A recent bill from some union-friendly reps. illustrates the method of favoring unions in RI.
Calculating the cost of heavy vehicles isn't different than calculating the cost of divorce and illegitimacy.
It seems as if COLAs in municipal pensions are conveniently above the law.
A really bad year of investment returns could put the RI state retirement system right back where it was before our ballyhooed reform.
Conversation on Anchor Rising has brought us to the question of the necessity of social pressure.
RI is fluffing its higher ed. bed with federal dollars, emphasizing the poor gauge that money represents.
Rep. Bob Watson has made the news for another possible DUI incident, and it's no longer possible not to question his judgment.
RI business insiders may survive as long as tax increases are only moderate, but their survival isn't good enough to save the state.
Like Zimbabwe, Rhode Island is a land with few prospects for those who wish to build a life.
Yes, society did have mechanisms to care for the unfortunate before the era of huge government.
At least one argument against mayoral academies is that motivated parents should not have choices because unmotivated parents might not make them.
A study from the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity should provide the impetus for major changes in Rhode Island education.
Another pillar of the case for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants proves to be less than advertised, upon closer inspection.
The public reaction to the judiciary's prayer banner decision in Cranston is founded in a defense not so much of religion, but of self governance.
Nothing discomforts the ruling class like law-abiding citizens willing to protect themselves and their belongings.
The judge's decree to remove an old prayer banner from a Cranston public school points to the government's establishment of atheism as the state religion and partially explains the divisiveness of national politics.
Republican congressional candidate John Loughlin has decided not to run for the 1st Congressional seat in 2012.
The EPA is insisting on environmentally preferred products that can't be bought; meanwhile nature might prefer to be headed toward an ice age, but for global warming.
It is not the job of government to pick and choose the industry of their constituents, to the extent of describing the size and features of a casino that nobody has yet proposed building.
There's a lot of pessimism out there, and while political realities may justify it, there's still reason for hope.
The Projo editors appear to have forgotten that the American people were the ones who "saddled" President Obama with strong legislative opposition.
In a speech accepting an award for pension reform, Treasurer Gina Raimondo doesn't answer (and isn't asked) a couple of critical questions that nobody seems interested in.
Economic columnist Paul Krugman performs some parlor tricks to make the federal debt look just dandy.
Differing responses to RI public unions to two reform efforts indicate that one might not have been quite as onerous as we're being led to believe.
By taking over municipal governments, the state is changing the priorities by which they're governed and preventing necessary lessons in self-government.
PolitiFact manages to grade Congressman Cicilline's rhetoric on a curve... once again.
News over the weekend makes it appear that birth out of wedlock is now the norm; if so, our society is in deep, deep trouble.
Adrian Shirk captures something about the spirit of Rhode Island, applicable as the year turns over.
As we approach the new year midnight, it's worth checking in on U.S. debt.
I confess my intention to engage in the devious process of democratic action in Tiverton.
The fact that more care owners are now responsible for unreasonably high valuations on their own cars means that the state had been overcharging everybody all along.
PolitiFact puts its thumb on the Truth-O-Meter once again, splitting hairs between "code" and "law."
A finding in favor of a police union with regard to retiree dental benefits illustrates how tilted the playing field is.
Could the municipal "bankruptcies" be a result of the magic Obama stimulus for public schools?
If the public sector unions wish to harm a charity for supporting pension reform, the people should make up the difference (and then some).
Governor Chafee has jumped right in when it comes to invalidating local elections.
At all levels of government, from local quasi-public agencies to international entities, nobody is willing to acknowledge that there is not enough money for activities that "must" be funded.
An example in Tiverton makes me wonder where "not guilty by reason of insanity" ends.
Boxes of inherited content lead me to think that medium matters.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has found a way to preserve his property's view at no cost to him.
Government involvement in economic matters tends to insinuate itself more and more.
Only the government would concoct an unemployment system that taxes the hardest-hit businesses more during a recession and recovery.
At what point does government shift from serving the public to operating as a criminal organization?"
Notwithstanding the attempt of a local Protestant leader to dismiss the matter, it is important to call a Christmas tree by its name.
It isn't appropriate to handle the groups involved in cultural disputes by the dynamics of individuals.
Children need fathers, and lesbians need sperm donors. These facts are not unrelated.
Ratings agencies aren't grading the government on the job that it's doing, but on its ability to confiscate wealth to pay debtors.
An NEARI poll has Robitaille beating Chafee and Raimondo for governor, but it appears to be all three at once, so I'm not sure how much it really tells us.
I've responded to a response from Ted Nesi to my post on pension-reform credulity.
Perhaps some of the credulity with which Rhode Islanders are accepting the pension reform narrative has to do with a desire to believe that their vision of government can work.
I've elaborated, a bit, on why I find enthusiasm for the just-passed pension reform so misplaced.
We're in a cycle of decline, and it would be better to reform peacefully now than to collapse or revolt later.
Advocates for the pension reform currently before the RI General Assembly sound like the Obama cultists of 2008.
ABC6 has posted video of the news story in which I appeared, last week, about pensioners who make more than they did as employees.
The RI Treasurer's pension reform is an exercise in leading by following and fixing problems by putting them off.
The modern zeitgeist doesn't seem to make distinctions between progress in various areas of society, even when they're at odds.
Does every government agency get its own black-sunglasses brigade?
Tiverton politics illustrate the dishonest "Rhode Island Way" and highlight the way out.
Campaign contributions to RI's general treasurer shouldn't be taken as a sign of her moral worth.
In-state tuition for illegal immigrants undermines respect for the rule of law.
It cannot be "theft" for government to reduce public employee pensions unless it is also theft for government to take money from taxpayers in order to pay them.
Free marketers aren't being fair (or thorough) in their response to a Vatican document on global financial reform.
Somehow, the challenge of existing on the average national food stamp allotment doesn't strike me as all that daunting.
The Providence Journal's coverage of Occupy Providence differs markedly from its handling of the RI Tea Party.
Large percentages of legislators in RI oppose in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, but large percentages also don't appear willing to go on the record stating an opinion.
Letting government get too involved in shaping the local economy is not a route toward entrepreneurship.
RI leaders are traveling the country looking for ways to create behemoth, centralized economic players, when they should be concentrating on easing regulations, mandates, and taxes
If the State of Rhode Island imposes a municipal dictator, don't dare challenge the move in court.
Chinese gates around food that's actually healthy is a pretty good symbol of communism.
RI Gov. Chafee doesn't seem to understand the real significance of benefits for illegal immigrants.
A widely cited report supporting the expansion of in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants is almost entirely incorrect in its purported findings.
The folks orchestrating pension reform are putting on quite a show, because they're once again going to take the easy way out.
Mention of David Cicilline at Monday's GetMotivated seminar received a deserving boo.
As RI's economy flounders and its government struggles with a problem that it created but does not understand, old alliances are likely to be torn appart.
There is most definitely a cost to providing illegal immigrants with in-state tuition; the legitimate question of debate is whether it's worth it.
RI General Assembly members who vote for too-small reductions in their own pensions are in effect still voting in a self-interested way.
RI's aristocracy has decided that the legislature need not be involved to offer illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates for higher education.
John Kostrzewa thinks threats will keep Bank of America in Rhode Island; I'd prefer the persuasion of a healthy economy.
Now, Rep. Dan Gordon's military record is coming into question.
The unavailability of personal responsibility in government policy is a key reason that government should remain small.
RI's healthcare exchange looks likely to be a bait and switch — from a consumer aid to healthcare socialism.
An example of how Rhode Island sluices around power for insiders.
PolitiFact sides with Rep. David Cicilline (again) and for dubious reasons (again).
Mark Steyn applies the appropriate level of humor to our absurd national governance.
Pushing public school teachers toward higher education degrees doesn't ensure good teachers, but it does ensure a healthy market for colleges and universities, ultimately at taxpayer expense.
My comment on the expulsion of Rep. Dan Gordon from the RI Republican caucus.
For some of us, 9/11 taught the lesson that The World is never far from our daily lives. We'll see whether enough of us learned.
Installing "open road tolling" on additional RI bridges will allow the government to bleed the people more invisibly.
Employees aren't helpless cogs in need of government leverage; they're individually valuable assets and potential competition.
Interesting that the heated rhetoric from Jimmy Hoffa warming up President Obama's audience isn't considered relevant in a paper that repeated casts the Tea Party as extreme.
Starting with a vision of public sector workers as somehow set apart, RI lawmakers aren't likely to make the necessary changes to their pension deal.
The Left sees healthcare exchanges as a means of imposing a one-government-plan system; the rest of us shouldn't see them as a benign hobby of bureaucrats.
The AARP-RI is clearly more concerned about those portions of its membership that overlap with public-sector unions than with those whose background is in the private sector.
Why has everybody all of a sudden caught on that lone wolf terrorists are a threat?
Workers who are giving up are helping Obama by keeping unemployment statistics artificially low; they're also more likely to give Democrats the dependency vote.
People in the know are talking about the ethnic diversity of a redistricting commission, but it seems to me that geographic diversity would be more relevant.
Guess what: Even if you like your health insurance, your employer might not let you keep it when ObamaCare kicks into operation.
It is a question whether RI Sen. Frank Ciccone is using his position on behalf of the people or of the unions that pay him so generously.
Anchor Rising has added commenter Patrick Laverty to its contributor list.
Pulling back the curtain on the union's picks to decide about education reform reveals just how corrupt Rhode Island is.
Public schools deserve to lose money, considering that they pay twice as much for worse results.
Somehow human interest stories,lately, seem to be missing the component that would actually make me oppose government "cuts."
The storm's barely here, and we've already lost power.
A Dance with Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, presents an excellent metaphor for describing the error of a liberal worldview.
Through the governor, the totalitarian receiver of Central Falls appears to be politically accessible, if one has sufficient power.
An early end to summer has led my posting habits to be lighter than I'd expected.
Green-energy madness provides an excellent example of the way in which government buries itself through a dictate-and-dig policy approach.
How can Providence close five schools and keep all its teachers?
Deep media scrutiny of Republican presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry makes me wish they'd devoted similar energy to the inexperienced Senator whom Americans elected to the office last time around.
Whatever happens with respect to content, Anchor Rising was able to renew its Web hosting service for another year.
The folks who are fed up with RI's failures may number too few to fix them.
Sharing the pain of fixing pension mismanagement is going to hurt the taxpayer disproportionately.
The government will never stop overspending until voters make it do so.
I took the final Anchor Rising call in to the Matt Allen Show, last night.
Many of the liberal arguments on taxation can be dispelled with just a little bit of research.
Police officers don't have much shorter life expectancies.
Unless something changes quickly, I'm going to have to scale back on my Anchor Rising activities.
Our civic problems must be fixed, now, or else our Shire will be rendered unrecognizable.
The way to help people is to increase the reward for good decisions, not to decrease the pain of bad ones.
Reminder: property tax rates don't matter.
The economy is helping to reverse the flow of illegal immigrants, but so is enforcement.
With studies coming in that ObamaCare actually increases healthcare costs, the goal of the legislation is suddenly being said to have been something different.
States see cuts to federal aid in apocalyptic terms, but that doesn't mean that they'll prepare for such an inevitability.
Once again Projo PolitiFact proves that it's more than willing to present Democrat talking points as fact.
Taxes are leading the pack of large expenses that have inflated to take up more of two-income households' wealth.
RI Republican Congressional candidate Brendan Doherty apparently hasn't learned, yet, that insulting your base is not the way to kick off a primary campaign.
It's worth reviewing the donors whose calls the governor is likely to take while in office.
Involved fathers are important, and so is traditional marriage.
Data appears to suggest that — wait for it — alarmist climate models might be wrong.
S&P has downgraded the United States' credit rating.
Rhode Island appears intent on accentuating its inadequacies.
Even when columnists go off the deep end, their assumptions can be instructive.
The debt ceiling debate may be a stand-in for larger concerns that our government and society have irreversible problems.
Household debt is another factor limiting entrepreneurship.
Andrew Morse took the Matt Allen spot for Anchor Rising, last night.
The economy is broken because regulations make it just too hard to operate on a small scale.
With Tiverton now charging for garbage bags, private industry is looking to compete for trash pickup.
Fortunately, a bill empowering bureaucrats to implement costly product disposal regulations disappeared in committee.
While the world fights for change, Rhode Island watches the same old problems mosey along.
Even the most compelling case for public-sector pensions has a hard time overcoming an age-50 retirement.
Should minor injuries in the public sector mean lifetime retirement?
RI Gen. Treasurer Gina Raimondo thinks a population with bleak retirement prospects ought to ensure retirement security for public employees.
President Obama conducts an insurgency from the castle.
Are conservatives honor bound to refuse government handouts?
Maybe Rhode Island has more people collecting benefits because it's too generous with them.
Class warfare is tending to focus on what the haves have, rather than what the have nots have.
In threatening to stop enforcing No Child Left Behind, Ed. Secretary Arne Duncan is illustrating the eternal bluff that is government self-regulation.
Television may ultimately be a tool of dependency.
If consumer/taxpayer feedback is electrical current in a circuit, unions are resistors that distort the message.
The West's problems don't ultimately result from a flaw in democracy, per se, but from a deterioration of its culture.
The debt ceiling debate is awakening deep political disagreements.
