Quick Read

Child on computer in parents' bed

Should we add “media literacy” to the list of must-teach topics for schools?

By Justin Katz | October 25, 2021 |

The perspective of a parent produces a different reaction to URI’s Media Education Lab study of “media literacy” in Rhode Island schools than the perspective of a policy theorist, although they can come together for a conclusion.  An interview with lead researcher Rene Hobbs by Alexa Gagosz in The Boston Globe gives a good overview, but…

Shadowy RI State House

Alex Cannon would definitely be an improvement on the East Side of Providence.

By Justin Katz | October 23, 2021 |

Alex Cannon is the Republican candidate in the race for the open Rhode Island Senate seat representing the East Side of Providence, but progressive journalist Steve Ahlquist conducted a lengthy, interesting, and fair interview with him on Uprise RI. Cannon, who hails from Las Vegas, Nevada, and arrived in Rhode Island in 2017, describes himself as…

American flag in a field at sunset

Three types of rights cast a shadow on RI’s current situation.

By Justin Katz | October 22, 2021 |

Locally, the Rhode Island opposition (such as it is) is grappling with the shifting ground of our rights. Presumably, for example, parents have a right to send their children to schools that do not provide pornographic material to them and to demand a reversal via school committee meetings when that reasonable expectation is not met. …

A child being vaccinated

Injecting small children is where I get off the COVID vaccination train.

By Justin Katz | October 22, 2021 |

Pfizer is claiming a diluted version of its COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective among small children, but the numbers in its study implicitly raise the question of whether it’s necessary: A Pfizer study tracked 2,268 kids in that age group who got two shots three weeks apart of either a placebo or the…

Apartment buildings

The evicted mother’s story reveals much more that our society needs work on.

By Justin Katz | October 21, 2021 |

One difficulty with assessing sympathetic stories associated with public policy debates (and the reason advocates actively seek and promote them) is that they short circuit rational discussion about tradeoffs.  The position of seeming to lack sympathy is so uncomfortable that the public debate leaves important details unraised and, typically, the villain is assigned to be…

A hoodie on a beaten school bus

Let’s have P-Tech-type innovation instead of critical race theory.

By Justin Katz | October 21, 2021 |

Providence schools don’t necessarily have to sign up with Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), but doesn’t this seem like the level of innovation and drive that we ought to have seen after the dreadful John Hopkins report more than two years ago? Founded in 2011 by IBM and the Bloomberg administration in…

A blurry streetscape

Shouldn’t “epidemiologist” Bostom be better with numbers?

By Justin Katz | October 21, 2021 |

As a Rhode Island conservative, nothing would please me more than letting Andrew Bostom go off and do his thing.  Unfortunately, people with whom I generally agree and think of as allies keep citing him as a credentialed epidemiologist (which he’s not) and even utilizing him as an expert witness in court. Look, I agree…

What do you call it when the administration secretly transforms the country?

By Justin Katz | October 20, 2021 |

Nick Miroff (of the Washington Post, of all publications) reports that arrests along our southern border are occurring at record rates. Meanwhile, the New York Post has photos of illegal immigrants being flown into New York in the middle of the night, for distribution in nearby communities.  This recalls news items coming in from around the country,…

Image of COVID as planet Earth

UPDATED: Tiverton is last for vaccination but near-best for COVID hospitalizations?

By Justin Katz | October 20, 2021 |

Living in the town, of course it caught my eye that Dan McGowan of the Boston Globe outed Tiverton as the only town in Rhode Island with a vaccination rate below 50%: Tiverton is now the only city or town in Rhode Island with a COVID-19 vaccination rate below 50 percent, according to data from the…

An empty restaurant

You can’t think too hard with the progressive sales pitch.

By Justin Katz | October 20, 2021 |

It’s hard to know how much to debate an essay like Greg Brailsford’s on his site Uprise RI. The entire thing is stale propaganda.  It’s a sales pitch.  He’s selling you something.  You can see it in every sentence.  It jumps out even in a side note about how he caught COVID despite being fully vaccinated,…