It’s possible to enjoy a sweetly flavored beer and still be masculine, whether in the autumn or the winter.
An article about writers’ Curse of Knowledge lays out a challenge of which we ought to be aware, especially those of us who write and read about politics and social matters.
A local progressive once argued that tax rates weren’t driving out Rhode Islanders, because my mother-in-law was nearby to watch my children during the workday.
Obviously, I’m exaggerating a bit; her argument wasn’t as convoluted as that. What she was saying was that people don’t up and leave an area over taxes, because there’s so much more to life… and a person’s life in a particular area. That’s inarguable, and there may be no finer evidence than Arline Griffiths.
It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that Arline was the source of the gravity that kept my wife and I in Rhode Island. She wanted her daughter close, and her daughter wanted to be close. Child care is one thing, but what’s the value of holidays with three generations tripping over each other in a too-small ranch — two grandparents, three brothers and a sister (plus wives and husband), and eleven grandchildren (and don’t forget at least a few of the family pets)? What’s the value of a son-in-law nearby when the freezer is jambed and won’t close? What’s the value of grandparents near enough to come over in the middle of the night to keep an eye on two sleeping children when the third decides to enter the world in the middle of the night?
What’s the value of a room packed with family, filling the air with recollections of your life during its last twenty-four hours?
A state — a world — is poorer when such things are rare, and from a negative perspective they became one person rarer, this week. From another perspective, the one that I prefer, Arline spent her life doing the heroic work of convincing her family, at least, to keep those values alive and keep them growing, ensuring that their particular neighborhood of the world remained a home, not just a place to live.
After such a life, God knows, a rest is much needed and peace much deserved.
Dr. Tim Flanigan, of Tiverton, has posted a number of new entries on his blog from Liberia, where he’s working to help build up a medical infrastructure that has been overwhelmed and attacked by the Ebola outbreak in that part of Africa.
Based on my paranoia about chemicals when I was a carpenter, I tend to go through a lot of latex gloves when I paint or handle any questionable substances, but from what I’m hearing, medical personnel in Liberia are breezing through the scarce resources. And they’re all resources that we take for granted in the United States.
I’m also told that material donations must be collected, in Tiverton, by this Friday. There may be subsequent shipments, but Friday’s is the only one that I know about. Here are the details, as I posted them last week:
Those items can be delivered to either location of the joint parish of Saint Christopher and Saint Theresa in Tiverton. Alternately, the local 501(c)(3) charity Tiverton Cares (of which I am a board member) is collecting donations to pass along, as well. Send donations of supplies or checks (to “Tiverton Cares”; memo “Ebola”) to P.O. Box 525, Tiverton, Rhode Island 02878 or click the “donate” button below.
Yesterday, I mentioned the news that Tiverton resident and infectious disease specialist Dr. Timothy Flanigan had flown to Liberia to help revive a hospital that closed down in the midst of the Ebola epidemic in Africa. That post includes a list of items that Dr. Flanigan has requested people to donate. A local nonprofit charity with which I’m affiliated is helping to raise money, as well.
Tim has started a blog to chronicle his experiences there for family, friends, and all of us. By the marvels of modern technology (text message, in this case), he tells me that he’ll have much more content soon, including other ways that people can help.
In the meantime, tax-deductible credit card and PayPal donations can be made through Tiverton Cares using the “Donate” button below, or checks (made out to “Tiverton Cares” and marked “Ebola”) can be sent to P.O. Box 525, Tiverton, RI 02878. With the exception of transaction fees from PayPal, all donations will go directly to the cause.
Tim Flanigan, an infectious disease specialist from Tiverton, has headed off to Liberia to fight Ebola, and he has a few simple requests.
Ever go to some event in Rhode Island that was supposed to provide a balanced discussion between people of differing views? When I have, more often than not, it has seemed that the points I would have thought were obvious failed to be articulated. “Balanced” tends to be a lot like the “balance” in Rhode Island’s legislature — far left to center left (maybe hard center, on a good day).