It'd be great if we could involve government employees in initiatives to increase government productivity, but their incentives are not ordered that way.
The notion that the government is different from the private sector in that it it "serves the public" is beginning to seem quaint.
Last night, Monique took Anchor Rising's weekly call in to the Matt Allen Show.
Distinctions between the private sector and public sector change hiring calculations substantially, not usually for the better.
As seems often to be the case, confusion about legal requirements for education budget amounts in Warwick is entirely manufactured.
Marketing Rhode Island to businesses won't overcome the hurdle of being the very worst state for business in the country.
Legislators should feel free to question the Speaker of the House.
Big-taxer types in Tiverton will oppose a referendum-based budgeting process for any reason that comes to mind.
Why do spokespeople for public sector pensioners always seem to be such unsympathetic figures based on the deals that they're defending?
Rhode Island's economy is flailing, no matter what the spinners say.
Two new faces to the RIGOP running for high office present themselves very differently.
It's curious that the governor hinted about replacing the Central Falls receiver just before the latter announced the need for major pension cuts.
It isn't appropriate to balance the trauma of firefighting against the value of a firefighter's pension.
I'm finally catching up with myself and cannot promise what the result will be when I finish.
Two new RIGOP faces, both running for high-profile offices, are making similar campaign decisions.
The U.S. Senate is scheming with the tax code to trick Americans into accepting a massive tax increase.
The failure to fund public pensions wasn't carelessness; it was a clear consequence of the system of incentives that the unions created.
Matt Allen and I discussed the forces at work in RI politics.
Rupert Murdock is illustrating in England that letting government collect information can be a big risk.
I'm finding it hard to see why modifying public pensions is tantamount to breaking a promise.
A government-funded program that trains young adults for a struggling industry doesn't sound like a great idea.
Drug war success at the neighborhood level mightn't be an appropriate model for the broader effort.
The pension problem is illustrating our larger problem with public sector unions.
The pension problem is illustrating our larger problem with public sector unions.
Shouldn't we care that the Obama administration has been arming Mexican drug cartels?
Why should the government lose money when lots of people wish to use its services?
Andrew Morse spoke with Tony Cornetta about the importance of civic structure.
Could be I'm too cynical, but I can't help but wonder about the catch to just-passed voter-ID legislation in RI.
The religious exemption in RI's new civil union law merely allows a minimal ability to recognize the uniqueness of male-female relationships.
Can Rhode Island's problems be solved through a system that reduces most legislators to courtiers?
Chinese microchips in missiles could be a sort of Trojan horse. Shouldn't that have been anticipated?
Can constitutional amendments be unconstitutional because they're hard to change?
Americans individually and collectively are so dependent that Independence Day seems a bit of a misnomer.
When you tax companies, customers pay. Duh.
Should illegal immigrants prove a history of income tax payments before receiving in-state tuition?
If unions are promising to give up strikes and "work to rule" for binding arbitration, they must really anticipate a huge advantage.
Marc Comtois spoke with Matt Allen about binding arbitration and Michelle Bachmann.
The advisory committee talking about RI pensions is starting from the wrong notion.
Implementing standards for state employment would surely be a huge political battle; for now, we should make suspicious cases infamous.
Rumors say that passing binding arbitration is part of a General Assembly budget deal. If so, the state is doomed.
We don't need government debt; we need entrepreneurialism.
We don't need government debt; we need entrepreneurialism.
When it comes to school funding and the Dept. of Education's standing as a judiciary, the law is whatever you can get away with.
Providence police officers facing layoffs speak of their "dream jobs," and in so doing, they highlight some of the distortions created by public-sector unions.
Fed chief Ben Bernanke is puzzled by the sluggish economy; maybe it's a philosophical problem.
Republican Congressional candidate Brendan Doherty seems to have some distinctly Democrat instincts.
Monique Chartier called in to the Matt Allen Show for Anchor Rising on Wednesday and talked mainly about Esserman and arbitration.
The tricks aren't unique to RI, but the government budgeting strategy never fails to amaze.
Bad governance in Rhode Island has made it unlikely that young families can stay in close proximity and still prosper.
The media's proclaiming legislative cuts to public spending, but what exactly they're cutting is another question.
Charter schools are a highlighter of, not distraction from, the problems of public education.
I've posted video from the third and final day of the Portsmouth Institute's conference on "The Catholic Shakespeare."
It's stunning that some proposed reforms to RI's pension system weren't standard policy from the very beginning.
Somehow, I don't think efforts to entice kids to keep up with their educations will direct them to the high-paying jobs that companies are finding difficult to fill.
The government of Rhode Island looks likely to continue the state's slow budgetary doom rather than upset any powerful constituencies.
Candidates who choose not to pursue a high-paying government job have been citing the low-quality school system as a reason.
I've posted video and some notes from the Saturday sessions of the Portsmouth Institute's conference on Shakespeare.
Conversation about factionalism in the RIGOP has diverged in interesting ways.
My call in to Matt Allen, last night, touched on taxes, speeding tickets, and various other topics.
It looks like the RI congressional district 1 race might bring back Republican factionalism.
Ed Achorn continues to chip away at the Stephen Iannazzi story.
I've uploaded video from the first day of this year's Portsmouth Institute conference, on "The Catholic Shakespeare?"
Politicians tend to celebrate events at which they give away money, but the public should start reconsidering the value of the exchange.
I've checked in from the annual Portsmouth Institute conference, this time on The Catholic Shakespeare.
Whatever else one might say of it, the idea that seniority empowers teachers to advocate for students seems a non sequitur.
The RI Senate is on the right track with regard to changing the funding mechanism for transportation, but ending debt doesn't require raising taxes and fees.
A handful of additional elected representatives have responded to my inquiry about labor nepotism in the State House.
RI labor leaders are now blaming elected officials for irresponsibly giving in to union demands over the years.
The history of Providence pensions is illustrative of the problem with public-sector unionization.
Why is the RI Public Expenditures Council giving a hedged nod to destructive tax increases?
Not if your employer pulls it out from under you as a result of new regulations.
Rhode Island may have perfected the art of using redistricting to entrench entrenched powers.
Response from and to Rep. Chippendale with regard civil unions and political philosophy.
With the combined influence of the General Assembly and Governor Chafee, Rhode Islanders should be very afraid.
When RI Gov. Chafee's administration winds up with extra money, it's telling to whom he would give and from whom he would take.
Andrew Morse and Matt Allen discussed accountability in politics and education, last night.
State Senator Tassoni's attempt to change Central Falls' school governance illustrates the folly of consolidation.
Arlene Violet thinks portraying a positive gay character in a musical will change people's views on same-sex marriage. I think that's borderline insulting.
Rhode Island should learn from Texas's advances in comparison with California.
Town Councilors opinions have begun to trickle in regarding RI Sen. DiPalma's support for union-related nepotism in the State House.
I humbly suggest that the United States of the American Left is not worth the lives of our sons and daughters.
American culture and politics appear to intersect where one side wishes for a freedom that increases dependency and the other for a freedom that expands independence.
It looks like RI Gov. Chafee's talk of increasing revenue, rather than decreasing spending, may already be having the effect of easing the way for economic producers to leave the state.
RI senators don't appear to understand why hiring a union pal's son to a job for which he is not clearly qualified might raise suspicions. I'll be seeking broad comment.
Marc Comtois called in to Matt Allen, last night, to talk about misdirected endorsements and pension-problem nonblame.
Blue state policies produce an hourglass social structure for a reason.
Looking back at the Projo's endorsement of Congressman David Cicilline (D, RI) yields more than just a laugh.
Congressman Cicilline (D, RI) is scrambling to escape the hole that he dug as mayor of Providence, but where was the Providence Journal while he was digging?
Rhode Island's unemployment rate is falling, but it's mainly because people are giving up.
Rhode Islanders can leave behind their government's pension and retirement-benefit debt simply by leaving.
Do Republicans grade college students more objectively?
The extent of government services shouldn't be the measure of national prosperity and goodness.
Coffee can help prevent prostate cancer, apparently.
The media is looking at a death spiral, but I wonder whether quality might save the day.
Matt Allen and I discussed the concept of earning pensions versus income.
Stephen Laffey reminds us that some politicians aren't automatically humiliated by their own catastrophic failure.
Remember when the danger of radicalizing Muslims was proclaimed with every bit of collateral damage? What changed?
There's no reason to expect that increasing school choice won't benefit "difficult students," too.
There's only one way to reform RI's municipal and state pension systems, and that's to change everything about the way the state does business.
It appears that federal stimulus destroyed twice as many jobs in the private sector as it created in the public sector.
Such is the scheme of government that a tax increase can plausibly be sold as a decrease.
I'm not persuaded that consolidating RI's pension systems into one is the way to go.
Hope High in Providence illustrates that education reform necessitates labor reform.
I thought it worth noting that John Loughlin is off to Iraq today.
The investment in wind energy seems to be attractive by government fiat and curiously tied to unions and political corruption.
Committee hearings are another medium through which the RI General Assembly tells the public where it stands.
Rhode Island is taking in more tax revenue than it projected... wonder from whom it's coming.
As Marc Comtois told Matt Allen, Rhode Islanders are beginning to feel beaten down.
Chew on this: Rhode Island's unfunded pension liability is 100 times that of New York state.
RI follows national economic trends... except when it doesn't.
Reviewing some new legislators, the Projo shows its same old bias and misses the real story.
Is government debt worthless in the absence of another recession?
An adjustment to actuarial assumptions is about to rock Rhode Island's governments, but it doesn't look dramatic enough.
It isn't surprising that two groups that profit from government overreach can come together to support it.
Tim White catches a sleepy DOT employee, and I wonder whether he's just mimicking the work pace of public construction projects.
It isn't possible to tease the politics of pension away from the culpability of union employees.
RI's Senate majority leader is going to bat for one of his highly paid employees; we'll see if he cools the heat or stokes the flames.
Andrew Morse was on last night's Matt Allen Show and will be on tomorrow's WRNI Political Roundtable.
A tax increase being touted as major "pain sharing" in Providence would actually be pretty low by Tiverton standards.
There's something insecure and unAmerican in too jubilant a celebration of the death of a single man.
More tales of young public-sector retirees who go on to second careers on the public dime.
I've posted some additional thoughts on bin Laden's death.
If we follow the teachers' unions' logic, it sounds as if we ought to allocate resources away from them.
How odd that President Obama would choose to announce the death of Osama bin Laden during the final 15 minutes of Celebrity Apprentice.
A 48-year-old weight lifter on a $45,600 tax-free disability pension from the Providence fire department. Now, that's public service.
Economic debates regarding more current events (rather than the philosophical battle of Keynes and Hayek) are also interesting.
The rap war between Keynes and Hayek has swung into round 2.
Why did Obama string the birtherites along for so long? Because he knew he'd get away with it.
Ed Achorn has (almost literally) found a poster child for Rhode Island political corruption.
Monique Chartier called in to the Matt Allen Show for Anchor Rising, last night.
Rhode Island has to change its priorities or it has no future, as departing, young, educated adults illustrate.
It appears that the job of police chief in Cranston, RI, is mainly a catapult for a higher pension.
If President Obama wins another term, he looks likely to carry the U.S. into a world of Chinese economic majority.
Media people continue to address state-by-state welfare system comparisons in an inaccurate way.
Governor Chafee's speaking style reminds me of something from my childhood...
Why should a state legislature expend the effort to ban cell phone use in school?
The era of being tracked by our devices is upon us.
The governor's list of items to tax at 1% gives the impression that it was meant to scare and then be removed to provide cover for the rest of his tax increase.
It was my turn to call in to the Matt Allen Show with an Anchor Rising update, last night.
The question: Why shouldn't retirement benefits count as current expenses?
A Pennsylvania police union is complaining that the chief is fighting crime on his off days.
Two tax-related protests get quite different treatment from the Providence Journal.
Big government activists have a way of letting taxpayers know just what we are to them.
A union member notes the corruption pre-union; I'd suggest that the only change has been integration of labor into the corruption.
If the pension problem wasn't of school committees' making, then they certainly didn't resist it sufficiently.
Employment statistics should cause concern, as well as skepticism that leftist policies can repair the damage that they've caused.
It turns out that actually paying for their pension promises might be a fatal wound to local governments.
RI Gov. Lincoln Chafee's much declared desire to engage in open discussion is a fraud.
Anchor Rising's Monique Chartier and WPRO's Matt Allen discussed the bizarre disconnect between Governor Chafee and Rhode Island's private sector.
I've posted video of John Derbyshire's lecture, last night, before the Providence College Republicans.
Shocker: BP oil-relief money filtered through local governments is going to some questionable expenses.
Voters could force a change in RI corruption... but they won't.
National Review's John Derbyshire will be appearing on the Providence College campus, tonight.
An RI legislator gives a glimpse of the sort of laws that unionists would love to enact.
Oddly, corruption among union leaders doesn't seem to rankle union members.
Local government is a place that allows special interests to try and try again to thwart the will of voters.
Certain theories of management might not only hurt the business, but also reduce the need for managers.
An Economic Development Corp. directed by big-time corporate executives just might be prone to serving their own interests.
Mark Steyn gives a couple of RI figures some deserved ribbing.
President Obama thinks that folks with big families and large cars should respond to skyrocketing gas prices by buying expensive hybrid vehicles.
Tom Sgouros wants to rephrase how we think about public pensions so that we'll just keep paying the bill.
