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.
Per a typical political strategy, powers who be in Tiverton are attempting to link the elimination of critical good-government measures with any change to the town's budgetary process so they can use public resources to advocate for their preferred dollar amounts.
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.
Just a note to let real estate owners in Tiverton know that their tax rate automatically increases if property values overall go down.
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.
It looks like a silver lining of increasing our taxes so much, at the Tiverton financial town meeting, was avoidance of an increase in our car taxes.
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.
The dance has begun, in Tiverton, to distract residents from the plain fact that a massive increase in taxes has taken the pressure off of public labor to offer concessions.
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.
Honestly, I'm not so sure that Tiverton needs to or should move away from the financial town meeting. But the operative clause is that I'm not sure.
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.
What wasn't said at a local Tiverton presentation by the state economic development chief, Keith Stokes, is that our public policies and taxation have to make the state attractive as a first step in recovery.
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.
All we can do is wait and guess about what Tiverton's response to its new-found power to increase motor vehicle taxes will be.
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.
In contravention of law and its own regulations, the Division of Municipal Finance has approved Tiverton's request to exceed the tax cap. One might observe that contravention of the law and regulations is the MO of state government, here.
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.
At least Tiverton's tax assessor believes that increases in motor vehicle taxes should offset real estate and property taxes. I'm sure we'll find out what the town council's opinion is soon enough.
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.
I've corrected a false assertion that I made suggesting that the Tiverton School Department would be receiving more in state and federal aid than the financial town meeting predicted. At least as the numbers currently stand, the town is receiving a little bit less.
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.
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.
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