Category: Opinions

S ometimes I stop what I am doing and daydream about a class I took seven months ago. I think about the manatee that swam by me in Zane Grey Creek, fishing for sharks with my friends after hours of identifying snails in the lab, the fresh seafood I mowed on at Whale Harbor Buffet,...

Ho, ho, ho! Merry holiday! Each holiday season, it seems that more and more public locations are putting up “holiday trees,” instead of Christmas trees. Unsurprisingly, there is no visual difference between the two decorations; only the name differs. Last year, Republican Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee proclaimed that the state’s Christmas tree would be...

The quick peek at the closest test. The whispering of an answer to the kid in the front row. The reading of the crumpled cheat sheet when the teacher’s not looking. This is what usually comes to mind when one thinks of cheating in school. Students cheat and of course this is a problem with...

When people fill out a ballot, or make any other choice, the decision-making occurs in the frontal lobe of their brain, in a process primarily informed by moral judgements. I learned that this summer from Arthur Brooks, president of a leading think tank, the American Enterprise Institute. He said that the case for conservatism cannot...

Social conservatism, as we know it, is dead. As a self-labeled conservative, it pains me to say this, but the truth is that the days of using religion to justify public policy are over, and the election last week signified the end. Not only was President Barack Obama, the first president in American history to...