A doomed bill in the RI House points the way to proper resolution of the same-sex marriage dispute.
Monique spoke with WPRO's Tony Cornetta about doings at Anchor Rising.
RI Moderate Party candidate for governor, Ken Block, denies responsibility for the election of RI's fatal chief executive. I say "pshaw."
Tiverton is going to charge more for garbage, but it only has to do so because it has spent unwisely in the past.
Government leaders would prefer to tighten their noose around online retailers, rather than find ways to make it easier for store-front companies to compete.
The spoiler candidate in RI's last gubernatorial election doesn't like the government he helped to elect.
RI's system of awarding pensions is built to encourage corruption.
Union negotiations don't involve the "voice of the teacher"; they involve the voice of the union leadership.
Yeah, Wisconsin unions are fighting new laws that restrict them, but at least the state has gotten this far!
An Republican RI state representative has stepped into a minefield with foolish online comments related to a gay-straight alliance group in Tiverton.
Watching the legislative process can be a matter of "trace the political games."
Marc Comtois notes government's trend of doing less for more.
Not surprisingly, a teacher-legislator prioritizes teacher seniority over minimizing harm to students.
Tiverton's added a per-bag fee to the existing trash-collection tax bill. Where's the money supposed to come from?
Mark Patinkin's misanthropy in the face of Japan's tsunami isn't founded in an accurate understanding of nature and mankind.
"Held for further study" would be an apt description of Rhode Island in general.
Hopefully, the Providence Journal will allow its opposition to Gov. Chafee's tax proposal to redirect its endorsement habits in the future.
Legislative horse trading is inevitable, but there's still something distasteful about it.
I wonder if Drug Free School Zones except medical marijuana dealers.
The inclination to slice society up into racial categories cannot be healthy.
The arguments against same-sex marriage stand even when the opposition has compelling personal stories.
Andrew Morse suggests that government spending can't always go up.
Undercover activist James O'Keefe will be appearing before the Providence College Republicans, tonight.
Is it honoring when a parental visit is done under force of law?
Legislation limiting labor has no chance, in RI, but at least it's on the table.
Is there any hope for Rhode Island's economy?
So I was carded for alcohol, this afternoon. Is that a common experience among people my age?
PolitiFact finds RI Gov. Linc Chafee to be keeping promises that he looks to me to have broken.
Local Rep. John Edwards (D, Portsmouth, Tiverton) gives reason to wonder whether his representation extends far beyond the Democrat Town Committee.
Gov. Chafee apparently didn't attempt to predict the effect that his tax policies would have on the behaviors that he proposes to tax.
Monique Chartier and Matt Allen talked RI taxation on last night's Matt Allen Show.
If Little Compton parents don't want Tiverton High School's offerings, why should Tiverton parents?
Legalizing pot is one thing; adding RI's brand of corruption to the industry is another.
Blackstone Valley Prep charter school appears to be taking the revolutionary step of handling teachers like real professionals.
Public sector unions get it all: high salaries, lavish benefits, and job security.
Governor Chafee has found a way to make a tax increase on the working and lower-middle classes seem like a tax reduction.
I've clarified my understanding of the PolitiFact process.
Does the PolitiFact brand really fool anybody?
And on the conversation about separation goes.
Continuing the discussion about a prayer banner in Cranston.
Cranston atheists and the ACLU are projecting their desire to impose a belief on everybody else.
Not surprising. Governor Chafee is funneling money to his biggest supporters.
Is RI Governor Lincoln Chafee a deficit hawk? Not really.
My call in to the Matt Allen Show, last night, dealt with budgetary discouragement.
We're having an intraconservative debate about RI Gov. Chafee's budget.
A just system would not lead innocent victims feeling as if street justice is the only route for the murderer of a child.
I made a last-minute decision to liveblog RI Gov. Lincoln Chafee's budget address, last night.
When a radical feminist says something with which a religious conservative agrees, you just know she's speaking non sequiturs.
The problem with trying to quantify the accuracy of experts is that it creates another topic on which experts can disagree.
People mistrust local and state government in Rhode Island. Unleash the propaganda!
A former part-time legislator gets a high-paying job in a friendly administration, and voila! A lucrative pension for the rest of his life.
Mark Steyn has returned to National Review and to highlighting the growth of a terrorist culture and the continued passivity of the West.
Can Rhode Island transition from compulsory union membership to a mere right-to-work regime?
The commentariate class of RI is uniting in concern about the state of the state. About time.
Everybody, right down to the media and electorate, is responsible for covering David Cicilline, and they'll do it again, when the time comes.
Teacher union rhetoric reminds one of the gulf that separates their lives from those of the general public.
RI Gov. Lincoln Chafee is a representative for those who've like a lack of real solutions to the state's problems.
Nominated Chairman of the RI Board of Regents George Caruolo is a retrograde voice of backtracking.
I joked with Matt Allen, last night, about matters of local blogging.
Funny how a direct referendum can be made to seem undemocratic.
Unions didn't cause increased respect for teachers, and their disappearance won't decrease it.
A judge has determined that TCC David Nelson must prove the unprovable.
An interesting first in Tiverton politics, at least to my experience.
High-deductible plans are no more confusing than health care already is, and they're the only plausible route out of the industry's fatal inflation spiral.
Reports of "bias" incidents at URI strike me as evidence that the university is too interested in soliciting reports.
Andrew Morse introduced Matt Allen to the beginnings of a philosophy of unions, as it were.
Condoleezza Rice's memoir provides evidence for the argument that racial equality should have emphasized faith, family, and dedication.
'Round and 'round the free healthcare of RI legislators goes.
That responsible people are cohabiting doesn't mean that it's just fine for them not to get married.
Arguments about "socialism" tend to become mired in definitions, rather than substance.
Improving graduation rates should be built into the investment that we're already making in schools.
RI isn't trapped in Groundhog Day, but in the winter of the White Witch.
State and local governments can no longer afford to pay such large portions of their taxes out to employees who no longer work for them.
Experts attempting to prescribe an economic development strategy should begin with the principle that government must get out of the way.
Statists require a society that's free enough to stumble over itself and into the government's arms.
RI Ed. Commissioner Deborah Gist has blinked in the struggle to improve education in RI, and it won't go unnoticed.
I've posted two Anchor Rising visits to the Matt Allen Show, one by Monique and one by Marc.
Legislation to end the Caruolo Act, which allows school committees to sue their towns, has been filed, as it should be every year.
The political deck may be shuffling and separating, and it's probably a good thing.
To buck their early layoff deadline, school districts should just lay off everybody every year.
At some point, the unemployed have to take responsibility... and drastic action.
A field of legislators who can afford to forgo official benefits is not necessarily desirable.
Questions of optimism versus pessimism require context; one can be optimistic on one level and pessimistic on another.
The American spirit may be changing, and it won't be a healthy development.
Marijuana may be a gateway to harder drugs, but if the gate that it opens is illegality, then that's not an argument against legalizing it.
If religion sometimes tries to fill the gaps of science with God, science strives often to coat the order of the universe with a faith-based chaos.
Political labels applied to RI House committee chairs can be revealing.
Vitriol against RI's bishop indicates a fear and aggression that is much broader in its application.
Andrew Morse explained to Matt Allen how legislators can make sure their bills actually get a committee discussion.
That minimum test scores are not all doesn't mean that they aren't justified as requirements.
Nuclear disarmament mightn't serve the cause of peace.
ObamaCare will not suspect the law of supply and demand.
Religious protections in proposed RI same-sex marriage legislation are not as broad as some might expect.
Public employees work for the people, not the governor.
Marriage should not be treated as a path toward universal healthcare.
One would think that economic signs would turn public official around, but they won't.
Theories are exciting, but some portion of children's education can be standardized... must be.
RI Governor Lincoln Chafee appears to have a one-sided method of sparking debate.
Objections to tax migration data aren't as incisive as they may appear on a round table.
This cartoon captures what many folks outside of President Obama's political base actually heard him say during the state of the union.
Deplorable office conditions aside, the procedures that have left an abortionist charged with multiple counts of murder strike me as more humane than other, legal procedures.
It isn't just poor or unreasonable judgment that causes government spending; it's the system we've built.
Why are our public schools operated with a no-can-do attitude?
It cannot be denied that some folks' anecdotal evidence shows taxpayer flight.
Over the long term, throwing more money into public education merely causes the price of labor to rise and put more pressure on the services offered.
Marc Comtois described, on the Matt Allen Show, some of his findings related to standardized science test scores.
The Projo editors seem not to consider the benefit to residents of competition between states.
The political and economic ideas of Abraham Lincoln stand against statism as well as slavery.
Why I'm not watching the state of the union speech.
What caused modern society? Oh, probably a bunch of things.
The hot topic of cyberbullying raises questions about the role of government and social reasons that it's changing.
Tonight's Tiverton Town Council meeting is steeped in talk of economic development, business friendliness, and taxation.
An entire front-page article about talk radio in the Providence Journal, last Sunday, did not once quote anybody associated with the medium.
Young adults aren't chasing opportunity around the country as much as they used to. Hopefully, that'll change.
Kevin Williamson enjoyably describes the problem with regulation.
In the short-term, RI's problem comes down to getting the wrong people to do the right thing.
Government can only encourage dependency for so long, before there's nobody to be dependent on.
Some of the objections to RI's proposed diploma system change raise the question of what a diploma is meant to indicate.
At least in Portsmouth, "green technology" is another way to shift money from the private economy to government.
Rhode Island does OK in terms of the "knowledge economy" or the "new economy," but it's a relatively dark spot in Southern New England, and it relies too heavily on confiscated dollars.
Last night, on the Matt Allen Show, I talked about some of the big things that Anchor Rising has been doing this week.
Today, I wrap up my analysis of taxpayer and population trends in Rhode Island.
And now the question of who, specifically, is leaving Rhode Island.
Today, I look at state taxes paid and taxpayer migration.
Public sector unions haven't been around long, in the United States, but they're likely to drag the nation down pretty quickly.
The first of a series of posts examining taxpayer migration trends in RI is up.
Love (compassion) and responsibility can be difficult to reconcile, in life, but the call to both requires that we try.
Whoever's in the minority, the filibuster shouldn't be a standing supermajority requirement.
People who move to Rhode Island from elsewhere seem to agree that Rhode Islanders have a habit of getting in their own way.
RI Rep. Peter Palumbo (D, Cranston) inexplicably wants to give House leaders more power over their fellow legislators.
Congressional Republicans have promised fairness and openness... promises worth keeping track of.
Advocates of a "separation of church and state" just want to insert their guidance in the place of God's.
Gov. Chafee's sustained attack on talk radio makes me wonder what he's trying to distract us from.
I've liveblogged tonight's Tiverton School Committee Meeting.
Tiverton's lone Republican representative in the State House has been having trouble getting invited to meetings of the town government.
European parliaments encourage a closed political class; the wild American system is preferable.
Matt Allen and I reminisced about how much tougher everybody was when we were kids.
One can't encourage government to regulate television volume without allowing it to regulate other things, just as invasive.
The coming collapse of Rhode Island further illustrates the need to start local.
The Tea Party should resist the usual lures of power and keep its priorities local and pervasive.
Rhode Island's governor has locked out an entire form of information media either because he's scared or because he's ideological closed.
Simply by describing his life and biography, John Loughlin was "gay baiting" according to gay activists.
Local news media continue to mistake a local union hack for a legitimate disputant in public debate... and risk their credibility.
I'm liveblogging tonight's Tiverton Town Council, beginning with an appearance by three of our four state representation.
The battle over certification of charter school teachers can lead to some interesting conclusions.
Dementia could be evidence for a particular interpretation of reality.
There's enough blame to go around in the case of invasive security procedures.
Removing the word "nigger" from Huck Finn not only assaults the book, but also makes its point.
The poor must support the better off, and wishing to retain money in order to enjoy the offerings of a community is evidence of despising that community.
The IRS is giving prisoners fraudulent tax returns; I see it as an indication that taxes should be cut and simplified.
In Lincoln-land, openness and common purpose mean agreeing with Governor Chafee.
I fear that Governor Lincoln Chafee has had no panic about the authority now vested in him.
The government should concentrate on economic environment, not the activities therein.
RI Education Commissioner Deborah Gist's work environment may already be changing.
Monique Chartier called in to the Matt Allen show to offer thoughts on RI immigration policy and an interesting headline juxtaposition.
When government controls all, corruption of "experts" is inevitable.
It would be healthy for the municipal bond market to shrink.
To protect a bait fish, the federal government has devastated California's Central Valley.
A key player in the RI tax "reform" that made tax code worse is moving on to control of the state's budget.
Hold the government to its debt ceiling; if catastrophe ensues, it's the government's fault for not staying within its budget.
"Putting kids first" must be a cultural mandate, not a governmental one.
We can come up with whatever buzzwords we want, but what Rhode Island's economic policy needs remains the same.
If gravity is a consequence of the importance of information in the universe perhaps human consciousness drives our biological existence, not the other way around.
Common Cause's John Marion wants a longer view in governance. Parties provide such a thing, but it isn't typically as healthy as one might expect.
Medicare already pays out more than three times what it takes from an individual over his lifetime. That won't last.
Rhode Island's tax "reform" is looking more and more like a scam against productive residents.
RI Future blog founder Matt Jerzyk is now a full-fledged member of the Providence political machine.
