Quick Read

School board member decked in CT

Parents’ rage is simmering nationwide.

By Justin Katz | December 17, 2021 |

This is exactly the sort of environment the education system in Rhode Island and other places around the country are inviting as they seek to impose ideological radicalism as guiding lights and institutionalize a system of lying to parents.  At the link, Rod Dreher supplies video of the emotional testimony and accusations of Jessica Konen,…

The China Virus

United States of America, Meet Gina Raimondo and Her Communist-Associated Husband

By Justin Katz | December 17, 2021 |

During her time as governor, Rhode Islanders periodically would hear rumors that Gina Raimondo had the backing of powerful financial interests.  Indeed, she typically received the large majority of her campaign donations from people with out-of-state addresses.  As I asked in 2017, what were they buying with their money? At the time, the answer seemed…

A room with pealing paint

Corruption is the point of sexual radicalism.

By Justin Katz | December 17, 2021 |

Memory is hazy, and I missed early punk by about a half-generation, and I couldn’t quickly find the clip, but I remember seeing a punk rocker being interviewed on a mainstream television show, looking very much the emaciated junky and saying, essentially, we have control over your children.  Even not being a parent at the…

Cash under a medical mask

Even the stuff state lawmakers are proud of is wrong.

By Justin Katz | December 16, 2021 |

Sometimes I have to wonder whether I’m one of only a few people in the state who read about the policy doings of legislators and the governor and see the wall-to-wall violations of good government… and propriety. The waves of borrowed cash that the federal government has injected into the veins of our incompetent and…

A dragon statue & medical mask

States of emergency shouldn’t be used to manage viruses.

By Justin Katz | December 16, 2021 |

Rhode Island Republican House Minority Leader Blake Filippi lays out the simple steps of his argument that Democrat Governor Dan McKee is acting outside of his authority by continuing the COVID state of emergency: A thread on the lawlessness of @GovDanMcKee’s emergency powers: §30-15-9 used to allow the Governor to declare an emergency with no…

Writing on the wall

Fear of school shootings feels a lot like fear of Omicron.

By Justin Katz | December 16, 2021 |

The Omicron count has begun in Rhode Island!  One: The case was detected in a woman in her 20s who lives in Providence County. The individual recently returned to Rhode Island from New York and had previously completed their primary vaccination series. She did not receive a booster shot, according to the health department. Two:…

A child being vaccinated

You’re not alone in vaccine hesitancy for young children.

By Justin Katz | December 15, 2021 |

Overly frightened people with a casual attitude about others’ right to disagree with them may be talking as if you’re unleashing death bombs on your community if you don’t subject your children to COVID-19 vaccines, but nationally, at least, you’re not alone: Around 29% of parents with kids ages 5 to 11 said their kid…

A hoodie on a beaten school bus

When they come for school bonds, ask where all the money’s been going.

By Justin Katz | December 15, 2021 |

Our system is set up to ensure that infrastructure, like school buildings, is left to rot.  That dynamic is inevitable when (1) budgeting and negotiations are tilted so heavily in favor of labor and (2) taxpayers can be bullied or forced into spending the additional money to repair or replace buildings when they become bad…

The ACI in Cranston

Prison statistics probably aren’t a stronghold for progressives.

By Justin Katz | December 14, 2021 |

Somewhere in the wilds of Rhode Island progressive social media in the past couple months, I came across the Rhode Island Department of Corrections’ “Fiscal Year 2020 Annual Population Report.” I think the context in which it was deployed like a statistical weapon was to support the claim that inmates at the state Adult Correctional…

Hospital beds

The idea of patients should be de-romanticized.

By Justin Katz | December 14, 2021 |

As we construct the stories by which we understand reality, we tend to romanticize people when they’re generalized.  In healthcare, for instance, patients are “people who need help,” and we have a set of emotions and moral ideas associated with them as a concept. The problem is people need all sorts of kinds of help,…