Political Thought
With the return of producer Maverick from vacation, Friday night’s Violent Roundtable is now up on Matt Allen’s PodCast page. Somebody commented, after the show, that it was interesting to hear me respond to news from the Democrat representative from Cranston, Peter Palumbo, of a possible “Traditional Values Caucus” in the State House with the…
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I responded to Michael Morgenstern’s offer to grant me access to a digital copy of his movie, Castle on High, which is currently part of the Rhode Island Film Festival, with a screening tomorrow at the Columbus Theater. It was definitely more engrossing than I’d expected. The documentary…
Alright, there wasn’t really a fire, but since we’re talking radio, I like to imagine that there was one. Dan Yorke and I had that sort of conversation, yesterday, on 630AM/99.7FM WPRO. Those who missed it or who would like to revisit something (for kind or scurrilous reasons) can stream the whole segment (about an…
The government (abstractly speaking) has somehow wiggled its way into a comfortable position in which, as an entity, it need never take blame. Consider a letter from Ben Jones, in Providence: When my wife and I moved to Rhode Island, my wife’s employer-provided insurance plan increased its pricing to over twice the cost, with fewer…
Something’s curious about Mark Barabak and Faye Fiore’s presentation of the lack of street creds in Congress when it comes to healthcare: Too much, too fast, too expensive. Those are some of the objections lawmakers have voiced against the healthcare overhaul Democrats are attempting on Capitol Hill. But many Americans think Congress is out of…
Today’s epiphany — which I wouldn’t be surprised to find to be common understanding among a great many people more insightful than myself — is the intellectual proximity of those who would erase from the books any “victimless crime” and those who see a “victim” of a social crime in every unhappy circumstance. The first…
While perusing YouTube videos of one of our [cough] U.S. Senators, Sheldon Whitehouse, for a bit of writing that may turn out to be more than a blog post, I came across an astonishing indication of Mr. Whitehouse’s political philosophy in a prepared Senate floor speech from June (italic emphasis in speech; bold emphasis added):…
John Stossel shows that it doesn’t take but a little of that common sense of the right-wing variety to produce an “oh” moment: It’s crazy for a group of mere mortals to try to design 15 percent of the U.S. economy. It’s even crazier to do it by August. Yet that is what some members…
I’m not sure why Governor Carcieri would choose this time in the history of the state and nation to add to the messages that Rhode Island sends out to reinforce its image as a state in which various factors make it very difficult to operate and advance. He has declined to veto legislation (PDF) that…
The beastliness of tarring and feathering has probably been the most deeply disturbing smack of history as I’ve worked my way through HBO’s John Adams presentation on DVD. During a childhood vacation, I walked through a wax museum with my parents, and although much of the attraction is lost to my memory, I still remember…