It's fascinating to know that the discovery of a tooth could change our understanding of history.
Yes, having an attractive state is important, but Rhode Island's already cashed in its advantages.
Runoff elections would be a healthy introduction to Rhode Island politics.
My call in to the Matt Allen Show, last night, touched on matters of political thought and redemption for athletes.
Tom Sgouros thinks services and cooperation are the purpose of government. The American founders disagreed.
State representatives are already talking about legislative action on immigration to counter gubernatorial action, but prospects are surely dim.
When the public sector originates a push for higher education, it mismatches incentives.
One can't fault Michael Trainor's reconsideration of his assumed elevation to spokesman for Gov. Linc Chafee. It's going to be a tough job.
Rhode Island's problem isn't that its people don't like education and white-collar jobs; it's that they tolerate high taxes and regulation.
Pundits and politicians should think twice before concluding that the nation is back to politics as usual.
In RI, magistrates are not judges, but political patronage job holders. They're also locking up kids for minor disrespect.
The Wall Street Journal outs PolitiFact as a propaganda organ.
In part with the help of Iran, Venezuela is arming itself to the teeth. Why aren't we reacting?
The recently passed tax-cut legislation didn't really add anything positive to the equation; it just averted the negative.
Is it better for teachers to start with the theory of teaching or the subject matter that they're actually going to teach?
Andrew Morse summarized his liveblog of RI's recent budget summit on the Matt Allen Show.
The warning signs along the path toward centralization are many.
Cracking down on companies that exaggerate in ads profits the government.
The teachers' union in Central Falls has asked for Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee's help. One expects them to get it.
Chronic absences of teachers are suggestive of a union plot to undermine reform.
When Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee says he wishes to "set aside differences," just whom does he mean?
I've corrected some misreporting of something that state Rep. Jay Edwards (D, Tiverton) said and provided video of his (and others') appearance before the Tiverton School Committee.
Affordable housing advocates, in RI, are making the usual arguments based on their unexplored research, and Anchor Rising isn't currently in a position to counter them.
Calculations of pay and expenses for my carpentry career leave me wondering whether I mightn't be better off unemployed or on welfare.
Rhode Island's unemployment is up, which might be good if signs didn't indicate a potential for a double-dip recession.
Death sentences for apostasy suggest (to me, at least) that concern about the sanity of the Iranian regime is not subject to relativism.
Folks with right-of-center beliefs needn't apply for time with RI Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee, but the powerful will find his home open for social gatherings.
Last night, Matt Allen and I covered topics ranging from teachers to Chafee in just a few minutes.
The much-maligned richest 2% live well, but they aren't sitting on mounds of cash waiting to be taxed.
Young women are beginning to acknowledge the benefits of marrying a rich husband. And the old is new...
The RI legislature will be reconsidering some very bad bills related to teachers' unions.
Rhode Islanders are about to see the amount that they actually take home in their paychecks change, and if you're economically productive, it's probably going to decrease.
The exchange of Western civilization, trading the lives of countless unborn children for an adolescent version of freedom, corrupts our core.
Everybody supports economic development; whether they support the changes that would improve the economic condition of the town or region is another matter.
Ron Sider makes an excellent point about traditionalist's proper frame of mind, no marriage, but doing so doesn't change the intellectual structure of the same-sex marriage debate.
Not yet in office, Rhode Island Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee has already heard from all of the supporters of immigration law enforcement that he cares to entertain.
It sure doesn't seem as if the University of Education is under financial strain.
Anchor Rising's pledge drive to create a full-time job has landed me on GoLocalProv's "hot" list.
The culture of death works in not so mysterious ways.
A higher education bubble and a debt trap are the makings of the new indentured servitude.
With ObamaCare, "insurance" is just becoming another word for "redistribution".
The RI face of the ACLU made a clearly false statement, yet the Providence Journal tagged it as "half true." How?
I've posted video of my speech to the RI Tea Party leadership.
Richard Wagner contributed to the regression of Western society.
Monique Chartier called in to the Matt Allen Show, last night.
Newly elected state representative Doreen Costa addressed the RI Tea Party last night.
Much of the Rhode Island General Assembly's increased staff budget can apparently be explained by a required redistricting expense.
The federal government will soon be regulating all food associated with schools and working to expand the number of children who eat all means on the campus.
I'll be speaking at tonight's RI Tea Party strategy meeting at the Quonset O Club.
GoLocalProv lists Anchor Rising among Rhode Island's "opinion makers"; I encourage donations.
Reliance on debt to pay for essentials (because the money's been spent on other things) is catching up with Rhode Island.
The West cannot negotiate with Iran, because its leaders refuse to allow the development of a common intellectual and moral language.
Fear not, conservatives, the end of the Western world is not night.
RI House Speaker Gordon Fox (D, RI) appears to have taken the latest election as a giant green light.
Comparing head-of-class math results across states and nations reveals the United States to be doing poorly, with Rhode Island toward the bottom of the bottom.
It's interesting to watch the world improve its health and wealth.
Rhode Island doesn't spend as much public money marketing itself as a tourist destination as it should; those who would use that money well should argue that their cause is a better investment than others to which our tax dollars go.
A number of relatively conservative states receive a lot of stimulus funding per capita because they don't have a lot of per capita to go around — they've got relatively small populations.
The ObamaCare-advocating SEIU has now seen one of its branches drop healthcare for children/dependents. Wonder if they expected more thorough exemptions and waivers.
An email to members from the NEARI's president downplays the significance of an assistant executive director's arrest related to dirty politics, but the attempt rings hollow.
Matt Allen and I discussed, last night, the DREAM Act, NEA election cheating, and Anchor Rising's pledge drive.
When parents' are having to raise $110,000 per year to keep school sports going, residents should begin to wonder what they're paying taxes for.
Why society should continue to favor opposite-sex, two-person marriage.
Just remember, while you watch your life become harder every year, that public-sector unions are concerned about a mere "lull in earnings.
When it's time to make noises about cutting government budgets, bureaucrats threaten the worst and attempt to scam the public in other ways.
Rhode Island's center-right opposition "coalition" remains divided.
China's entry into the economic major leagues can only mean that it's going to run into the same rules of economics as the rest of us.
An op-ed by Ron Wolk inadvertently hones the question of the education debate to this: What is education for?
Another reason to support Anchor Rising: We have a habit of being there to record and report on events inconvenient to the establishment.
The question of the year: Do Rhode Islanders deserve the leadership that Linc Chafee is aiming to give?
Why do the Democrats oppose big-money campaign contributions when they benefit more from them?
It's weird that the world is still pretending that Pope Benedict changed the Church's position on condoms.
Does it get more absurd than "uproar" over a contestant in a celebrity reality dance competition show?
Recent polling data on ObamaCare doesn't prove what the spin suggests.
The realization is pervading our society that a college degree might not be the payoff that we've been told that it is.
RI Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee has no plans to route bureaucrats who stand in the way of the unions that elected him, but he's not ruling it out, either.
RI shouldn't race to be first in the regional offshore wind industry. That's not what will attract companies.
My call in to the Matt Allen Show this week concerned Anchor Rising's research and our need for funds.
Projo columnist Ed Achorn is discouraged by the power of special interests; I think the the good-government side can compete with fewer resources... but it needs something.
The world should be thankful for America as an example, and we should strive to live up to that obligation.
Ideology helps to explain why a headline writer would proclaim exactly the opposite lesson from the article that follows.
"Pass the bill to find out what's in it." "Change the society in order to find out whether it's harmful."
Is President Obama a socialist? Need you ask?
People rightly bristle at the suggestion that Providence's nonprofits should be taxed in some way; would that they applied the same principles to the rest of the Rhode Island economy.
Liberal columnist Bob Kerr should follow the thread of increasing automobile taxes back to the White House and the Cash for Clunkers program.
The intra-conservative debate about assassinating American citizens who are terrorists continues.
The Projo editors' argument against tax cuts as a job growth stimulator is mired in their statist mentality.
American tax code doesn't punish companies for offshoring, but it doesn't reward them, either.
Hook-up culture on American campuses is hardly conducive to the repair of educations flubbed in secondary school, let alone the advancement to greater knowledge and maturity.
Anchor Rising changed the debate about who's been leaving Rhode Island and why. Imagine what we could do with more resources? Please pledge support.
American manufacturing may not be in such dire straits as generally thought, and in any case, protecting obsolete jobs creates barriers to entry and inefficiencies.
Does national security really require us to disrobe children in the airport?
Scientists are just beginning to discover how complex our brains are. For all that complexity, though, we'll never be able to conceive of all of reality in the terms of science.
Rhode Island allows government officials more privacy than the average state. Like our vaunted quality of life, it depends on who you are and who you know.
Curious happenings in Alaska's Senate ballot counting suggest that corruption is all about incumbency.
Rob Long's description of NPR's Juan Williams firing is right on and broadly applicable.
U.S. House Democrats appear to be locked in a downward liberal-base spiral, as the retention of Nancy Pelosi in her leadership role illustrates. Republicans should take note of the trap.
Why should Rhode Island emphasize tax-exempt sectors that rely heavily on grants (rather than sales) for their revenue as a means of growing its economy?
What are charter schools meant to do? Parents and students decide should.
Repealing the Seventeenth Amendment might be a good idea, but I doubt its prospects. Perhaps a unified Return to Foundations Amendment collecting various reform ideas together would have a better chance of gaining steam.
My call in to the Matt Allen Show, last night, centered on Anchor Rising's pledge drive.
Steven Frias explains the method by which union dominance originated in Cranston. The parallels are frightening.
Just a reminder: the EPA has seized broad regulatory powers for unelected bureaucrats to harm our economy in the name of environmental radicalism.
Rhode Island doesn't need to pursue policies that push more young adults into college; it needs to educate young adults to the point that they know what they're going to college for.
RI Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee is wrong to suggest that property taxes are always more economically damaging than sales taxes, but I suspect he's making the intellectual leap from "regressive" to "harmful."
Governor-to-be Linc Chafee won the office with the smallest majority ever, in the state, and his base has a narrow and destructive list of goals.
Something's telling me that there's more to Rhode Island's surprise surplus than meets the eye. Oh, to have the time to investigate!
Libertarian types are asking social conservatives to sublimate their issues to economic concerns. It's reasonable in principle, but I'm suspicious that it's really what they're hoping for.
Keynes was wrong, and the reason policymakers cannot see it is precisely what they need to learn.
When unemployment benefits last for years — and do so for multiple waves of unemployed — it can become a barrier to the personal and political changes necessary to improve the economy, and the society.
Steps toward education reform in RI cities and towns give reason for hope, but also merit a watchful eye.
Anchor Rising is asking for pledges to support a full-time job in 2011. Please contribute.
RI's Dept. of Transportation is hitting local businesses with a hefty fee for on-highway signage. It's an indication of what all Rhode Islanders should expect for their own lives in coming months and years.
It seems to me that atheists' assumption that they can be moral without religion owes a great deal to Jesus' eschatological teachings.
Geniuses don't have to be misanthropic or even disagreeable. In fact, I'd expect the opposite.
Automatic raises for elected offices are defensible, but Rhode Island's General Assembly should have held them off, this time around.
As he closes out his time as governor and we look back at his record, I think we'll find that we're going to miss Don Carcieri.
What if the private sector went on strike?
A soccer dad experiments with the victor versus fun hypothesis.
A commenter who has moved out of state has written in to urge others to follow. I think he's off base in a couple of respects.
The government should not engage in assassination, certainly not without explicit permission via due process and most definitely not targeting its own citizens.
It's odd that my local taxpayer group's achieving a majority on the Town Council has not been picked up as news statewide.
For too many young adults, college sets expectations for what life is supposed to be like.
Marc Comtois and Matt Allen exemplified, last night, the necessity of being able to laugh in the face of decline.
The state's ability to appoint municipal receiver/dictators is taking on new, dark implications, even as a more worrying governor takes office to appoint them.
It's not surprising that growing convents are more traditional.
Senator-to-Be Marco Rubio (R, FL) puts his finger on the critical fact of whom big-government hurts.
I didn't used to glance twice at a government program offering half-price houses to public employees, but the context has changed.
Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee isn't being shy about letting Rhode Islanders know what they're in for.
Perhaps we've been wrong to see "moderatism" mainly as a home for dissatisfied liberal Republicans. RI's face of the Moderate, Ken Block, has a special affinity for Bill Clinton.
A young pro-life activist and her findings are both inspiring and disturbing.
The key to federalist reform is to empower states to succeed or fail.
Republicans may not have won the U.S. Senate, but their results weren't so shabby, nonetheless.
Headlines notwithstanding, Republican Congressional Candidate John Loughlin came much closer to winning his district 1 race in Rhode Island than he should have, given disadvantages, and he should stay in the game for the next cycle.
Government should let democracy be messy.
One way to improve the effectiveness and intelligence of Congress would be for legislators to try to do less with each legislative act.
Unless one rejects the proposition that some "discrimination" is justified by the differing circumstances of the subjects, the best way to lower the gender pay gap is to lighten restrictions and regulations on businesses.
Why is it OK to insist that children need mothers and fathers when talking about black illegitimacy, but it's not apparently relevant when the topic is same-sex marriage?
Some ruminations about the season into which we're entering.
