Quick Read

Sabina Matos takes the oath of office.

What does Matos have against the First Amendment?

By Justin Katz | June 17, 2022 |

No sooner do I resolve to take the summer off from social media than the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Rhode Island, Sabina Matos, decides it’s politically advantageous to involve me in her primary campaign to retain her seat.  According to her press release: The Ocean State Current and the Center for Freedom and…

Jose Clemente Orozco, The Clowns of War Arguing in Hell

There is no reasoning with those who will to confiscate law-abiding citizens’ guns.

By Justin Katz | June 16, 2022 |

The idea of “reasonable” and “common sense” gun control laws is becoming an obvious sham.  Reasonable people acting according to common sense differentiate between policies in different states and balance facts such as how frequently a particular type of weapon has been used in crimes in the state where gun-control legislation is proposed and what…

Woonsocket and Cumberland map

Divisiveness and falsehood taint even feel-good student stories.

By Justin Katz | June 15, 2022 |

Stories like this, by Kavontae Smalls in the Atlanta Black Star, should be a more prominent part of local news, giving us all an opportunity to acknowledge and admire the achievements of those with whom we share a corner of the world.  Woonsocket sophomore Mariam Kaba has been awarded a $25,000 scholarship and given $1 million to…

Theodore Gericault, Heroic Landscape with Fishermen

The smart set needs to ponder the value of historical limitations.

By Justin Katz | June 14, 2022 |

An episode of the High Noon podcast featuring Oren Cass brought to mind a point relevant to my break from social media. Cass is, in some respects, a contrarian in conservative circles, expressing some healthy skepticism against the free-market bent of the Right (a bent, to be clear, toward which I definitively incline).  The assumptions of…

A girl on her phone in a digital stream

We’re putting aside social media for the summer.

By Justin Katz | June 14, 2022 |

Sometimes the commentary on social media gives one the impression of an alternate reality. At the highest level, social media is a world of information, which means it can be entirely abstract.  You can say or imagine anything, and the more you live apart from tangible reality, the less what you say and imagine has…

A masked figure shushes silence

Redefined “tolerance” in Foster-Glocester is the marker of civil rights lost.

By Justin Katz | June 13, 2022 |

The totalitarian Communist language of administrators in the Foster-Glocester school district is reason for concern about the direction in which our country is headed: Several students at Ponaganset High School brought “anti-tolerant” flags to school following a celebration of Pride Month. In an emailed statement to The Journal, district leaders said there had been an…

A wind farm at sea

Hey, don’t worry! It’s only an energy sector “transition.”

By Justin Katz | June 7, 2022 |

You can tell our country’s radicals — from Joe Biden on down — are going for the kill this time because they aren’t moderating on energy, even as gas prices shoot up and inflation decimates the wellbeing of Americans.  Instead, they talk about how it’s simply a “transition.”  Note the phrasing of progressive Democrat State…

Van Gough's Prisoners Exercising

The gun-controllers’ dehumanizing talking point proves the importance of the Second Amendment.

By Justin Katz | June 4, 2022 |

The day of the school shooting in Ulvade, Joe Biden took to his national platform to blame people who disagree him about the Second Amendment and the practical steps to stop mass shootings: “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” That talking point has filtered down throughout the…

Bill Bartholomew GenZ boot tweet

Bartholomew’s role in RI media feels like an early hint of the Cultural Revolution.

By Justin Katz | June 2, 2022 |

For the elimination of doubt, I don’t mean to evoke Americans’ historic appreciation of the concept of revolution.  I mean to warn of the actual possibility of something like this: Some 1.5 million people were killed during the Cultural Revolution, and millions of others suffered imprisonment, seizure of property, torture or general humiliation. The dark…

A joint in a dirty hand.

As with guns, the culture is important to consider when it comes to marijuana.

By Justin Katz | June 1, 2022 |

The issues of gun regulation and marijuana legalization have an interesting overlap, even as they head in opposite directions. To increase regulation of the former, advocates insist that we focus on the implements used for harm (the guns) and eschew — sometimes with great vehemence and insult to those who disagree — the notion that…