Essay
The Providence Journal is urging “Governor Carcieri, House Speaker William Murphy and Senate President Joseph Montalbano to sit down together and work out some of the kinks in the implementation of separation of powers.” While kinks should surely be worked out as quickly as possible, I’d prefer that these three Rhode Island leaders sit down…
As a partial follow up to my previous post about the interwoven connections among the (let’s call it) influencing class in Rhode Island, I note that the state’s judiciary has permitted the governor to switch healthcare providers: The state Supreme Court ruled today that the state can award the contract for its employees’ health insurance…
During his State of the Union speech, President Bush introduced an Iraqi citizen with these words: One of Iraq’s leading democracy and human rights advocates is Safia Taleb al-Suhail. She says of her country, “we were occupied for 35 years by Saddam Hussein. That was the real occupation. Thank you to the American people who…
Heck, may as well pile on. . . For those of you who drop by my Ocean State Blogger site, I thought I’d prepare you for a new site design. (Nothing big, but it’s an improvement). Secondly, over at OSB I’ve announced another new “niche” blog, called Spinning Clio. Thanks!
For anybody who’s interested: now that the issue of National Review with my piece on Andrew Sullivan has slipped into the back catalogue, I’ve posted a version of my contribution over on Dust in the Light, with the title “The Foibles of Longing.”
I previously endorsed a call for more troops championed by Sen. Jack Reed. Now, an open letter from a bi-partisan group (really!) has done the same. An excerpt: The United States military is too small for the responsibilities we are asking it to assume. Those responsibilities are real and important. They are not going away.…
News reports have arrived in the last hour or so that Pope John Paul II has been hospitalized. Whether this is the time at which God calls his servant home or not, I found myself stopping this time upon hearing the news to ponder the enormous contribution he has made to the world and the…
Boy, I’ll bet — rather, I hope — that, after Sunday, Joseleyne Slade of Providence had her fingers crossed that the Providence Journal wouldn’t publish her letter: The world was in mourning for the thousands killed by or suffering from the tsunami. That disaster he did not plan, but the awful desolation that is accompanying…
I’ve been pondering Lane Core’s suggestion that Sen. Kennedy’s fire-breathing speech last week was an attempt to set himself up for further histrionics after a calamitous election day in Iraq (emphasis in original): But it occurred to me today — I wish it had done so last week — that Kennedy’s speech was not occasioned…
A Letter to the Ed. in today’s ProJo calls to mind another example of polemics over scholarship. William Beeman is a Professor of Anthropology and Theatre, Speech and Dance as well as the Director of Middle East Studies at Brown and a long time critic of President Bush’s policies. He has been accused of having…