Doubt not that Rhode Island's new governor and the leaders of the legislature are going to work together very well, indeed — much better than is good for the health of the state.
Election results in East Providence stand of evidence that it would be fair and reasonable to bar public-sector employees from unionizing.
Ford, which did not take government bailout money, is storming the market... relatively speaking.
The history of this year's many gubernatorial debates traces back to the RI Voter Coalition, the RI Tea Party, the healthcare town halls, and Anchor Rising.
Have Obama and the Democrats learned their lesson? That depends on whether they're striving for the expected degree.
I'm actually not discouraged by the election results.
Andrew Morse and Matt Allen agree that Rhode Island is in for a world of hurt.
Rhode Island's electoral outcomes were not evidence that Republicans should be "moderate".
I've posted a quick'n'dirty graphic showing the Republican-Democrat tug-of-wars in Congress.
Glumness turned to optimism, paradoxically, when I remembered that the mainstream media is on the other side.
Another bond issue on today's ballot in Rhode Island is being sold as a one-time opportunity to snag valuable property so that government operatives can dictate its usage. Buy now! (Or not, if you agree with me.)
A write-in candidate for Rhode Island's lieutenant governor race offers the opportunity for Republicans to vote for an actual Republican.
Frankly, if the need for additional public bonds is so dire, the university community isn't behaving as one should expect.
Tomorrow, we must change government calculations at every level.
Why must government guarantee loans, rather than simply getting out of the way?
An audio file of conservative stalwart Russell Kirk reading one of his ghost stories has stuck with me since I first heard it on a Halloween past.
As usual, Mark Steyn summarises well the problems that we see in civic life at ever level of government.
It sure does look like Google gets special treatment from the government, notably in proximity to a big-money fundraiser for the president.
Cynthia Needham is at it again: putting her newspaper's PolitiFact feature in the service of naked political ends.
France may have retirement at 60, but Rhode Island offers pensions that underwrite second careers, at least for those who start in the public sector.
I'm leaning toward the independent-times-two candidate for RI lieutenant governor, Bob Venturini.
Social Security is proving that government entitlements will resist the actual application of cost-restraining measures like tying benefits to markers of the cost of living.
Maintaining the link between marriage and childbirth is a critical tool in fighting poverty.
Consolidating Rhode Island's pension system will only consolidate municipal unions' incentive to manipulate the General Assembly.
Acknowledgment of evil remains a necessary means of combating it.
Democrat gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio's outburst saying that President Obama can "shove" his endorsement surely wasn't an outburst so much as a calculation.
Now that men are a minority on college campuses, it's suddenly victimization to deny better qualified applicants in the name of diversity.
Projo PolitiFact analyst Cynthia Needham is at it again, abusing the concept of context to assist a Democrat Congressional candidate.
It's no mystery why Rhode Island is treated as politically irrelevant: In a typical election year, everybody knows which way our votes are going to go.
Stephen Hawking recently proclaimed to be moving physics beyond the need for God, but some would argue that he's actually moved physics closer to God — at least the Christian concept of Him.
Here's the audio from this morning's WRNI Political Roundtable, featuring me.
It seems as if the allocated roles for public officers are becoming more and more difficult to distinguish.
Apparently, NPR commentators aren't allowed to express their natural emotional response to the existence of a global jihad.
Let's stipulate that law enforcement agencies ought to be able to use GPS trackers under certain circumstances. It should still require a warrant.
I'm skeptical that it's possible to divide happiness into categories of causes, from genetics, to circumstances, to personal relationships.
RI Education Commissioner Deborah Gist appears to be playing budgetary politics with the education of our children.
I'm posting some thoughts as I watch last night's Congressional district 1 debate.
Just a reminder that the United States still has a manufacturing sector.
In Rhode Island, it apparently isn't considered political corruption to use public office to procure jobs for people who contribute politically to one's family members.
When it comes to globalization, the U.S. government must address that which it has the power to address — mainly, relinquishing its power.
As mayor of Warwick, Lincoln Chafee usurped the authority of the town's school committee to resolve a teacher union dispute. What will he consider his authority to include as governor?
The Central Falls, RI, takeover by the state has cleared its first judicial hurdle. RI municipalities, it seems, are little more than bureaucratic subdivisions of the state.
"Moderate" means "far left", at least in Rhode Island gubernatorial politics.
Not to be deliberately contrarian, but it just isn't true that higher education is the "engine that drives economic development."
Local towns' move to enter the wind farm business is just a means of seeking profit for government operations, with taxpayers fronting the money and shouldering the risk.
I certainly don't mind young adults' having fun and pursuing other ends than material wealth, but it is objectionable for them to use their idle time to advocate for the confiscation of wealth from others.
Surely many union members have reservations about their dues' being used to promote policies and principles with which they disagree, but this is a pretty extreme example.
Once again, the deterioration of the American family hurts minorities.
Let's not forget that one-party rule is a definite risk, to say the least.
Doesn't it seem that Western debates about translating the Bible centuries ago are considered more egregious than current examples of the same thing in Islam ?
Rhode Island likes to stick it to its residence. That's why a six-month extension to pay taxes isn't actually a six-month extension, and no notice was given to clarify.
The irony is that, by the light of President Obama, President Bush had a lot of class.
Some aspects of local political campaigns strike me as odd.
The problem for those entering higher education as a career is not that talented professors can negotiate for higher salaries, but that established teachers are entrenched.
How exactly is it "liberalization" for the Saudi royal family to take more explicit control over the handling of Islam in their nation?
I called in for Anchor Rising's spot on Matt Allen, last night, to talk about Proud to Be Right and the election season so far.
URI Economist Len Lardaro has been prominent among economists noting the upswing in the local economy. Now he's warning of doom and gloom.
Just a reminder to stock up on incandescent light bulbs, because they won't be around much longer.
Apparently, insider trading isn't so bad when the financial insiders are also government insiders.
As Rhode Island moves toward implementation of teacher evaluation systems, there's reason to be suspicious that it'll be a program designed either to fail or to do little.
In contrast to other reviews, WPRI's Ted Nesi has posted about my contribution to Proud to Be Right.
China should provide Americans with an excuse to change our way of doing things... back to the way we used to do them.
If Rhode Island's institutions of higher education want more resources they need to streamline their operations and help those of us who would reform the operation of the state.
Apparently, to the New England mainstream media, paying for something via premiums is the same as not paying for them.
The public-sector-at-any-cost vote appears to represent about one-fifth of the electorate, and Lincoln Chafee is their man for governor.
It's true: Rhode Island is generous with its unemployment benefits, and it discourages those receiving them from actually finding work.
Not surprisingly, comparing teacher salaries, it doesn't pay for poorer states to pay their teachers disproportionately highly.
The current office of the first black president notwithstanding, Americans think race relations are not improving.
On the Republican versus Democrat issue of Social Security, reporter Cynthia Needham costs her newspaper credibility.
President Obama has recently characterized two things as "inexcusable": Declaring 9/11 conspiracy theories in the heart of Manhattan and not helping Democrats win the upcoming elections.
I've been arguing that people are paying down their debt, even if numbers make the trend look smaller than expected. My case appears to be getting weaker.
People must be taught to appreciate freedom before they can procure and maintain it, politically.
New environmental regulations are causing job-killing uncertainty about regulations, in which we see the problem of large, expansive government wreaking havoc in multiple ways.
Jon Stewart progresses in his willingness to shine a comedic light on President Obama — or his inability not to do so.
Energy prices are set to climb, and for some of the same reasons that America is drifting from its dynamic heritage.
The protestors dressed as clowns to distract from the fact that their goal is to intimidate.
Although he's far out on the right wing, Rev. Phelps's universally offensive displays point to the damage that the left has done to our society.
Andrew Morse gave Matt Allen listeners a preview of his ranking of state legislators based on five important votes.
Even intra-Democrat politics aren't exciting in Rhode Island, this year.
Are Rhode Island schools capable of teaching science?
Sometimes, local politicians can best enunciate the reason for running for public office at all. Republican RI House of Representatives candidate Nancy Driggs did just that at a fundraiser on Saturday.
Merit pay for teachers has to be part of a larger culture change.
Just to be clear: Lincoln Chafee is the RI gubernatorial candidate of the public sector unions.
Political connections can do wonders when it comes to bending the rules of an all-touching government.
The decline of print media is a loss, in my view, but not because it removes the mainstream news filter.
It's amazing what environmental extremists believe to be light humor.
It's peculiar, in the era of the Tea Party movement, to read a mainstream columnist decrying the disappearance of protesting.
Hate crime legislation, and identity politics, overall, prevent us from developing a broader social empathy.
It appears that Democrats running for U.S. Congress get about a 50% preference in polls no matter what. Let's hope that the undecideds can be inspired to decide well.
In that old entertainment of campaign season, we get to watch as entrenched incumbents leverage regulations meant to ensure clean government as barriers to entry for those who would challenge their rule.
Upon revelation, the "anti-gay threat" at the University of Rhode Island turns out to be pretty mild, not really worth the drama of "hate crime" investigations.
The difficulty that young teachers are experiencing directly relate to all of the other problems that public education experiences, which all flow back to unions.
Effective slavery on fishing vessels raises questions of government structure. Government is needed, to be sure, to regulate, but government is also responsible, no doubt, for the perpetuation of conditions under which people enter into such situations.
Homosexual students are protesting (based on slender threads, in my view) and seeking to force the University of Rhode Island to answer their demands. Aren't there better lessons they could be learning/
Europe is interfering with American efforts to collect travel data critical to thwarting terrorist plots.
Why does there seem to be little excitement surrounding this year's election cycle in Rhode Island? Matt Allen and I discuss.
Changes in legal thought, relevant to federalism, illustrate how political groupings shift over time.
Even as the substantive arguments against same-sex marriage go without response from SSM advocates and the American judiciary, alike, the next phases of the deterioration of the institution of marriage arrive.
Without yet having reported on testimony that Obama's Department of Justice enforces the law with a racially tinged eye, the Providence Journal makes crystal clear its institutional political preferences.
President Obama deployed diversity-speak against a lying tyrant, when what he ought to have done was call into question the legitimacy of an international organization that gives tyrants a respected platform.
The Providence Journal was quick to report on mock Congressional testimony by Stephen Colbert, but has yet to cover testimony that Obama's Department of Justice has a racial litmus test.
Would-be totalitarians have learned that they do best, in our society, to encourage enough leash in personal indulgence so as to distract from the fact that they own the leash.
It may not mean anything, but Republicans are clearly the enthusiasm leaders in the East Bay yard sign area.
Carpenters like to convey their wisdom in principled "must do" rules, but when it comes to tools, much depends on the kind of carpenter one wishes to be.
"Revelations" about ObamaCare aren't so much new information as outcomes that many of us expected.
Most of America's recent debt reduction has come in the form of defaults, but when coming up with a narrative of the recession, one should keep in mind that it takes many people reducing debt by the healthier means of paying it down to equal the same reduction as a single default.
NJ Governor Chris Christie has succeeded in cutting off funding for abortions, making him a hero to conservatives of the social, as well as economic, sort.
A small-scale wind farm planned for one Rhode Island facility illustrates that, whatever their environmental benefits, windfarms aren't money savers.
Andrew Morse explains what Anchor Rising does to help voters remember why they're unhappy with their elected representatives.
With the primaries over, General Treasurer Frank Caprio appears to be moving from previous associations toward the unions.
The number of issues that can pile into a defense policy bill (which includes raises for the troops) is evidence that government should be kept small and narrow in its authority.
Amidst controversy about a particular (and generally inconsequential) public office, it's worth remembering that the laudable message of the Clean Slate initiative is independence.
England's historical experience with union domination ought to be a warning to us in the U.S.A. and, especially, Rhode Island.
The controversy over the withdrawal of the RIGOP's lieutenant candidate in support of an independent candidate who wants to abolish the office continues and deepens.
Reporter Scott MacKay faults business leaders for not keeping up with unions in the campaign game, but the reason that they can't is precisely the unfairness of the system.
The Obama administration may be attempting to hinder thorough and objective efforts to examine what happened to all of the oil from the BP spill.
Right in the midst of the continuing decline of the state, Speaker of the RI House Gordon Fox has the audacity to declare that "people are doing well." Worse still, his spin finds support in PR by the Republican governor.
If the Providence Journal's Truth-O-Meter is going to gauge context and speculation when it comes to offshore wind farms, it ought to do so thoroughly.
Democrats in Congress are looking to impose yet another burden on small businesses, this time requiring landlords to treat all tradesmen and other workers whom they hire as if they were subcontractors, with the requisite forms and information collection.
Do you suppose there will be any high-profile transreligion press conferences to decry the threat to kill a cartoonist? Not until those threats are made in the name of a religion other than Islam.
Thinking on the psychological and biological foundations of homosexuality appear to be moving in the direction that I've long thought to be true.
How is it that an unsigned editorial can be so saturated with partisan talking points?
Unbelievably, the RIGOP has chosen, during a year in which an angry electorate wants honesty and common sense above all, to manipulate primary voters in the lieutenant governor race.
Government programs, while they proclaim to provide security, actually make it more difficult for society to plan and adjust.
When government controls healthcare, government will determine what is and isn't available, usually at the urging of powerful entities pursuing their own interests.
Raymond Palmieri, of Warren, makes a similar point to that which I've argued before: Love of unions based on the history of the labor movement ignores the fact that circumstances, power, and motivations, change.
