Political Thought
Catching up on my reading, I highlighted the following, from First Thing editor Joseph Bottum’s thoughts on the Ground Zero mosque controversy: Real democracy is messy. It’s got protestors and agitators and banners and manners and morals and financial pressures and gossip and policemen on horses keeping an eye out to make sure it doesn’t…
Theodore Gatchel suggests that one way to improve the function of Congress is to narrow the focus of each legislative item: If the Democrats had broken health-care legislation into smaller, “clean” bills, each of which dealt with a single aspect of health care, President Obama might well have gained more of what he wanted, and…
I’ll be relieved when today has passed, for community engagement reasons, and I’ll be relieved when Tuesday has passed, for political involvement reasons, and I’ll be relaxed when November has passed, for professional reasons. Which all serves obliquely to explain why I’m just now, of a Saturday morning, catching up on Mark Steyn’s week of…
This unsigned editorial in the Providence Journal makes a reasonable case: Much of the debate about unemployment assiduously avoids the basic causes of long-term joblessness and falling wages. One is globalization. Large U.S. companies, aided by modern telecommunications and fast transportation, find it increasingly easy to move jobs abroad, where the wages tend to be…
How about a frightening assessment of our relationship with China: Why would China so brazenly challenge the world’s economic powers like this? Because the country’s leaders know what our leaders are only beginning to understand — that China would probably win a global trade war. It’s certainly worth reading Eric Weiner’s entire essay for the…
An op-ed in the New York Post, by Sen. James Inhofe (R, OK) points to a couple of topics worth discussion: One insidious force keeping unemployment high is regulatory uncertainty: Companies that could hire (or re-hire), don’t — because they’re worried about what new restrictions will be coming down from Washington. Congress bears much of…
On Saturday, Tiverton Citizens for Change hosted a fundraiser for local candidates, featuring speeches from several. Nancy Driggs, Republican for RI House District 70 (Portsmouth, Tiverton), gave us something a bit more comprehensive than a review of local issues. Here is what she said. My name is Nancy Driggs, and I am the non-incumbent candidate…
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.