For fad diets, gluten-free means cutting out bread, pasta and beer; it’s a preference, not a necessity. Celiac disease, on the other hand, is an autoimmune disorder. When someone with celiac disease ingests gluten, the body’s immune reaction is to inflame the lining of the small intestine, damaging it and preventing the absorption of nutrients, […]
I was browsing Facebook when an ad caught my eye: “Crohn’s Study – Diagnosed Volunteers Needed.” Crohn’s Disease is incurable, and it can make a patient’s life a living hell. I have it. I was intrigued, so I clicked on the link. The link took me to the trialsworld.com site, which is a patchwork quilt […]
Pt 1: Going Bye Bye There’s yet another controversy in the White House as the president stormed out of a meeting designed to reverse the ongoing government shutdown. Wearing the latest in presidential diapers, the Little Emperor-in-Chief threw a tantrum when his babysitters, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, stuck by their refusal to allow him to […]
Bullish Trump One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. […]
[See also, “News Analysis: RI to Legalize Recreational Cannabis,” Jan 16, 2019] The more I talk to people on both sides of RI Governor Gina Raimondo’s proposal to legalize recreational cannabis, the more pessimistic I become that anything at all can be passed by the General Assembly: the proposal is almost custom-crafted to displease everyone and […]
18: Kat Kerwin (Providence City Councilor-elect) 17: Joe Trillo (independent gubernatorial candidate) 16: Dr. Luis-Daniel Munoz (independent gubernatorial candidate) 15: Parker Gavigan (NBC 10 I-Team) 14: Roz Raskin (singer, songwriter, musician) 13: Seth Magaziner (RI General Treasurer) 12: Blake Filippi (RI House Minority Leader) 11: Election Day In Rhode Island w/ Ben Decastro, Kobe Dennis, […]
It would be very easy to be depressed about the state of the world as we move from 2018 to 2019, with racism, authoritarianism, growing inequality, an increase in refugees from war and climate change, rising carbon emissions, ever faster deforestation, empty seas, loss of biodiversity, more nuclear weapons in the pipeline, the trampling of […]
Santa should be a woman, or gender neutral — say headlines cluttering your newsfeed these days. The point behind these eyebrow-raising headlines is to undermine everything marginalized groups are fighting for these days: equality. Roughly 15 months ago, the #MeToo movement began and ignited a wave of noise and change. The noise? Voices finally […]
The most significant change affecting the ordinary person in the last few decades has been the volume and immediacy of information. Almost every one of us voluntarily carries a smart phone now, which generates a record of everywhere we have been every few minutes, going back months or years. We voluntarily install apps that promise […]
No Hope Point Tower It was a bit embarrassing – not to mention absurd – to see the Providence City Council roll over like trained circus dogs to override Mayor Jorge Elorza’s veto of the changed zoning ordinance for the hideous Hope Point Tower on part of the old I-195 land parcel. The council went […]