Doesn't it seem as if "interfaith community" statements always tend to take the Muslim side?
Monique Chartier took Wednesday's slot on the Matt Allen show to discuss the state's primary results.
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is coming to RI to stump for Lincoln Chafee in his candidacy for governor. We can only hope that he brings neither bedbugs nor nanny state policies with him.
We must stop the government education monopoly.
The lesson of the Tea Party threat to not-conservative-enough Republicans is that Americans have figured out that the GOP won't halt the growth of government, just advance it more slowly.
The problem with arguments against "nation building" is that they inherently ignore the necessity of following war with reconstruction.
It's a bit unreasonable to expect candidates for governor to know the nuances of federal healthcare legislation if we don't expect legislators to know them before making such regulations the law of the land.
Travis Rowley's pamphlet, The Rhode Island Republican, offers a reminder of what we face at the ballot box, this year.
I concur with Jonah Goldberg that conservatives have the opportunity to benefit more than liberals from the college experience... and it's not just because I've got an essay in the book that he's starting to promote.
It's odd to see a candidate who argues that he'll work with his political opposition if elected to office devolve to sniping meanness over intellectual questions in the primaries.
We tend to be impressed by fame, but if we look to our families, we find that even the ordinary played roles in history.
We certainly should know our history, but we should also remember that things change in ways crosswise to our chosen identity groups.
Parricide is becoming a too-familiar event in my East Bay community. Should we start looking for a cause?
Maybe modern Christians' difficulty is not so much with the tenets of their faith, but with the consequences of failing to live up to them.
At least in the Northeast, I suspect we're all personally connected to 9/11, even if we don't know it. And there are lessons that we shouldn't forget.
Tax collections are up in Rhode Island, and some folks think it's a sign that the economy is improving, but I'm not so sure.
I won a new tool, the other day, and I'm loving it.
There are foundational reasons that libertarians seem often to resemble dictators in their attitude toward others.
Avoiding political unrest appears to be the latest excuse to continue with wealth redistribution at the expense of the economy. Of course, it also shifts power to a different uberclass.
It may be that the critical component in our successful counterinsurgency in Iraq — now absent, for Afghanistan — is the enemy's understanding that America's commander in chief was strong and serious about his mission.
Like targeted government giveaways (mostly to government entities), targeted and temporary tax credits have not stimulated the economy. It's no surprise.
For my call-in to the Matt Allen Show, last night, the main topic was Rhode Island's brand of corruption.
Liveblogging from an instructional presentation on carpentry, I note that we all strive for craftsmanship, but a continual flow of business can overwhelm the desire.
The latest findings are that the BP oil spill was not quite the great disaster that it was touted to be, and we should have known that all along.
Rhode Island is exactly in the middle of the pack for student performance, according to one measure, but is right out front when it comes to per-pupil expenditures.
An artistic representation of what the U.S. presidents of the past would think of Barack Obama's performance.
When a quarter of a district's student body is "special needs," it just might indicate a problem of inflation.
The "silent majority," by definition, is not partisan.
In a democratic society, the availability of status to all can distract from deeper meaning. The question is how we free ourselves from that difficulty without destroying the motivational fuel by which our society advances.
Pace the Providence Journal, private-sector workers aren't usually motivated by fear, when they put in extra effort, but ambition.
It does seem that environmentalist terrorism doesn't rank as high, for the mainstream media, as right-wing indiscretions.
Do tax cuts inspire huge economic growth? The Providence Journal's fact-checking team says "no." I say they're not heeding their own evidence.
Watching The Road, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, leaves me wondering whether the author was more concerned about the end of nature as we know it than of human nature as we know it.
I've finally found another song for the political album I've been building on my MP3 player.
Ted Nesi continues to argue that "conduit debt" isn't a frightening beast, and I continue to disagree.
On the one hand, it's disappointing to hear how very narrow the range of opinions in the Democrat mainstream is; on the other, it's disappointing to hear even debate moderators ask Democrat centrists why they're Democrats at all.
Whether somebody else is promising to pay back the loan or not, Rhode Islanders are "on the hook" for all of the debt undertaken by their government.
Rhode Island politicians are taking credit for an apparent $17 million surplus, while not mentioning hundreds of millions in federal gifts.
Anchor Rising's Andrew Morse called in to the Matt Allen Show to discuss conservatism, bonds, and morality.
The government bans chemicals that helped to make bedbugs seem like a thing of the past, and now people are resorting to even more dangerous methods as protection against a resurgence of the bugs.
Try as they might, secular Darwinian materialists cannot avoid the necessity of religion and tradition.
A movement is afoot to install some fresh faces in the General Assembly. Of course, that's difficult to do when candidates have already been the subject of investigative reports and local controversy.
Thanks to retirement rules, Providence is providing more than two healthcare benefits for every actual full-time position it currently funds. Say it with me, this is not sustainable.
It's not a matter of immediate concern, yet, in the United States, but European experience with the burqa and lesser veils suggests that we would do well to adjust our culture in preparation, perhaps thereby to avoid the need for legal bans.
Property values went down in Central Falls, RI, and the government is increasing its overall take, saddling homeowners with a near doubling of their tax rate.
Teaching is not a matter of untestable magic.
William Lobdell blames the hypocrisy of Christians for others' loss of faith. I'd say the attacks of the likes of Lobdell bear more responsibility.
School administrators in Cumberland, RI, apparently believe that sacrifice is when teachers receive smaller raises than they're used to.
The ugly situation in Central Falls is getting uglier, with the city council hiring an independent lawyer against the wishes of the city's new receiver-king and with no plan to pay the bill.
A parable from Afghanistan seems like it might be applicable to cross-cultural dialogue.
Monique Chartier took last night's Anchor Rising spot on the Matt Allen Show.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie not only offers a political model, he raises notions about potential changes to political structure.
Sometimes it's just spending money.
What the Obama administration's green-car fetish essentially does is to subsidize cars for the rich at the expense of taxpayers and the economy.
Rhode Island has made the second cut for Race to the Top funds. I'm not excited.
A California study found that some teachers are better than others. It's just the latest evidence that we all know what needs to be done but have difficulty talking about it.
To the extent that "terrorism is the weapon of the marginalized," it's not the West doing the marginalization, but dictators and their ideology.
The Deepwater Wind project remains a bad deal. Wonder whom Rhode Islanders will blame when the economy continues its sour state for decades to come...
The visible marks that we leave in life are mere reminders of the eternal marks that we leave even in death.
A local artisan-artist takes old materials and makes furniture and artwork. A very conservative activity, if you ask me.
Whenever actual numbers are applied to public-sector pension deals, it makes one reel at the unreasonableness of it.
Rich people's "giving back" doesn't imply that they've taken something; it implies that they've received something.
A seemingly random death at a Boston bar isn't that random, if you think about it.
Peter Robinson's interview of Thomas Sowell brings forth some interesting questions.
The folks with contaminated land in Tiverton continue to have difficulty fixing the problem, and I continue to think that a different, less litigious, route should have been pursued from the beginning.
Anchor Rising's readers are missing the point on Central Falls. It's all about the precedent.
One of the poorest communities in Rhode Island is now facing a truly massive tax increase at the hands of a very well paid dictator, because the state of Rhode Island believes its bond rating trumps democracy.
How many disabled police pensioners is too many? I don't know.
Sometimes strings on big government spending aren't immediately imposed.
Wherein I swing at a candidates soft ball.
Brevity should mean that each word contains more content, not less.
What's changed in the same-sex marriage debate, over the last forty years, is not the law or reality, but the attitudes of the ruling elite.
A state-appointed receiver for the city of Central Falls has the power to completely restructure town government, voters' wishes irrelevant, yet he has no choice but to pay a previous appointee whatever he decides to bill for his services?
Giving in to the habits of modern technology may just prep us for lives as manipulated slaves.
Changing the people in the General Assembly is step number 1 for Rhode Island.
Insiders in the higher education industry are fretting that more people need their product. I think the opposite is true.
The first batch of students for whom recent state graduation requirements will be binding will soon be reaching their senior years, and many won't be eligible for diplomas. That's not a problem with the standards; it's a problem with the system.
I don't see any mystery to ending the recession. Just get the government out of the way.
When the ACLU teams up with right-leaning taxpayer groups, public officials in Tiverton should reconsider not only their defamation lawsuit against a private citizen, but also whether they should remain in office.
From the perspective of global jihadis, I'm not so sure the United States hasn't been proving its weakness.
"Demanding" religions thrive, and they aren't ultimately demanding so much as rewarding.
So, the feds have busted some Medicare scammers. My question: couldn't we have done that without costly new mandates and a reordering of our method of healthcare delivery?
Education loans are a skyrocketing form of debt, in the United States. It makes me wonder whether it mightn't make for a valuable differentiator for colleges and universities to begin offering guarantees that the education provided will enable graduates to pay off their loans.
As Ross Douthat writes, traditional marriage is an ideal that legalizing same-sex marriage will prevent us from recognizing.
It's disheartening to see RI's General Assembly get away with a scheme to increase taxes while getting credit for cutting them.
I objected to government borrowing to prop up its on workforce on last night's Matt Allen Show.
The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has approved the controversial offshore wind energy contract, and I'm not optimistic.
Rhode Island's lack of a boat tax should set the tone for its entire tax code.
With the economy still sputtering, can we at last propose that the policies of the current administration and Congress are to blame?
Why do we hear much about wars for oil, when there's an excuse to decry them, but not so much from the same circles when an American President manipulates the energy industry and extracts private-sector money to plug the holes thus created?
Big government refuses to manage itself well or to adjust for hard times, so the feds just take money out of the future economy to subsidize unaffordable or unnecessary labor.
The potential for misuse of smartgrid technology is too great for its widespread implementation to be advisable.
These little nuggets of clearly wrongheaded provisions in the ObamaCare legislation should not be an excuse to change the costs or tax structure of the legislation after the fact. Repeal the bill, or repair it within itself.
Don't believe that the "multiplier effect" makes unemployment benefits a significant investment in the economy
Professor Stephen Mathis thinks it's absurd to believe that the Second Amendment creates a "right to revolution." His spun language notwithstanding, I think he's wrong.
It seems as if a number of factors contribute to kids reluctance to work (and parents' reluctance to push them to), these days.
The key to bringing the haughty down a notch is to strive to better ourselves.
I'd suggest that it's kind of the point that the Bible is meant to be interpreted.
Not unusually, Tom Sgouros's thinking points to a fundamental difference in political philosophy. I believe government should adjust to the clear desires of the people it represents; he believes it should manipulate those people to maintain its services and internal benefits.
The New York Times has admitted, in the most minimal way possible, that Tea Party members gave no evidence of racism on the steps of the Capitol. Months later. And hedged.
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
If anybody actually believed Nancy Pelosi's intention to operate by a "Word-based" public policy (as in the Son of God), she surely wouldn't get away with claiming to do so.
Bell, California, has helpfully offered an extreme illustration of excessive public-sector compensation. The "comparable pay to the private sector" claim is not necessarily true, anymore.
Government should strive to provide a better product more efficiently; it should not undertake economic risks with the hope of profit.
I suspect suspicious motives among those reluctant to admit that abstinence-only education works.
Arthur Laffer explains the folly of trying to tax ourselves to prosperity. Sadly, we're at least months away from elected leadership that will heed the advice.
Monique Chartier covered a range of topics during Anchor Rising's Wednesday call in to the Matt Allen Show.
A judge in California has made same-sex marriage a federal issue. I'd suggest that there are much bigger considerations involved in the immediate issue.
It's not really a news flash that non-Israel neighbors of Iran are concerned about its approach to nuclear power.
Some folks think Rhode Island's rulers were productive, this political year. That may be true, but not in a good way.
George Weigel has an interesting article seeking to forge a new approach to foreign policy that negates U.S. oscillation between realism and idealism.
How do we save the environment? Human advancement.
The decline of dance, as an art form, indicates to me that the time has come for the envelope to be pushed back in a traditional (and religious) direction.
Sad to say, but it's actually an excellent observation that the entire country's staggering economy gives Rhode Island an opportunity to pull out of the back of the pack.
It seems I've been hearing regular anecdotes about secularists simply omitting God from literary works that made reference to Him.
If only public schools more broadly took the attitude of growth and advancement of a help-wanted ad for substitute teachers.
The question of life, I propose, is whose story we care to tell.
An interesting aspect of Rhode Island's gubernatorial race is that the "independent" candidate, Linc Chafee, is the best hope of the society-strangling inside special interests.
As the U.S. ruling class pushes a reluctant nation toward centrally managed healthcare, the very examples that they cite for the move are headed the other way.
The pro-life side of the abortion debate appears to be making progress, but there's a whole lot of cultural weight to lift before the public, as a whole, will bend sufficiently.
Come on, now. Why would Rhode Island care that it can get wind energy at half the price that its hand-picked supplier is seeking?
One-fifth of Rhode Islanders receive some sort of Social Security benefit. That's how constituencies are bought.
By way of a follow-up, the U. of Illinois religion professor fired for teaching his subject as if it might be true has been offered his job back, albeit with a dark lining.
Amidst personal preoccupations, I noticed that the economy isn't doing as well as "expected," and that potential government culpability for the Gulf oil spill is conveniently appearing at the same time as media reports downplaying its effect.
