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It’s Christmas weekend – why are you reading this article?

Kim Jong-Il looking at rice: this is probably what killed him

By Will Collette

I have placed this article in the queue to be posted automatically for the amusement of those of you who don’t have any thing better to do. 

Kim Jong-Il is dead. As you probably know already. What you don’t know is that his death has had the unintended consequence of spelling the end of one of my favorite websites, “Kim Jong-Il Looking At Things.” This site has had a long and honorable history of posting photos of….Kim Jong-Il looking at things. I especially liked the one posted on December 22 that shows him looking at toilet paper. 

Missoula's Supremely Important Vote

Making clear that corporations aren't people takes people power.

By Jim Hightower

In November's elections, the national media gave extensive coverage to a proposed "personhood amendment" to Mississippi's state constitution. This extremist, anti-choice ballot initiative declared that a person's life begins not at birth, but at the very instant that a sperm meets the egg.

However, extending full personhood to two-cell zygotes was too far out even for many of Mississippi's anti-choice voters, so the proposition was voted down.

Meanwhile, the national media paid no attention to another "personhood" vote that took place on that same day. This was a referendum in Missoula, Montana on a concept even more bizarre than declaring zygotes to be persons with full citizenship rights.

Who is rich? Who is poor?

These are not simple questions

By Will Collette

 

There has been a lot of banter on this blog lately about the rich and the poor. How are they defined? Do they deserve what they get (or what they’ve got)? Do we foment class war by discussing these subjects? Should we hate the rich (or the poor) and, if so, why?

These weighty and complicated subjects have been addressed in micro-bursts of words in our comments section – about what you might expect in a blog. Or on the internet.

But let’s first acknowledge that these subjects do have relevance to Charlestown. It certainly exploded out into the open on December 12 when the Town Council majority – to the applause of a mob of Charlestown’s upscale property owners – killed a $1000 Homestead Tax Credit proposed by Town Democrats.

Holiday conversation starters

If this is what "recovery" looks like, let's bring back the recession:

Percentage decrease in the median U.S. household income during the “Great Recession”: 3.2

During the subsequent “recovery”: 6.7

Portion of income growth since the end of the recession that has gone to corporate profits: 9/10

Number of the 100 highest-paid American CEOs who earned more than their employers paid in taxes last year: 25

The War on Christmas - the final days

Have yourself a merry little nitpick

DePetro and company crashing the State House
"holiday tree" lighting ceremony. Very classy.

By Will Collette

Each year, there are lots of stories about the alleged plot by progressives, communists, leftists, Muslims, Democrats and assorted others to undermine Christianity by "taking the Christ our of Christmas."

Like Gov. Lincoln Chafee's affront to all that is holy  when he followed Gov. Don Carcieri's precedent of calling the Christmas Tree at the State House a "holiday tree."

This sparked WPRO Radio shock jock John DePetro's  festive protest where he and his followers disrupt the tree-lighting ceremony, making the little kids in the children's choir cry when these "adults" drowned out the kid's carol-singing.

But I'd like to see DePetro pull that stunt with these folks....

This is what the Homestead Tax Credit could look like, if this was Florida

An example of how Homestead exemptions work out for one Charlestown property owner

By Will Collette

Two people who didn’t speak at the December 12 “Riot of the Rich” at the Charlestown Town Council were Kallie and John Jurgens, the immediate past president and treasurer respectively of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance. Both of them still serve on the CCA Steering Committee and both had a lot at stake.

I have a theory why the CCA didn’t roll out these two big guns. It’s not like Kallie Jurgens is bashful about advocating for reducing taxes on big-ticket shoreline property owners, or demanding that non-residents be given the right to vote. It’s not that Ms. Jurgens is bashful about accusing Democrats of engaging in “class war” when they advocate for working families.

Ms. Jurgens has done this, and more, while CCA President and as a leader within the RI Statewide Coalition.

It’s something else.

Chained COLAs and the Battle over Social Security

The supercommittee shouldn't have considered this unreasonable, unprincipled, and unfair cost-cutting plan.

By Salvatore Babones

Like something out of a bad movie, the failed congressional supercommittee plotted to use "chained COLAs" to cut future Social Security benefits for America's retired workers.

No, chained COLA isn't some kind of carbonated beverage gone bad. It's a new way to calculate cost of living adjustments that will reduce Social Security benefits more and more every year. It represents the ultimate triumph of theory over reality.
The supercommittee's basic idea was that when prices go up, you cut back on consumption. When the price of gasoline went up from $3.00 to $3.60 a gallon, you probably started driving less. You had to. You couldn't afford gas at $3.60 a gallon.