This Saturday, the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity will be presenting actual balance — meaning people who actually disagree on fundamental questions — with its first UnleashRI Debate at the University of Rhode Island:
You can register here. It’d be great for this event to be a success for multiple reasons. The largest is simply that these big questions actually do matter, and the answers cannot simply be assumed by people who happened to win office amidst an apathetic electorate.
My favorite reason to want a big turnout is that the progressives in Rhode Island to whom we initially reached out, in order to ensure that the representation of their side actually was fair and compelling, actively worked to prevent the debate from happening. It’d be nice if the opposite of that behavior were actually rewarded in the Ocean State.
Pondering of a Sunday afternoon, I find myself recalling this part of a comment from Dan:
… imagine that the reverse were true, with Anchor Rising finding itself in a perpetually depressed conservative state hemorrhaging young talent as sympathetic right-wing candidates – endorsed by the AR staff – were overwhelmingly reelected season after season while nothing ever changed for the better. Imagine the cognitive dissonance progressives must feel every day waking up in Rhode Island and winning political victory after victory as the state falls further and further behind nationally.
It isn’t merely ideological fidelity that leads me to think this wouldn’t be the case with the Anchor Rising contributors. I don’t know if it’s true of every single one of us, but there’s a strong strain of having once held different views, among conservatives of our stripe. I know I once held every opposite opinion from those I now proclaim.
We’re conservatives, that is, because the evidence of reality has led us here. We’re also kind of counter-cultural types, disinclined to toe a party line just because it’s our party. So, if hypothetical conservative policies were failing Rhode Island as badly as actual progressive policies are failing Rhode Island, we’d be reevaluating our policy beliefs and realigning politically with people who might fix what’s broken.
I’m sure there are analogues on the Rhode Island Left. They’re just kind of difficult to find.
A point of risk and strain on a construction site gives some indication of how we should approach 2014.
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!
Ed Fitzpatrick’s column in today’s Providence Journal is about the public union led attempt to boycott WPRO until they fire John Depetro. As preamble, I repeat my own take on this brouhaha: I don’t agree with Depetro’s use of those epithets. They were nasty and unnecessary. However, if Depetro had made his comments about the […]
… talking sales tax elimination and perhaps some other stuff. You can listen online at WNRI.com.
Further to the … um, unscheduled remarks of a Stenographer at a live microphone last night in the U.S. House, where exactly do Freemasons fit on the chart of shady, new world order organizations? After the Tri-Lateral Commission and the Counsel on Foreign Relations but perhaps ahead of the Bildeberg Group and Yale Skull and […]
It’s easy to lump people into categories of their visible life circumstances, but life and luck aren’t so easily defined.
The Current introduces the “Longer Twitter” post type, for content that would go on Twitter, but for which Twitter is inadequate.
Quadrupling down on Rhode Island; finding the American-statist antidote in the Ocean State; school choice as the real civil rights battle of the day; who gets media “support” and why.
Steve Frias will be speaking tomorrow evening at the Main Branch of the Cranston Public library, about his book Cranston and its Mayors, picking up a thread of often neglected history that is at least as relevant to the headlines today than are the more conventional topics of 20th/21st century American history.
Okay, this has been bugging me for a while.
Anchor Rising has joined the Ocean State Current for a joint venture combining their content at the same online location.
Author George Shuster tells Kevin J. Mooney that the First Amendment is the last line of defense for U.S. freedom and has been under increased attack under the current President.
Kevin Mooney has appeared on Breitbart and Glenn Beck.
Justin muses about the inappropriateness of honorifics in American politics… especially in Rhode Island.
A jumble of news and commentary headlines leads Justin to wonder where the cause and effect lie in entitlement and nanny-statism.
Justin takes the opportunity of a gorgeous afternoon to muse about beauty in ethics.
