Blue v. Red
Personal stress and strain is always a factor, but I’ve had a vague sense that dialog is becoming more difficult and the tone of political/ideological debate is becoming more vicious of late. The disclaimer, here, is that I remain deliberately naive; heck, I’ve been surprised to gather first-hand experience of the extent to which the…
Believe it or not, I’m not a big fan of class warfare. I’m a blue-collar capitalist, after all. I break my back merely to get by, but I’m deeply suspicious of plans to grant the government authority to redistribute income away from those who are more likely to have their backs massaged than strained. Still,…
If only progressives’ plans were always this straightforward: Statewide Wifi available everywhere to everyone… for free . And let the cable/telephone companies bid on the right to be the State’s sole provider. How would it be paid for? The company winning the bid to provide the service will maintain sole rights to sell advertising space…
Peter Schweizer offers a very interesting read on studies finding that conservatives are happier, friendlier, more charitable, and more likely to hug their children, while liberals are… ahem… otherwise: Much of the desire to distribute wealth and higher taxation is motivated by envy – the desire to take more from someone else – and bitterness.…
Yes, it does seem that leftward politicos do seem to have a better grasp economics when they are directly affected by a policy: Feinstein, head of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, was forced to deal with reality. “It’s cratering,” the Washington Post quoted Feinstein as saying [referring to the government-run Senate dining services].…
It’s a small thing, to be sure, but a comment that Ian Donnis made to his own recent post on economic development in Rhode Island points to an increasingly sore spot: … hopefully the effort to promote “green jobs,” which I’ve written about previously in the Phoenix, will also yield dividends. It is not my…
As commenter Will noted in response to Marc’s post, Matt Jerzyk thought it worth pointing out something that surely we all noticed (indeed, on which we three mused when the photographer told us that he’d be shooting the RI Future gang the following night): that the Phoenix photos buck left/right stereotypes. In that quality, however,…
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman joins the list of pundits to face the confectionary firing squad: Friedman ducked, and was left with only minor streams of the sugary green goo on his black pants and turtleneck. He stood in bewilderment and mild disgust as the young man and woman bolted from the stage and…
Every couple of years, it seems, a student from Brown will contact me for comment in an article about blogging for the Brown Daily Herald. It’s traditionally been a unifying topic: although we’ve got different emphases, we Rhode Island bloggers will all agree about the value and opportunities that the medium offers, not the least…
I have to admit that I’ve been unfair to National Education Association Rhode Island Assistant Director Patrick Crowley. From time to time I’ve wondered whether I’ve played some small role in reducing his undeserved credibility, but now I see that my efforts toward that goal are hardly measurable in comparison to his own. I’m sure…
