Quick Read

Great Depression bread line

Hospital wait times result from bigger policy failures than failing to vaccinate everybody.

By Justin Katz | September 8, 2021 |

Credit is due to WPRI’s Courtney Carter for including at least this much nuance in her article about increasing wait times in hospitals in Rhode Island and across the country, although it takes several paragraphs and scary visions of up to 48-hour delays for emergency care to get to this: [Dr. Laura Forman, chief of…

A high school privilege walk

“Privilege walking” Providence teachers is like an identity politics perp walk.

By Justin Katz | September 7, 2021 |

Yesterday, Providence middle school teacher Ramona Bessinger posted on Facebook that her school principal conducted an ostensibly voluntary “privilege walk” using materials from Project Implicit: At school last week, the faculty was asked to “opt-in” to take a “privilege walk”. Needless to say, I opted-out. I’d rather spend my professional hours on lesson plans for…

Vaccine freedom protesters

Healthcare workers are not backing down, despite media ambivalence.

By Justin Katz | September 6, 2021 |

Healthcare workers (many of whom have no doubt had COVID and are therefore immune) continue to protest Democrat Governor Dan McKee’s mandate that they get vaccinated or lose their jobs.  John DePetro has video. The contrast with mainstream media coverage is striking. DePetro’s headline is “Front line protesters takeover WaterFire.”  The only coverage I see…

Viruses on a cell

Increased obesity is one thing that could make COVID more dangerous for children.

By Justin Katz | September 4, 2021 |

People keep making the claim, so I keep looking for evidence that the Delta variant is harming children more, but every data point I’ve seen has been flawed, explainable, or not applicable.  (Sincerely, if I’m missing something, send it my way.) If we do start seeing worse outcomes for children, however, this finding from a…

A series of ripples

Don’t forget to remember the Ripples.

By Justin Katz | September 3, 2021 |

So, yeah, we admit that we started the Ripple section of Anchor Rising to answer our own need to scratch an itch in this space that would otherwise benefit the oligarchs of social media, but it’s good stuff that you don’t want to miss. The thing is, it would kind of defeat the thumb-in-the-eye aesthetic if…

Vaccine freedom protest blocked at State House door

Another way COVID sets the stage for government restrictions of rights.

By Justin Katz | September 3, 2021 |

On Monday, Providence Journal political reporter Katherine Gregg tweeted that people protesting in favor of vaccine freedom for healthcare workers were trying to “storm” the State House.  Unfortunately, it appears that she has deleted that tweet, but this short video and a slightly longer one associated with her official report remain the only evidence that she…

Fingers crossed

What are the mechanics of a school department lying to a student’s parents?

By Justin Katz | September 3, 2021 |

In the Valley Breeze, Erika Sanzi writes about a relatively recent practice of Rhode Island school districts that has bothered me since the state Department of Education injected it into our system some years ago:  the policy for teachers and school officials to deliberately lie to parents as the system helps a child to “transition” from…

Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt's Facebook page

Wait… the people of Woonsocket are paying for Baldelli-Hunt’s First Amendment transgression?

By Justin Katz | September 2, 2021 |

The Valley Breeze reports the conclusion of a controversy in Woonsocket mentioned in this space a month ago. Democrat Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt has settled a lawsuit that the ACLU of Rhode Island brought against her for blocking people on a Facebook page that she was clearly using for official (which is to say, public) purposes. …

Decapitated Jesus statue

Bishop Barron is right about the very notion of an “atheist chaplain.”

By Justin Katz | September 2, 2021 |

Joe Bukuras summarizes the controversy for the Catholic News Agency (paragraphs reordered): Last week the New York Times announced that Greg Epstein, an atheist and humanist chaplain at Harvard University, was unanimously elected as the “chief chaplain” of the Harvard Chaplains, the association of more than 40 chaplains serving Harvard students of various religious denominations. ……

Handcuffed resist fists

McKee takes a step toward lockdowns with new “quarantine and isolation executive order.”

By Justin Katz | September 2, 2021 |

Frankly, I intend to ignore Democrat Governor Dan McKee’s latest executive order, issued late yesterday, and make informed decisions for my own health and those with whom I come into contact.  All five of the “whereas” clauses — which are supposed to explain and justify this sort of resolution — are purely generic.  There is…