Quick Read

St. Basil Cathedral on Red Square

It’s strange how our national attitude toward other nations depends on the affections of our chief executive.

By Justin Katz | June 4, 2021 |

In precise Instapundit fashion, Ed Driscoll sums up a recent development in the United States’ foreign affairs posture with the subject, “And Just Like That, Russians Aren’t the Bad Guys Anymore“: … Ted Cruz notes, “[B]asically what Joe Biden has decided is pipelines in America, bad. Jobs in America, bad. Pipelines in Russia, good. Jobs in…

Angelica Infante-Green

The education commissioner should go after the teachers unions for the right reasons.

By Justin Katz | June 4, 2021 |

I’m with Rhode Island Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green in believing that negotiating teacher contracts should be a professional endeavor of well-meaning parties and that professional union organizers prevent that from being the case when they aren’t getting their way.  Indeed, from the early months after her arrival in the state, I’ve been saying Infante-Green was…

Silhouette of a stickup

Strong immigration policies limited to orderly entry make the community safer.

By Justin Katz | June 4, 2021 |

Given the evolving mix of news stories in the Ocean State recently — with violent crime involving gangs and/or people with prior arrests, particularly for possession of illegal guns, stretching now from Providence to Newport — one could reasonably expect the trends to continue, with crime becoming an increasingly prominent subject of conversation. With that…

McKee signs nursing home mandates

RI politicians smile as they experiment with your parents and grandparents and planet-leading mandates.

By Justin Katz | June 4, 2021 |

Last week, I worried that the recently enacted “Nursing Home Staffing and Quality Care Act” handed bureaucrats power that they aren’t competent to wield.  This week, news has reached Australia that the Ocean State’s mandates in this area blow the continent-nation’s own version out of the water. Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee (pictured) has signed…

2020 Presidential vote by county

States can become dependent on a higher-up government, too.

By Justin Katz | June 3, 2021 |

An interesting juxtaposition jumped off the list of articles I keep from which to draw posts.  Here’s Brad Polumbo of the Foundation for Economic Education explaining how, contrary to the even-handed stimulus under his predecessor, Joe Biden’s administration’s stimulus strongly favors blue (i.e., Democrat-run) states: “Alignment with the Democratic party predicts increases in states’ allocations…

Illustration from Tale of Two Cities

Monthly payments are not a “tax cut”; they’re dependency-driving welfare.

By Justin Katz | June 3, 2021 |

Here’s what Joe Biden said of a so-called “expanded Child Tax Credit” that will take the form of monthly payments from the federal government starting in July: “This tax cut sends a clear and powerful message to American workers, working families with children: Help is here.” That’s not the “clear message” I hear.  Actually, the…

South Kingstown School Committee discusses lawsuit

South Kingstown’s School Committee is abusing its position, even if it isn’t suing a local mother.

By Justin Katz | June 3, 2021 |

According to William Jacobson on Legal Insurrection, the South Kingstown School Committee has voted not to sue local mom Nicole Solas, but instead to try to resolve their differences outside of the courts.  In this case, remember, “resolving differences” means providing a taxpayer with information to which she has a legal right. In these circumstances, it’s always…

Kory Jeshua with his daughter

This is the vision with which Americans of all races agree.

By Justin Katz | June 3, 2021 |

A video from (apparently) conservative TikTokker (or whatever they’re called) Kory Yeshua discussing Critical Race Theory alongside his daughter went viral when it made the jump to Twitter, and deservedly so.  Give it a couple minutes of your time:* One of the best videos opposing Critical Race Theory that you’ll ever see. 👏🏼🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/cXOfheV0kJ —…

Michael Douglas in Falling Down

We’re falling down because somebody’s deliberately removing the ground out from under us.

By Justin Katz | June 2, 2021 |

I’ve been thinking about Stacy McCain’s thoughts upon rewatching the classic Michael Douglas movie, Falling Down. The quick summary of the movie is that Douglas’s character, William Foster, has lost everything.  Unless I’ve forgotten a detail (it’s been a while since I watched it), he didn’t really do anything to deserve it.  Those on whom…

Viruses on a cell

There’s good news and bad news for people who’ve recovered from COVID-19.

By Justin Katz | June 2, 2021 |

The good news, as a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor Marty Makary affirms to Steve Watson of Summit News, is that natural immunity after catching a virus has not disappeared: A professor with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has said that there is a general dismissal of the fact that more than half of all…