Entries by Marc Comtois

Happy 2014

January 1, 2014 /3 Comments/in , /by

Survived another one! 2013 brought a blog merger (right here), a surprising championship for the Red Sox and some change for me personally with a new job in a different state (commuting to Connecticut now) and the closing of a very active 10-year span of volunteering for a local soccer league (though, concerning the latter, you’re never completely out; “Just when I think I’m out, they suck me back in” and all that). It also brought many schadenfreude and “told you so” moments on the political front, all of which went relatively unremarked upon by yours truly (the others around here did a fine job, though!). I did Tweet quite a bit….is that a good thing? I’m still not sure. Regardless, here’s hoping a happy 2014 to all of our readers and commenters, whether you agree or are just plain wrong disagree. 😉 Good luck to all!

The Budding Federalism of Sen. Whitehouse?

November 5, 2013 /5 Comments/in , , , , /by

Last week, Ted Nesi interviewed RI Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about the ongoing problems with the ACA Health care rollout. Said Whitehouse, “I think it’s been a botch, and when you consider that little Rhode Island can get it right, it’s frustrating that the federal government didn’t.”

Today, Erika Niedowski reports that Senator Whitehouse, during some hearings in the Senate, remarked that it’s “‘a little nervy to be complaining that the federal government didn’t do it for you well enough’ when states could have ‘simply saddled up and done it’ themselves.”

Seems like Senator Whitehouse is implying (admitting?) that, just perhaps, smaller units of government are more effective than larger ones, even when it comes to implementing grand schemes.

“Romans were blinded to what was happening to them by the very perfection of the material culture which they had created.”

September 29, 2013 /4 Comments/in , , /by

Eileen Power on the Fall of Rome – Selections from Chapter 1 of Medieval People: The decline of Rome preceded and in some ways prepared the rise of the kingdoms and cultures which composed the medieval system….No observer should have failed to notice that the Roman Empire of the fourth and fifth centuries was no […]

“…they taste gall and wormwood…”

September 26, 2013 /4 Comments/in , /by

We live surrounded by people who do not hold themselves in high esteem, perhaps with good reason. These people want the equality of all men to be immediately and forthwith proclaimed; equality before the law is not enough for them: they long for a declaration that all men are equal in talent, sensibility, refinement, and degree of feeling. Every day that goes by without the triumph of this unrealizable leveling is a cruel day for these resentful creatures, who feel themselves fatally condemned to form the moral and intellectual plebs of our species. Left to themselves, they taste gall and wormwood…

Rhode Island’s Business is Government Employment (And Business is Good)

July 15, 2013 /6 Comments/in , , /by

While reading the comments to Scott Mackay’s recent RI-NPR piece dismissing the latest CNBC-negative-ranking-of-RI stories, I came across a reference to recent Pew data (using 2012 numbers) that showed that Rhode Island state employees earned more than private sector employees in the state. Well, that’s nothing new, but I thought I’d take a look at the data. It’s worse than I thought.

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