Justin Katz

A water drop and ripples

Here’s a logical ruler for assessing the likelihood between Hamas and Israel when it comes to the hospital bombing.

By Justin Katz | October 18, 2023 |

Hamas executed a brutal sneak attack with no declaration of war against innocent people in their homes and at a music festival.  The big complaint against Israel’s response, recently, has been that one day was not enough warning for people to evacuate an area they were planning to attack after a declaration of war. Which…

A water drop and ripples

Miserable RICAS scores won’t mean any response from Rhode Island.

By Justin Katz | October 18, 2023 |

Dan McGowan notes that new standardized test scores are out for Rhode Island public schools, and they’re not good. Elsewhere, he finds a silver lining in the fact that English-language learners do better at English and are nearly caught up in math, but it seems like an indication of how poorly the schools are doing…

A monster with many eyes eats a college professor

Politics This Week: Warning Signs of a Cultural Monster

By Justin Katz | October 16, 2023 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss Rhode Island politics and the unsettling reaction to atrocity.

A water drop and ripples

This is too little too late from the likes of Jha.

By Justin Katz | October 16, 2023 |

Nonetheless, it’s worth noting this mild corrective from Brown University’s Dr. Ashish Jha on Newsmakers, as summarized in a recent “Nesi’s Notes” column: “I think we all in public health could have done a better job of communicating with more humility about what we knew and didn’t know. There was a desire by some people to…

A water drop and ripples

Education is the place to start trying to fix what’s wrong in RI and America.

By Justin Katz | October 13, 2023 |

As people newly look up from their lives to wonder about the craziness with which we’re surrounded — from collegiate support for Hamas to economic ignorance to scientific illiteracy to an inability to grapple with logic — they should turn their gaze toward our schools. Consider this recent Boston Globe column from Dan McGowan: The state’s most…

Old-time detective inspects a vote drop-box

Politics This Week: Evidence for Political and Electoral Trends

By Justin Katz | October 12, 2023 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss important stories in Rhode Island this week.

A water drop and ripples

The impulse to invert the report of 40 babies with their heads cut off story is shocking.

By Justin Katz | October 11, 2023 |

True enough that it’s important to be skeptical of all reports, particularly the most horrific, at a time like this, but still… there is an air around some of those insisting that the story is not yet verified that implies if this story isn’t true, the whole atrocity is not that bad.  Psychologically, they seem…

A water drop and ripples

If strange or silent responses from progressives about Hamas’s atrocities seem odd…

By Justin Katz | October 10, 2023 |

… the explanation might be more than silent discomfort with a faction of their tribe’s doing something nakedly evil.  To progressives, this sort of thing must happen and is expected.  Maybe they find it lamentable (or maybe not), but they see it as inevitable on the path to their vision of justice. Tom Holland argues,…

Monkey statues in see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil poses

Journalists find distrust of mail ballots inexplicable because they don’t want it explained.

By Justin Katz | October 10, 2023 |

Whether it’s deliberate manipulation or just a sloppy resort to groupthink, Nancy Lavin’s recent article on Rhode Island Current is a good illustration of how issues can be framed to support the preferences of the powerful. Note this section: Proponents tout these expansions as ways to improve voter turnout and access while easing the pressure…

A girl resembling Anne Frank sitting and covering her face

You could argue including the hidden parts of Anne Frank’s diary is a secondary violation.

By Justin Katz | October 9, 2023 |

A recent teapot tempest in the Censorship Wars (at least the skirmishes over keeping arguably pornographic and sex-promoting work out of elementary school libraries) has to do with parents’ objecting to a graphic novel version of Ann Frank’s diary.  You can dig multiple layers into the story, though, for a more-full picture. The first layer,…