It’s 2019, and we are discussing Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s alleged yearbook photo in blackface. It wasn’t too long ago we Rhode Islanders were divided on the topic of twin brothers using “skin darkening” makeup to impersonate black stars in their annual Christmas season performance. They used endorsed letters from said stars to defend their position […]
Gigi Does New York Phillipe and Jorge will be presumptuous enough to assume that most of you missed the feature cum profile of our own head honcho, Gigi Raimondo, in the January 27 edition of The New York Times in its excellent “Sunday Review” section. It was by columnist Frank Bruni, who owns the coveted page three space […]
Put a Pawsock in it, Gina! Baseball is, without question, the single most boring pastime on the face of the earth; however, that doesn’t stop us from having a sense of pride in our community teams, which is more than can be said of certain local politicians. During the debacle that saw the Pawsox heading to an […]
Pregnant Lashonda Hazard walked into Women & Infants on Sunday [1/6/19] because she had excruciating abdominal pain; in her own words, “I am dying.” Acute abdominal pain can sometimes be a symptom of severe and deadly preeclampsia. She said they checked her baby and sent her home. She was very angry that they did not […]
There’s money to be made in suffering. In the world of food and big pharma, addiction guarantees repeat business, while the balance behind the adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is heavily weighted in favor of suffering. After all, that’s where the money is. Profit margins can run as […]
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 […]