Ripple

A water drop and ripples

McConaughey is just in the wrong venue.

By Justin Katz | June 8, 2022 |

Gun-control advocates are very pleased with the speech that actor Matthew McConaughey made from the White House podium, but as is typical, people tend not to look beyond agreement to important secondary considerations. By his choice to be a national activist on this issue, rather than a state one, McConaughey blurred his core issue in…

A water drop and ripples

A tip for a few moments’ distraction.

By Justin Katz | June 8, 2022 |

Wordle is good, but Quordle is better.

A water drop and ripples

Psst! Progressives in Providence don’t trust Wall Street or the mechanics of investment to help with their pension problem.

By Justin Katz | June 7, 2022 |

They just know that imposing a bond is a more-sure way of saddling taxpayers with the payoff to their labor union allies.  (Actually, most don’t know much on either front.  They just go along because they’ve bought into the baseline propaganda that progressives are always on the side of goodness.)

2022 is finally defined.

By Justin Katz | May 29, 2022 |

Harry Potter plays Weird Al Yankovic in what appears to be a quasi-fiction movie from a streaming service. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this.

A water drop and ripples

The right thing to do isn’t entirely clear in the recent NYC subway harassment video.

By Justin Katz | May 29, 2022 |

I’m as keen to lament the deterioration of our broader community as anybody else, but reactions to a recent cell phone video taken in the New York City subway seem to me to overstate the inaction of the bystanders. In summary, a guy who is obviously disturbed walks through the subway car shouting.  He sits…

A water drop and ripples

The logic of “gun control” is not difficult to follow.

By Justin Katz | May 29, 2022 |

Reviewing the details of school shootings, the other day for an online conversation, I was struck by how clearly banning a particular style of gun or access-related regulations will not solve the problem.  They may or may not be justified on their merits, but to treat such policies as if they are obvious fixes is…

A water drop and ripples

Believe it or not, I’m eager to find common ground in progressive arguments.

By Justin Katz | May 28, 2022 |

The problem is that they’re not founded in reason, but emotion.  I’m not interested in developing solutions to our problems through the method of emoting alongside others.  Emotion supplies motivation; it is not the process for finding answers.  Yet, without fail, when progressives (or “moderates,” for that matter) articulate their emotions in the guise of…

A water drop and ripples

Has the media rebranded “gang violence” as “mass shootings”?

By Justin Katz | April 20, 2022 |

You don’t have to pay very much attention to political discourse in the United States to know that “mass shooting” has a very particular definition.  When Americans hear the phrase, they think of one or more psychotic gunmen killing people indiscriminately as an expression of alienation. It feels deliberate, therefore, that the mainstream media appears…

A water drop and ripples

Ashley Kalus’s introduction video shows promise and dangers.

By Justin Katz | April 13, 2022 |

The recently released video promoting Republican Ashley Kalus’s campaign for governor provides reason to think she’s got some real opportunities and exposes some of the risks her campaign faces:   On the risk side, her references to bringing policies from specific other states is the sort of thing that rubs provincial Rhode Islanders the wrong…

A water drop and ripples

We could use more elected officials like Frank Maher.

By Justin Katz | April 4, 2022 |

When Bill Felkner introduced me to Republican state Senator Frank Maher on the back steps of the State House, I was still new enough to politics-in-the-flesh to think he was a representative sample of elected officials.  “He’s one of the good guys,” Bill told me, and he was right. On another occasion, not long after,…