What should you do about the referendum questions on this year’s ballot? Rhode Island voters have a history of approving bonds because they seem like free money: buy now, pay later – with interest, from future tax revenue. They often may be for a good cause, but they run the state further into debt. We […]
Bond-ing in the Booth Bond and referenda questions on the ballot are about as boring as watching the Hallmark channel on TV. But there are three items that deserve your attention this year, so don’t bail out of the voting booth until after you have voted on this troika. First off, Question #6, for the […]
Democracy is not about freedom, but accountability. We elect individuals we trust to hear our collective concerns and address matters with thoughtful deliberation and sound judgement. When those for whom we cast our ballots stray from the better angels of our greater society or fail to perform their duties with competence, we the […]
Simple Questions Phillipe and Jorge may not have old-school, Brylcreemed, part-it-on-the-side Ivy League haircuts, and are not as scrubbed-up and bright and shiny as Hillary’s political advisors, but we can probably give her better input on how to run a campaign than her control freak know-it-alls. How about starting out each day by asking the […]
People who are intimately familiar with the Biggest Little like to talk about the six degrees of separation factor here (but, of course in Vo Dilun’s case, that would be two degrees of separation). It is not unusual to have someone try to introduce you to someone, “Hey Bill, do you know Larry?” To which the […]
The little note about Professor Lardaro’s index of the RI economy that appeared on Wednesday August 10 again reflects a set of biases that distort how the RI economy is doing. According to Dr. Robert Gordon, an economist at Northwestern University, economic growth has dramatically slowed since 1973, and the fundamentals of the economy […]
Why do we fund public education the way we do? Public education is perpetually one year into a three-year plan for reform. Education is often used as the politician’s “Ring of Power.” Whoever slips on the “precious” during a campaign can rule them, find them, bring them, bind them, win an election. Then, realizing […]
In probably the most emphatic repudiation of the status quo by voters since the electoral rout that ended the reign of Democrat Party chairman and Senate majority leader Rocco A. Quattrocchi in 1983, six of the 18 General Assembly incumbents facing 2016 primary challenges, all Democrats, were defeated by insurgent newcomers. This should terrify the […]
Hygiene News You’ve come a long way, baby. The reigning academic LGBT king/queen of political correctness and insipid and fragile sensitivities, Brown University, recently announced it will provide free tampons and sanitary napkins in all university building bathrooms. Yes, we mean women’s, gender inclusive and men’s rooms. Guess the guys will have to continue to […]
I write this a few minutes after receiving a $25 ticket for overtime parking at a meter in Providence. I walked out of Olga’s Cup and Saucer, where I had paid $5.74 for a tea and croissant plus $2 tip after paying $2.50 for the maximum two hours on the parking meter. I was watching […]