Under the Government’s Wing
Referring to the federal government acquisition of 60% of General Motors, President Obama stated that the government would refrain from playing a management role in all but the most critical areas It appears, however, that “critical” is in the eye of the beholder. The latest self-appointed car czar is Massachusetts’s own Barney Frank, who intervened…
This story confounds categorization: Eastern District of Michigan judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff handed down the decision, in a case involving an alleged violation of the constitutional separation of church and state. The issue is whether a government-owned company, AIG, can market sharia-compliant insurance products. (To be sharia-compliant, an investment vehicle must be created and structured…
Marc addressed the intention of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence to request that its pastors advocate during Mass on Sunday for maintenance of welfare payments. Dan Yorke expressed dismay, as well. What I find most discouraging about the initiative is its indication that the Church is misassessing (or not adequately considering) the political tides.…
Casual attendees at local government meetings might on occasion be stunned by the utter lack of discomfort among officials about using children to advance environmentalist principles. As with much else, the English are blazing the path to the next step down: Children as young as seven are being recruited by councils to act as ‘citizen…
Brian Bishop takes up the appropriate call to government when it comes to economic development: just get out of the way. The last thing we need is a government-run Chamber of Commerce, a retread bureaucracy of fortune tellers picking winning businesses or sectors that will be offered state loans and regulatory absolutions. Rather, we should…
Courtesy the CBS blog Econowatch. The Obama administration appears to have reminded Chrysler about the cost of accepting government bailouts: with federal funds comes federal control. A report this week in Advertising Age said that Chrysler wanted to spend $134 million in advertising over the nine-week duration of its bankruptcy. But Mr. Obama’s auto-industry task…
It seems to me that Frank Rizzo’s reasoning in deciding that government-run broadband Internet is a bad idea applies pretty much across the board for possible government actions beyond a limited set of activities: At the heart of the problem is this: The economics simply didn’t work [in Philadelphia]. To come close to breaking even,…
And the squeeze on non-governmental services — most notably from the Roman Catholic diocese — pushes another one over the edge: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence has told a state nursing home association that it is closing St. Francis House, its assisted-living center at 167 Blackstone St. later this year, a spokeswoman for the…
Although he isn’t speaking solely about our state, Theodore Gatchel’s op-ed, Sunday, presents a worthy reminder that taxation is not the only government burden that must decrease in Rhode Island: The idea held by many politicians and government bureaucrats that simply passing a new law or issuing a new regulation will solve a problem is…
Computer and internet tech stuff is not my forte. But wouldn’t it be far more effective to build (or bolster as needed) protections and barriers into critical computer infrastructure – electric, water, banking – rather than create a shut-down switch to be operated remotely and, most likely, after the infrastructure has been attacked and damaged?…