nearly parodic 2010 video from a Virginia classroom proves: Given recent political events, one can sympathize with the desire of public officials to avoid extemporaneous speech. In a world in which one’s every public utterance…
Thanks to WPRI-TV‘s Ted Nesi, for inviting me to contribute a guest post to Nesi’s Notes this summer. The essay begins with the big picture…If you are interested in understanding the eternal wisdom of the conservative viewpoint towards government, here are two questions to ask yourself: Do we really think that people are smarter now…
The Ocean State Current encourages readers to spend some time today reading the Declaration of Independence and considering its continuing significance in our times. Some of the particulars resonate as if addressing present issues: He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors…
… It may be more difficult than it seems. If dislike of dictators Is contingent on progressive dreams Over on the Current, I express restrained hope that some noise on the Left about Central Falls’ receiver will spur reconsideration of liberals’ long-running centralization project. I note, too, that Anchor Rising’s unease with the entire municipal…
In further proof of his lax moral standards,* it took Mangeek too long to read my post responding to one of his recent comments for his own response to attract much attention, so I’ll reprint it here: … what I’m trying to say, Justin, is that I think conservatives (for the most part) are finding…
Marc’s post, yesterday, about the correspondence of a growing gap in wealth and a growing gap in once-expected behaviors between economic classes has led down some interesting roads and, I think, exposed some problematic thinking. One comment worth its own consideration comes from Mangeek: “…shouldn’t hesitate to voice their disapproval of those who defy these…
I don’t relish the observation, but it seems to me that Rep. Joe Trillo (R, Warwick) is displaying an unhealthy political philosophy in his quest for a Quonset casino: “It would have to be bigger than Foxwoods, bigger than Mohegan Sun, otherwise it’s not going to work,” he said. “To just go with a regional…
Roger Kimball expresses a pessimism with which I confess more than a little sympathy: Tootling around Washington, I was struck by — well, not by its prosperity, exactly, but by what is clearly a lavish outlay of funds — your funds, in fact. Everywhere I turned there were huge building cranes. In one spot, I…
