Political Thought
Yesterday’s RISC-Y Business NewsLetter contained a Woonsocket Call article (not available on line) describing the onerous cuts to the school budget identified by the school committee. Mayor Leo T. Fontaine has sued the school department on a bid to balance its budget and on Monday school officials may meet his challenge with a stunning round…
Elsewhere in the world, conditions akin to slavery: Forced labour and human rights abuses involving African crews have been uncovered on trawlers fishing illegally for the European market by investigators for an environmental campaign group. The Environmental Justice Foundation found conditions on board including incarceration, violence, withholding of pay, confiscation of documents, confinement on board…
On last night’s Matt Allen Show, Matt and I pondered why there seems to be little excitement around Rhode Island’s gubernatorial race. Stream by clicking here, or download it.
Timothy Sandefur’s edifying review of the shift in legal thought on the Supreme Court during the era of President Franklin Roosevelt’s progressive revolution points, among other things, to the way in which political groupings do not draw straight lines across history, such that a conservative or progressive today would have agreed with their supposed forerunners:…
In a review of Kenneth Minogue’s The Servile Mind: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life (subscription probably required), Diana Schaub touches on a topic that is subtle, but central to current political disputes. “Freedom is mentally and morally demanding; bondage is easy (painful and miserable, but easy),” she writes. Therefore, we are beginning to see…
News comes this morning that the inclusion of a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” has sunk a defense policy bill in the U.S. Senate: Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked an effort by Democrats and the White House to lift the ban on gays from serving openly in the military, voting unanimously against advancing a…
I’ve been meaning to comment on the latest development in the governance of Central Falls: the city council’s decision to hire an independent lawyer, apparently without knowing how it will pay the bill if Receiver-King Mark Pfeiffer, appointed by the state, refuses to allow it. The move by the council is a reaction to state-appointed…
Among New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s accomplishments has been knocking President Obama from the cover of National Review magazine after a summer-long run. As the related article shows, however, Christie’s more significant accomplishment has been successfully plucking at strings that many of us have spotted before: … it was true so far as it went.…
Joe Mysak takes up the topic of Bell, California’s highly paid public servants: In his only statement to the press to date, the $787,637 man, [City Manager] Robert Rizzo, told the Los Angeles Times, “If that’s a number people choke on, maybe I’m in the wrong business. I could go into private business and make…
Amid examples of failed loan guarantees, Providence Journal reporter Bruce Landis interviews Gary Sasse about the 38 Studios deal, in which a videogame company has $75 million in backing from the state of Rhode Island: If the company doesn’t pay, Sasse pointed out, “The taxpayers of the state would be on the hook.” “You’re playing…
