Quick Read

Esther accuses Haman

North Smithfield teachers model tyranny when demanding action against the political speech of parents.

By Justin Katz | September 28, 2021 |

Something doesn’t sit quite right in this story out of North Smithfield, as reported by Lauren Clem in the Valley Breeze.   Danielle Ferguson, a parent of a high school student there, spoke at a school committee meeting in opposition to mask mandates.  She suggested that the government “wants everyone to be fearful so that they can…

Tax man spraypaint

We need to keep an eye on the bank-spying ball amidst the dense-pack scandals.

By Justin Katz | September 28, 2021 |

One has to wonder… during the Cold War, national security types talked about the “dense-pack strategy.”  If you’ve got an important asset for war, like missile siloes, it may seem obvious that you want to spread them out so they can’t all be taken out at once, but you have to consider the nature of…

Coventry High School

Coventry High School goes back to remote and early release. Are they nuts?

By Justin Katz | September 27, 2021 |

Alexa Gagosz is reporting in the Boston Globe that an increase in “positive cases” is sending Coventry High School into remote classes through Tuesday, followed by a schedule that closes the building at 12:30 starting Thursday until further notice.  (They already had Wednesday off.)  Here’s the letter from the district. Come on, folks.  It’s time for…

Matt Brown swears in kick-off video

Who wants Matt Brown to be governor? Out-of-state progressive experimenters.

By Justin Katz | September 27, 2021 |

One topic conspicuously not addressed in Matt Brown’s slick new video announcing his candidacy for Rhode Island governor is what qualifies him specifically to run an organization as large and complex as the state government.  Surely a willingness to drop the F-bomb isn’t sufficient in itself.  That omission raises the question asked in the subject of this…

Presence of COVID antibodies by PCR ct

COVID antibodies compared with PCR count shows many positive tests shouldn’t have been “cases.”

By Justin Katz | September 27, 2021 |

Word is that a nearby trampoline park was packed with unvaccinated children over the weekend, with scarcely a mask to be found.  Meanwhile, Rhode Island state senator Alana DiMario is proclaiming the pending approval of the Pfizer COVID vaccine for children between five and 11 as “life changing,” because “the daily stress of weighing every…

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…