Quick Read

Image of COVID as planet Earth

The state Department of Health really wants healthcare workers to be on the lookout.

By Justin Katz | September 25, 2021 |

Talk about cultivating a hostile environment! John DePetro reports that the state Department of Health is encouraging healthcare workers to tattle on coworkers who remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 (whether or not they have acquired immunity through prior exposure).  Center for Professional Boards and Licensing Chief Ellen Balasco ends a recent notice about vaccination requirements thus:…

A hoodie on a beaten school bus

Entitlement is an illness of government overindulgence.

By Justin Katz | September 24, 2021 |

On one hand, I sympathize with Alexis Santoro, of Cumberland: Santoro first raised the issue in an email on September 1 to Cumberland school officials. “Each year there has been a bus monitor/crossing guard for the bus when the bus has stopped at this location since pound road has a lot of blind spots and…

Justin Katz's political spectrum illustration

Freedom and religion go hand in hand.

By Justin Katz | September 24, 2021 |

The headline from a Dennis Prager commentary in the Epoch Times evokes two distinct ideas.  Here’s the headline: “As America Has Become More Secular, It Has Become Less Free.” The first idea is along the lines that Prager emphasizes: Freedom permeates the Old Testament: The Bible begins with the story of Adam and Eve, a story…

Image of Police Line tape.

What genre should a writer choose for the tale of Police Chief Ronald Landry?

By Justin Katz | September 24, 2021 |

It’s difficult to know whether to read this Lauren Clem story in the Valley Breeze as a comedy or outrage-driven drama. Ronald Landry worked his way up to the rank of captain in the Woonsocket police department, retiring in 2007.  At that point, presumably, he took his pension along with a promotion of chief just across…

A Socialist Action bullhorn

The cult of the vax-mandate fanatics.

By Justin Katz | September 23, 2021 |

Watching the reaction to Governor Dan McKee’s extremely mild adjustment to his dictatorial mandate that all healthcare workers must be vaccinated against COVID-19 has been disconcerting.  Here’s the upshot of his change, per Alexa Gagosz and Brian Amaral in the Boston Globe: Rhode Island will allow health care workers who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19 to work…

A woman in an MTV shirt

The line of youth propaganda from MTV News to NowThis.

By Justin Katz | September 23, 2021 |

The connections one discovers while looking into emerging powerful organizations are intriguing.  NowThis is an online media company creating short, sharable news videos.  It’s clear that the target is a younger audience, and it’s also obvious that NowThis is a mainstream organization, which is to say, left-wing Democrat. When I began looking at the political donations of…

Copenhagen, Denmark

Denmark shows how socialism creates a permanent underclass.

By Justin Katz | September 22, 2021 |

A July episode of the Econtalk podcast is worth your time.  University of Chicago Economist James Heckman (a Nobel Laureate) and host Russ Roberts discuss the former’s research on social mobility in Denmark, a country with frighteningly detailed data on all of its citizens.  Here’s a key point worth teasing out, from Heckman (emphasis added): … Denmark…

A scale

Nobody’s talking about the key takeaway from Biden’s monoclonal antibody treatment distribution.

By Justin Katz | September 22, 2021 |

Folks are debating the justification and impetus for the Biden administration to grant access to monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19 not strictly according to need.  Ryan Saavedra reports for The Daily Wire: [Biden spokeswoman Jen] Psaki then said that the treatments are used after a person becomes infected and said that the way to save more…

A masked man shushes

A blackout seems to be in place for talk of natural immunity.

By Justin Katz | September 22, 2021 |

Musing about the Nicki Minaj/COVID vaccine kerfuffle, Instapundit Glenn Reynolds writes: So for the record, I’m not particularly concerned with the safety of the vaccines. The Insta-Daughter even took part in one of the clinical trials. But I am particularly concerned with the government-fostered bullying and intimidation aimed at anyone who doesn’t follow the party line. If Nicki…

Pipes

A young entrepreneur in the trades shows how the economy ought to work.

By Justin Katz | September 21, 2021 |

The story of Canadian plumber Noah Fladager, as related by Louise Bevan in The Epoch Times, illustrates exactly the ideal around which public policy should be formed: A young plumber, and father, who quit a secure job to go solo is celebrating the fruits of his labor. Not only does he now employ others, but he’s…