Essay
In an interview yesterday, Senator Jack Reed managed to offer a backhanded compliment to the Bush Administration while setting up and knocking down a straw man. Reed called a recent Pentagon pledge of a long-term military presence in Iraq “helpful prudence.” And he deemed it a welcome change from Bush administration skimping on Army troop…
Marc’s posting highlights another outstanding piece by Terry Moe. I would encourage you to read both Marc’s fine posting and the entire editorial by Moe, which you can access in Marc’s posting. As a former East Greenwich School Committee member, I would like to expand on several of Marc’s points: First, I agree that parents…
Terry Moe of the Hoover Institution and a Stanford University political-science professor (and winner of the Thomas B. Fordham prize for distinguished scholarship in education) has written an important piece explaining the motivation of Teachers’ Unions. The most important point is that the unions aren’t inherently “bad,” but that they are merely looking out for…
This posting continues a periodic series on Rhode Island politics and taxation (I, II, III, IV, V). If you want to read another sordid tale about Rhode Island politics, check out Ed Achorn’s latest editorial in the ProJo. Here are a few excerpts: The people who led the fight against a constitutional convention in Rhode…
This posting continues a periodic series on Rhode Island politics and taxation, building on four previous postings (I, II, III, IV). Governor Carcieri issued his State of the State Address on January 18. The following excerpts from that speech highlight the structural problems we face in this state: A good government lives within its means…
Right.
According to a story in Sunday’s ProJo by Katherine Gregg Out of last year’s political scandals came a law that is shedding new light on the financial ties between some of the state’s part-time, $12,285-a-year lawmakers and major corporate and union players at the State House. In the first batch of filings made last week,…
They may have invested millions in acquisition and sacrificed hundreds of lives, but there’s one thing that the terrorists haven’t counted on: … the latest example of the sea’s, or at least the coast’s, medical potential comes from researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. There, scientists, working under a grant from the Department…
Related to Marc’s posts (here and here) on Peggy Noonan’s reaction to President Bush’s inaugural speech, Patrick Sweeney of Extreme Catholic delves into some of the relevant theological considerations. He also makes this story-behind-the-story suggestion: Perhaps Peggy Noonan thinks she’s in the running for William Safire’s job. This is ankle-biting envy. This is offering a…