Minimum wage increases cost jobs. People still don't get it.
What sort of hole is the U.S. government in? A very big one.
I'm not optimistic that the promise of the Race to the Top education program will outmatch its danger.
Marc Comtois took the air with Matt Allen to discuss immigration and education.
Somehow the dollar amounts make a difference when considering the guy giving the job of receiver for Central Falls.
Controlling tax rates versus controlling tax levies is a question several steps removed from the interest of most folks, but it's one of those subtle areas that, in aggregate, make a huge difference when it comes to the size and scope of our government.
A Catholic professor fired for teaching Catholic thought as if it might be accurate provides a teachable moment... that emotion trumps intellect and "inclusivity" trumps interaction.
The state's constitutionally questionable step of taking over the government of Central Falls points to the evil of debt.
The individual mandate imposed by ObamaCare looks not only like a dubious claim of Constitutional power, but also like the nose of the authoritarian camel in the tent.
Apparent improvements in RI's tax structure are not what they seem.
Call it "creeping sharia." Somehow it's become an open question whether American laws apply to everyone.
Today's Old Testament reading, during Mass, makes me think that we're living in Sodom and are therefore called to be those few innocents on whose behalf the city will be spared.
Same-sex marriage advocates rally at the State House; no problem. Traditional marriage advocates do the same? The side of the supposed "victims" strives to intimidate and silence them.
The financial overhaul legislation that President Obama just signed into law steps right into a frightening tangle of consequences.
Federal standards for education. Another insidious avenue for authoritarian government.
Jonah Golberg and Nick Schulz have a worthwhile proposal for helping parents filter the Internet by creating a .kids domain.
Providence Journal columnist Mark Patinkin has written a Democrat version of his lampoon of Republicans, and there are some interesting differences.
Hate speech is just a tool by which Evil protects itself while distorting Good.
A charity event has been effectively muffled in Tiverton, RI, not by tax-hawk right-wingers (like me), but by those who operate the local high-taxing, business-killing fiefdom. That shouldn't be a surprise.
Andrew Morse took the air on Wednesday night's Matt Allen Show to discuss Anchor Rising's plans to offer a running 101 course on Rhode Island governance.
In Central Falls, an appointed government official, unaccountable to the community, has stripped the elected mayor of his power. Even if the outcome is just, the process is frightening.
Can small changes in electoral laws save the state? I'm not optimistic.
Stephen Spruiell expresses the views of many conservatives with respect to the government and the economy, I think.
It's not crazy to think that divorced mothers will turn to same-sex marriage.
Thousands of blogs being shut down at a word from the federal government is a development that requires a very close eye from every citizen.
Reporter Neil Downing took a look at unemployment and somehow missed the effect of a "transformative" government on the confidence of economic actors.
Jay Nordlinger's profile of Norway's Progress party is apt to give a conservative hope that all is never lost.
Public pension debt is a cold, hard reason that people are beginning to feel that they owe nothing to their supposed representatives or the promises that they've made.
The intriguing story of an Iranian nuclear scientist returning to Iran from the United States doesn't prove that the former has a nuclear weapons program, but it certainly indicates that there's more going on than meets the eye.
Are men a fading gender? Folks are talking as if we are, and it isn't difficult to see same-sex marriage as a facilitator.
Folks on the political right have different views of President Obama's current positioning. I'm of the opinion that we're all focusing a bit too closely on him as a key figure.
A visit to the Battle of Rhode Island monument in Portsmouth, leaves me pondering the overlap of modern life and local history.
Not surprisingly, the Democrats' recent debate in the primary race for Congress District 1 leaves me thinking politicians can be trusted to do anything but tell the whole truth.
It might reasonably be suggested that the economic crisis was caused by the blend of Republican and Democrat policies, more than it was the result of either one.
I've broken down, by state, Newsweek's list of high schools that emphasize advanced tests. It's interesting to note which do and which don't.
Something just doesn't seem right about a lobbyist's sitting on a judicial nomination committee.
Philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein (world famous in Rhode Island) has been the target of an accusatory letter to the editor. My opinion sort of splits the difference.
Massachusetts voters look likely to have the opportunity — in the midst of the Great Recession — to cut their sales taxes in half. The usual suspects are threatening to harm the dependencies of residents, but I wonder what the effect will be on Rhode Island. Probably not good.
Some media sources are touting an improvement in Rhode Island's unemployment rate, but if you consider the nearly 3,000 people who dropped out of the job market, the news isn't so bright.
It's two stories in one: Senator Al Franken (D, MN) looks likely to have been put over the top by illegally voting felons, and the mainstream media is disinclined to report on it.
I've come across an old column of mine indicating that universal healthcare will lead inexorably balances of one life against another.
Obama's Recovery Summer may seem gloomier than the era of his presidential predecessor, but gloom is all about perspective... or spin.
No taxpayer dollars for abortion? Nobody really believed that, did they?
A bomb scare in a cemetery in Tiverton suggests that common sense may be dying.
Some comments from the co-chairmen of the president's debt and deficit commission lead some to think that we're being set up for massive tax increases. That possibility raises questions of a nation-defining sort.
Doesn't it seem as if those most eager to proclaim a particular breakthrough as definitive proof that religious believers are wrong already behave as if it's already been proven?
When a reporter overlooks the most interesting questions, as often happens in stories about welfare and other social programs, it's reasonable to infer that there's an ulterior motive.
Calling in to the Matt Allen Show, last night, I noted that federal dollars don't mean economic growth for a state.
Local columnist Joe Baker has a badly flawed understanding of government, but at least he provides a good jumping off point for correcting common conceptual problems.
Moderate Islam does exist, but within individuals, and is susceptible to radicalization.
The debate continues about Judge Tauro's same-sex marriage rulings in Massachusetts.
In acting in a way that other nations may see as crazy, Iran is actually behaving rationally, given the U.S. response.
Somehow, a public-campaign-money program (meant to level the playing field) in Rhode Island tends to give hundreds of thousands more to candidates whom one would expect to be leading, anyway. Odd.
Tiverton Citizens for Change President David Nelson is the target of an apparent act of political intimidation through a baseless defamation lawsuit.
Over on Anchor Rising, I've posted mention of my site redesign of justinkatz.com. Feedback is welcome.
The actual insurance against harm isn't the only, and arguably not the most important, benefit of private insurance practices. When the insurance transitions to government control, however, other benefits are lost and thereby threaten the insurance itself.
Providence Journal columnist Mark Patinkin recently published a bizarrely cliché profile of a generic Republican. I challenge him to hang out with some actual members of the local GOP.
It seems to me that right-leaning Rhode Island reformers have to begin explaining why they think the state worth saving.
While I'm not sure that Arthur Laffer is arguing against any real opponents, when it comes to whether unemployment benefits reduce unemployment, I like his idea of stimulating the economy by lifting all federal taxes for a year and a half.
Debate continues, on Anchor Rising, about the recent same-sex marriage rulings.
Rumors are that the Democrats are saving a liberal wish list for imposition between this year's elections and next year's new Congress. They should be made to realize that consequences can follow them beyond their de-elections.
Jeffrey Friedman thinks everybody has been wrong in assessing the financial breakdown; I think it's closer to the truth to say that everybody has been right.
Another judge's innovative ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, and another tangle of questions about how he got from the previously understood reality A to the judicially imposed reality B.
How will affirmative action stabilize our financial sector?
Turkey's Islamification could be a dire warning sign that the West must reinvigorate its own principles and confidence.
Rhode Island spends more public money on prisons than colleges. I'd present that as a symptom, not a cause.
As if guaranteed profits and "ram it through" legislation pushing a corrupt wind energy deal on the people of Rhode Island weren't bad enough, the second-try proposal from Deepwater Wind and National Grid is barely a superficial compromise.
Yup, Rhode Island's still in an economic hole. Perhaps we'll have an indication, in November, of whether Rhode Islanders are looking to change that.
My conversation with Matt Allen, this week, focused on his interview with Victor Moffitt and (of course) Anchor Rising stuff.
State and federal governments have their eyes on charitable organizations, both for taxation and for regulation... although the two are arguably fronts in the same power grab.
Rhode Island gubernatorial candidate Victor Moffitt seems to understand that the General Assembly is the problem, but he doesn't seem to get that the reality makes it peculiar for a reformer to intend to "work with" legislators.
Christian groups on college campuses are no longer free to prevent their own subversion while receiving official recognition. In theory, the Supreme Court ruling is ideologically neutral, but in practical effect, well, we'll see.
Providence Journal columnist Julia Steiny seems inclined to look to schools to fill in the work and community experience that young adults aren't receiving, any longer. I'd prefer to look to employers and communities for that.
The stability of Treasury bonds might not be evidence of economic stability, given government subsidization thereof. Looking to gold suggests folks might not trust our paper money.
More encouraging signs that reform-minded folks have correctly identified the General Assembly as key to changing Rhode Island... and are willing to run for seats therein.
We've been seeing an odd concoction, among Rhode Island Republican candidates, in an attempt to be pro-choice but self-identify as pro-life. I think it's a monstrous construct.
Mark Steyn suggests that radical Muslims are the greatest beneficiaries of Western Holocaust guilt. In the United States, they're a huge beneficiary of slavery guilt.
Dr. Alieta Eck uses experience and anecdotes to justify her conclusion that the incentives that Obamacare creates will raise prices beyond a feasible threshold. That's what many of us have been saying since before there was a law to repeal.
So Cash for Clunkers seems to have increased the value of used cars for the purpose of taxation. It's sort of like a small example of government-derived stimulus writ large.
The government looks likely to exempt itself from restrictions on debit card fees for cards that it issues. Not an untypical move.
Suppose for a moment that money — or at least financial equality — doesn't actually buy happiness. If earning money and having the opportunity to do so are key to happiness, then government redistribution can only make people less happy.
Politically correct excisions from education affect more than just Western self confidence.
Just a pause to think about poetry for a moment.
Former Republican Governor Lincoln Almond has written a love-op-ed for health insurance mammoth Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Rhode Island. Curious.
My proposition: An intellectually curious population is a politically engaged population.
Do folks having to make hard choices after losing their extended unemployment benefit realize that the problem is the federal government's refusal to make hard choices?
Manipulation of the political process to hand Deepwater Wind guaranteed revenue for an experimental offshore wind farm, and the horrible budget that probably constituted a political trade, marked the end of Governor Carcieri's time in office, as far as I'm concerned.
James Bennett suggests that American Exceptionalism shouldn't be a statement of pride so much as a practical description, and one that indicates what policies do and don't suit our nation.
URI Economics Professor Len Lardaro touts his Current Conditions Index each month, typically with an optimistic spin. But the best one can say about the latest results is that Rhode Island is only as badly off as it was during the dark, dark year of 2009.
The stable interest of Treasury bonds isn't necessarily a sign of fiscal health.
An interesting idea for Republicans: claim the "finding cures" ground in the healthcare debate.
Here's a table of contents of my coverage of the Portsmouth Institute's 2010 conference, on Cardinal John Henry Newman.
The Rhode Island Statewide Coalition has been raising big bucks for its Business Network (by Rhode Island reform standards) and has enlisted the help of Arlene Violet to orchestrate the effort of spending it (to be crass about it).
Moderate Party candidate for lieutenant governor, Jean Ann Guliano has switched to a General Assembly candidacy. She's not alone, and reform-minded Rhode Islanders should be encouraged.
Monique took last week's Matt Allen spot for Anchor Rising.
Just how much debt and financial liability does the United States have? It's difficult to imagine.
Congrats to the Ocean State Policy Research Institute for reaching the point at which its work is relevant to the U.S. Congress.
More argument that the focus of public education isn't on students and parents, but on federal dollars and union benefits.
General Assembly Candidate Dawson Hodges agrees with me that cities and towns ought to be more directly represented in the legislature (although it seems to have been disallowed by the Supreme Court).
Gubernatorial Candidate Frank Caprio is attempting to rebrand the Democrats as the state's reform party. Let's just call it an exercise in cynicism.
So those waves of cash to states from the federal government can actually harm the private economy.
French transportation strikes over two extra years before retirement (to 62) are beyond my capacity for empathy.
I'm unpersuaded that the folks who direct public education have a full understanding of the problem.
As much as I'd like to agree with Ramesh Ponnuru's argument on behalf of federal anti-discrimination legislation, I just can't get past its inexorable tendency to expand.
Progressive activist Matthew Jerzyk defends a humble working class joe's apparently inappropriate collection of unemployment benefits, although the joe turns out to have been a manager who is married to a coworker of Jerzyk's.
Oxford Professor Ian Ker wrapped up the Portsmouth Institute's conference on Cardinal John Henry Newman with a lecture on the hermeneutics of continuity.
Yes, there's irrationality to it, but as a seafood lover, I can't help but sense global implications for the disaster in the Gulf.
State Senator Lou Raptakis has some good things to say about the operation of the General Assembly. Why, then, is he running for Secretary of State?
People being jailed for unpaid debt isn't a healthy sign for the direction in which our society is headed.
Everybody's concerned about the attitude of the unemployed young adults of Greece. Actually, I suspect that there are folks who see opportunity rather than decline in the shiftless generation.
Cardinal Newman Society President Patrick Reilly's Portsmouth Institute talk concerned Catholic institutions of higher learning.
A new phrase is haunting my thoughts whenever I read of reform efforts in other states and a national backlash against the federal government's pursuit of policies that would fit right in in Rhode Island.
