Author Archives: cxpowell

By Chris Powell Like the rest of the country, Connecticut is full of racial disparities. With legislation declaring racism a “public health crisis,” the General Assembly is formally determining that racism is the cause of most of these disparities. But advocates of the legislation, like advocates of the similar declarations made by a score ofContinue reading “Where’s Connecticut’s racism? Not where anyone’s looking”

By Chris Powell All the noose-shaped ropes that keep being found at the unfinished Amazon warehouse in Windsor are starting to seem less like the plot for which the Hartford chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People hopes — a plot to lynch Blacks — than a game of cat andContinue reading “A big reward in nooses case but none in murders nearby”

By Chris Powell What is the public interest in unionizing government employees as they now are unionized in Connecticut? The public interest in allowing private-sector workers to unionize is obvious. Without organized labor’s countervailing force, big private business interests can gain control over communities, states, and sometimes the whole country. But the government is notContinue reading “Democrats also try subversion; and ‘socialism’ epithet says nothing”

By Chris Powell Connecticut long has been known as the Constitution State because of the Fundamental Orders ratified by its original European settlers in 1639, a document considered the first constitution written by a community to establish a representative government. That constitution is believed to have been inspired by a sermon given a year earlierContinue reading “Cracking the Constitution in the Constitution State”

By Chris Powell Long having been shameless because the governor and General Assembly never call it to account, the University of Connecticut probably won’t show any embarrassment over last week’s abrupt resignation of its president, Thomas C. Katsouleas, who was not even two years into the job. But Connecticut might be mortified. Of course noContinue reading “UConn president’s resignation is a spectacular embarrassment”

Mister Bluster Saves the World Weicker’s Memoir is Breathtaking for Self-Contradiction and Omission By Chris PowellJournal InquirerSaturday-Sunday, July 15-16, 1995 Legend has it that the ancient Athenian statesman Aristides was stopped in the street by an uneducated man who didn’t recognize him and who asked for help in writing Aristides’ own name on a ballotContinue reading “Mister Bluster saves the world”

By Chris Powell Nursing home workers in Connecticut long have been essentially state government employees because most patients are technically indigent and their care is financed by state government’s Medicaid program — for nearly $1.2 billion per year, half reimbursed by the federal government. The euphemism for this is “estate planning.” When people who haveContinue reading “Should government take over the nursing home business?”

By Chris Powell After government employee union members, Connecticut’s Democratic state legislators seem most compelled to pander to abortion fanatics. It’s not enough for them that abortion is legal in the state at any stage of pregnancy, including long after a fetus becomes viable, and that minors can get abortions without the approval of theirContinue reading “Democratic state legislators pander to abortion fanatics”

By Chris Powell Democrats in the General Assembly are busy with big plans for transforming Connecticut. Though state government is rolling in federal cash, the Democrats want to tax business and the wealthy a lot more. They want to overthrow suburban zoning. They want state government to start selling medical insurance to small businesses. TheyContinue reading “Big dreams distract Democratic state legislators; and soon we all could be ‘doctors’”

By Chris Powell Amid dissension and turnover at Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum, an art museum of international standing, Hartford Business Journal editor Greg Bordonaro wrote the other day that the city has an “image problem,” especially when compared to West Hartford, about which The New York Times recently published a report lauding, among other things, theContinue reading “Changing Hartford’s sad image requires changing its reality”