The year in review, part 1

In case you were asleep

By Tom Tomorrow




See the whole cartoon here.

Progress on waste water treatment, salt pond protection

RIDEM agrees to major changes to wastewater treatment rules

Rep. Donna Walsh organized meeting to find common ground on environmental and economic issues

News Release from Rep. Donna Walsh

On Dember 16, Representative Donna Walsh (D-District 36) brought officials from the RI Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) together with town officials from Charlestown, South Kingstown and Westerly, and Rep. Teresa Tanzi (D-District 34) and Rep. Spencer Dickinson (D-District 35) to resolve problems and find alternative waste water treatment approaches that protect coastal salt ponds without inflicting crippling financial burdens on homeowners or exerting a chilling effect on area construction.

“We all recognize the importance of reducing nitrogen loading to our ponds but we also recognize the importance of providing affordable solutions for our citizens and a stimulus for the stagnant construction industry,” said Rep. Walsh.

December Town Council meeting, the sequel: The Notorious F.O.N.

Oh Mageau, Where Art Thou?

By Linda Felaco

After last week’s “shock and au revoir diatribe,” as commenter Sisyphus Opine put it, I was anticipating more fireworks at Monday’s sequel. After all, Jim Mageau was on the agenda to gloat over his ruling from the Attorney General about Town Administrator William DiLibero’s evaluation, and due to illness he’d been unable to attend last week to try to object to the Town Council’s pro forma redo that the ruling had necessitated.

Alas, Mageau was once again a no-show. But Mageau’s specter hovered over the discussion of the Friends of Ninigret (F.O.N.).

Our mixed-up open space priorities

Why one and not the other?

The bull's-eye is Larry LeBlanc's 81 acres - site of the proposed wind farm.
The 27.5 acre YMCA parcel on Watchaug Pond is a little over half a mile
to the west

By Will Collette

Aside from Dan Slattery's search for Charlestown’s “phantom” open space properties, the two biggest “open space” controversies” in Charlestown during 2011 both came down to this question – is it in the public interest for Charlestown to buy more property to reserve for open space, or let the land be used for another purpose?

One of the properties is the 27.5 acre derelict YMCA camp on Watchaug Pond, subject of a green-light vote at last week’s Town Council meeting.

The other is the 81 acres of wild and undeveloped land overlooking Route One that is owned by developer Larry LeBlanc and which is still in play for maybe (a) a wind turbine complex, (b) a large affordable housing development or (c) sale to the Narragansett tribe to provide the land they could use to build a casino. Earlier this year, the Council rebuffed LeBlanc’s offer to sell the land to the town.

Many Charlestown voters will have new state Senate choices on 2012 ballot

Redistricting changes affect South County Senators

Out with the old....

By Will Collette

Five Rhode Island Senate districts (#s 34 through 38) encompass South County, compared to nine House Districts. Currently, South County is represented by three Republicans (Francis Maher, Dawson Tucker Hodgson and Dennis Algiere) and two Democrats (James Sheehan and Sue Sosnowski).

All five districts will be changed significantly by census-driven redistricting. Redistricting is not just an exercise in arithmetic, but also politics. The law requires districts to be redrawn every ten years after each new census to equalize the population.

Some of the line changes may affect the re-election prospects of the incumbents.

Bring back the sun

Official start of winter

Winter solstice sunrise at Stonehenge 

By Will Collette

Today is the winter solstice, the day when the tilt of the earth puts the northern hemisphere the farthest distance from the sun. That marks the first official day of winter and it is also the day with the least amount of sunshine. 

From now on, the daylight hours will only get longer (hooray!) but for weeks, that change will be nearly imperceptible (boo!).

It’s hard for some people to endure. They suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a form of depression. 

Astronomy Picture of the Day

A Horseshoe Einstein Ring from Hubble 

From NASA


What's large and blue and can wrap itself around an entire galaxy? A gravitational lens mirage. Pictured above, the gravity of a luminous red galaxy (LRG) has gravitationally distorted the light from a much more distant blue galaxy. 


More typically, such light bending results in two discernible images of the distant galaxy, but here the lens alignment is so precise that the background galaxy is distorted into a horseshoe -- a nearly complete ring. 

Town and Teamsters settle unfair labor practice charges

Without acknowledging wrong-doing, the town promises not to do it again

By Will Collette

Since last February, the town and Teamster Local 251, the union that represents town hall workers, have been in an on-going dispute over alleged unfair labor practices.

The Teamsters filed charges against the town last February based on a clash between Town Administrator William DiLibero, the Teamsters staff rep Dan Manocchio and the union steward for town hall workers, Liz Travis.