Should universities seek to teach general thinking and knowledge or career-related subjects? I think the former, but that not as many people should incur the debt.
"Tax the rich" is a powerful call, but it's a siren song leading Rhode Island toward the rocks.
Blaming WalMart for the deterioration of downtowns kind of misses the point.
Have you noticed that those who attack the feasibility of "choice and accountability" reforms tend to limit them to "charters and tests"?
Edward Short's lecture during this year's Portsmouth Institute conference addressed Cardinal Newman's thoughts on American religion.
RI Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed doesn't want to reconvene the Senate because she "really" wants to enjoy her summer. Enjoy, RI!
The individual mandate for health insurance might be theoretically attractive, but the nature of our government will ensure that its benefits are subsumed by its costs.
Whatever one thinks about the wisdom of legalizing consumer fireworks, it'd be nice if lawmakers could do so with some awareness.
Rhode Island's economy trails the nation, and its volunteer rate trails the nation. I'd suggest that those are both effects of something more basic.
Unemployed teenagers are not evidence of a lack of education and training; they're indicative of a local culture that fails to encourage success.
David Goldman describes "Augustinian realism," which should dictate a foreign policy somewhere between Bush and Obama. I think we need to firm up our own culture, though, before we're able to be coherent.
I'm concerned that the factions over cultural issues like porn will lead to government-imposed solutions when a majority acknowledges the real problems that cultural deterioration presents.
Capers Jones offers a compelling argument that Rhode Island isn't really a democracy.
It's how things work in Rhode Island. If you don't get your way, hire powerful politicians to act on your behalf in their private careers.
Could both Jesus and the persecuting Jewish leaders have been innocent? I'm skeptical.
On the question of whether to boycott BP, I'm not passionate. On the question on whether it's rational to boycott BP, I am (more so, anyway).
The Portsmouth Institute's after-dinner lecture on June 11 concerned preservation of Cardinal Newman's work on the grounds of his abode, the Oratory of St. Philip Neri.
In keeping with this morning's theme, President Obama's approach to a federal bioethics board compares with Bush's such that the latter appeared to welcome public debate while the former thinks he's answered the fundamental questions for us.
Did anybody really doubt that the Obama Administration would ignore scientists when doing otherwise would force it to change its position?
The Friday evening concert at last week's Portsmouth Institute conference on Newman is well worth a listen.
Could it be that the highly educated are less likely than the salt of the Earth to see justice with clear eyes?
Unless we are able to distinguish between discrimination based on race and discrimination based on behavior, everything will always come down to expressions of power.
For the the third lecture of this year's Portsmouth Institute conference, on Cardinal John Henry Newman, Boston College Philosophy Professor Peter Kreeft reviewed Newman's famous poem, "The Dream of Gerontius."
Rhode Island's General Assembly and governor have essentially approved an expensive off-shore wind energy project, but they've kept the Public Utilities Commission in the mix as a constricted rubber stamp. Hopefully, this won't set a precedent for all projects moving forward.
Andrew Morse put his investigation of RI's new receivership law in plain terms of its implication for Rhode Islanders on last night's Matt Allen show.
Great Britain has for years gone with what might be termed "total immersion" sex ed. The results have not been good.
The second lecture of the Portsmouth Institute's 2010 conference was given by Duke Divinity Professor Paul Griffiths, who raised the possibly dark/possibly hopeful conclusion that one cannot ultimately persuade through logical argumentation.
At the state and municipal levels, democracy is dead in Rhode Island, and too few of us care.
Sections of Arizona are being closed to U.S. citizens because illegal immigrants and related criminals have made them too dangerous to cross.
Once again, the General Assembly's income tax "revamp" should be considered in terms of "vampire."
There's actually a term for the governmental practice of threatening to cancel something popular unless money is provided for unnecessary expenditures. Rhode Island specializes in that ploy, and it's discouraging to note how complicit those who educate our children are in the scam.
I've posted video of Rev. George Rutler's speech opening this year's Portsmouth Institute conference, on Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Statements made on the floor of the RI General Assembly suggest that government in our state is less a matter of objective and fair process than of subjective imposition of aristocratic and special interest will.
Going into campaign season, Anchor Rising could really use financial assistance from readers.
One more conservative activist is running for Rhode Island's General Assembly.
I remain suspicious of changes to Rhode Island's income tax code. Whether I'm unduly cynical or appropriately skeptical will be determined by outcomes, I suppose.
Here are my first thoughts on the second annual Portsmouth Institute conference, on Newman and the Intellectual Tradition.
The Rhode Island General Assembly has passed a state funding formula for education. On the whole, that's a positive development, but I'm not sure how much of the problem it actually fixes.
Is hypocrisy in a politician — specifically, President Obama — objectionable in itself, or is it the moral and practical weakness that hypocrisy reveals that makes it such a biting charge in contemporary politics?
Matt Allen and I talked about Rhode Island's governing lunacy and the activities of Anchor Rising.
It seems to me that we can either reinvigorate some traditional aspects of our culture or more and more problems will fall to the government to solve.
RI Rep. David Segal (D., Providence), now running for Congress, is a political insider in the deepest sense and is not what the government needs, just now.
In one way of summarizing it, the political and cultural divide within the United States comes down to beliefs about risk.
Boycotting Providence to punish the city council for condemning Arizona over its immigration law is probably not strategically sound.
Mark Patinkin is stunned that transacting business with the DMV can require days in a waiting line. I fear the implications for healthcare.
Arthur Laffer is predicting a second dip to the Great Recession. Dark days ahead.
Why does it seem as if the rules of governance go out the window when it comes to green energy?
I'm not convinced that the General Assembly's supposedly revolutionary "tax overhaul" won't make things worse.
The various tiers of government are still not doing what would be necessary to grow the economy, and it shows.
It appears to be central to the Democrats' Big Government plans to incorporate unions more tightly into the economic-government loop.
Continuing the discussion about whether contraception has ultimately been to the benefit of men at the expense of women.
The RI General Assembly has striven to give the impression that it's not raising taxes, but it's made it easier for towns to increase car taxes — including the ability to increase the assessed value of motor vehicles.
Given the economic times, I propose that the public should go out of its way to patronize businesses that are experiencing labor strikes and pickets, as the RIGOP has done.
We've been hearing much about the General Assembly's proposed tax code revisions, but as one might expect, the effects would be minimal in our competition with other states.
It may or may not be indication of corruption, but something is certainly wrong when a state has money for sidewalks but not for bridges.
A social scientific analysis of the effects of the Pill suggests that women have not made out very well in the deal.
Marc Comtois took Anchor Rising's call in to Matt Allen, this week, to discuss E-Verify and the General Assembly dictatorship.
If only the New Atheists could come up with some good arguments.
How can the government possibly define "unearned income" in any objective way?
Rhode Island is so far gone that it's almost shocking when a school committee actually succeeds in proving that job security is a precious reward in negotiations.
Optimism, pessimism, realism, tempting fate — it all comes down to a matter of perspective, and interest.
Something just doesn't add up with the RI General Assembly's tax-overhaul plan.
In Great Britain, political parties are sending targeted campaign literature to people based on healthcare services that they've received. Welcome to the information age in the era of big government.
The RI General Assembly budgets like drug-addicted gamblers.
Andrew Morse notes attorney general candidate Erik Wallin's old fashioned belief that legislation should be unveiled before it's just about to be passed.
When specifics come up in the regionalization/consolidation debate, I'm even less convinced that it's the way to go.
The notion of social change as evolutionary misses the central fact about biological evolution: it occurs in response to stimuli for survival, not to desire for political gain.
Ed Achorn suggests that the Central Falls "bankruptcy" is ushering in a form of dictatorship. That may seem humorous at the municipal level, but the point is that it's a warning of things to come higher up the chain or command.
NJ's Governor Chris Christie and I agree: freezing public employee remuneration, especially in the schools, is a better solution than canceling programs and firing teachers.
The RI Federation of Teachers had its Central Falls problem fixed prior to backing Race to the Top, and now the National Education Association Rhode Island wants its East Providence problem fixed. Hint, hint.
One thing that financial regulation legislation seems likely to accomplish is giving greater and more arbitrary authority to the federal government. Surprised?
63% of Rasmussen respondents now favor the repeal of ObamaCare. Americans can see where it's going.
Julia Steiny describes the result when a school makes student success, not teacher employment, its number 1 priority.
You know, I'm not so sure that it's economically healthy to throw barriers in the way of foreclosure.
Whether with federal finance industry regulation or the rules governing municipalities tax increases, leaving the specifics of law up to bureaucrats decreases our freedom and muddies our democratic system.
Government expansion in the United States may very well be the uber bubble, and the world will crack when it bursts.
Rhode Island's gutter-dwelling is going to be a long-term state of affairs, and so will be the fix.
The movie Avatar could have been great. Instead, its creators chose to bash humanity.
It may not be news, but it's worth reminding ourselves that the U.S.A. is a land of opportunity, provided you are willing to take the initiative.
Race to the Top is just a huge bundle of money being used to persuade state and local officials and bureaucrats to seek special-interest buy-in.
I've got nothing against ghost written speeches — just against expensive, badly written ghost speeches.
Somehow, I fear that the current legislators in Rhode Island's General Assembly are just the gang to make our situation worse by trying to improve our tax policy.
Guess what. Tax cuts for the rich were not a significant contributor to the federal government's swing from surplus to deficit.
Monique Chartier, on the Matt Allen Show for Anchor Rising, raised the topic of legal settlement money from a Rhode Island tragedy to prevent the political advancement of the current attorney general.
Yawning, another natural function that human beings appear to have gotten backwards.
Plato has words that all Rhode Islanders should consider.
And now, a possible tax on soda. Funny how your indulgences line their pockets.
A Web site that posts your purchases online in real time? What could go wrong?
The balance of military and political authority can be difficult in war, but it's necessary. Of course, one wonders whether it's for the best that military strategists are planning around politicians.
Comparing forms and rates of taxation across the Rhode Island/Massachusetts border might suggest one underlying cause of Rhode Island's poor economic condition.
Now that it's been deemed legal, the Mojave cross has been stolen. I can't help but see the act as emblematic of what some folks intend by "separating" church and state.
When it comes to dealing with poverty, there are two irreducibly incompatible perspectives. It shouldn't be difficult to guess which one I favor.
Rhode Island — statewide and on a municipal basis — is looking alot like Greece.
We'll get the details tomorrow, but there's apparently an agreement in the final stages to bring the current teachers of Central Falls High School back into the fold.
To compensate for the down note of the FTM, I've posted a funny line that I'd just read by Mark Steyn. Of course, looking beyond the one sentence, Steyn's commentary is not quite a pick-me-up.
It looks like the candidates for RI governor are differentiating themselves. Well, at least the Republicans are differentiating themselves from everybody else.
Oddly, Congress has not been grilling the one group on which it should most focus: Itself.
During yesterday's lunch half-hour, I ruminated on the cultural lessons of my trade of carpentry.
Last night, I gave Matt Allen Show listeners a quick update on happenings in Tiverton. I'll be on the John DePetro Show at 6:20 this morning for the same purpose.
An investment firm in the center of controversy in West Warwick has offered to return the money.
Bureaucrats are prosecuting politicians for their political platforms right in the middle of the democratic West.
Predictably, the teachers' unions are using the Race to the Top funding competition as a bargaining chip to eliminate two recent threats to their hegemony.
We're potentially within a few years of seeing the credit rating of the United States of America downgraded. That is all.
There's reason to doubt that ObamaCare's increased coverage of the population will result in better health... and reason to fear that it will exacerbate doctor shortages.
I think it might be time for Rhode Islanders to stop talking about how to prevent the state's collapse and begin to consider what to do when it happens.
A strange notion of "community" was evident at the first assembly of this year's Tiverton Financial Town Meeting.
A delay in tax returns by the State of Rhode Island proves that there are cracks in the system. We're no longer in a position to deal with unexpected catastrophes without deterioration of basic government activities.
Rob Long imagines negative ads that the Democrats could run against... the American people.
Arrests of town councilors in North Providence remind us all that Rhode Island's governance is corrupt from top to bottom.
Judging from a Providence Journal report, RI's candidates for governor adjusted leftward for a left-wing audience.
Andrew Morse gave an excellent conceptualization of what reamortizing RI's pension debt would mean, financially.
Yes, Wall Street investors are greedy and scheming, but we shouldn't let that opinion lead to the delusion that we, as a society, didn't overlook warning signs.
The Log Cabin Republicans are a welcome addition to the RIGOP, but it should not become the case that intra-Republican disputes between traditionalists and the Log Cabins are a matter of bigotry versus tolerance.
Helping small businesses has been all the buzz in Rhode Island, recently, but it it largely misses the point that the operation of government itself is the problem. Faster permitting is nice, but not the real problem.
Factoring in inflation caused by ObamaCare, our healthcare system is bound to become much more expensive and much less efficient. Current problems, in other words, have been exacerbated.
Education involves subjectivity in execution and in evaluation. The current union structure of our public schools simply doesn't allow that to be the case.
Perhaps the overlap shouldn't be surprising, between cap-and-trade environmentalism, big government advocates, the authors of the housing boom, and participants in the financial collapse.
Only in government — public schools, in the case at hand — could there be incentive to attract fewer clients.