Justin Katz

A water drop and ripples

Canada is going over the totalitarian cliff (and we’re not far behind).

By Justin Katz | January 3, 2023 |

Like him or hate him, this thread of tweets from Jordan Peterson should be a wakeup call as to the direction of Western Civilization: BREAKING: the Ontario College of Psychologists @CPOntario has demanded that I submit myself to mandatory social-media communication retraining with their experts for, among other crimes, retweeting @PierrePoilievre and criticizing @JustinTrudeau and…

RI State House over caution tape

Go back to the first question of spending.

By Justin Katz | January 2, 2023 |

Like it or not, we’re all tangled up with each other, so in some degree, the choices we make and the value we create or destroy affect everybody.  How we structure society is a decision about how we utilize “our” resources.  That doesn’t mean maximizing efficiency or economic advancement or anything else must be the…

Teenager gets vaccinated

Can the provaxers change their minds?

By Justin Katz | December 30, 2022 |

A skeptical reader can find many things worthy of comment in David McRaney’s How Minds Change even beyond the author’s central objective of training people how to manipulate others psychologically to implement radical policies.  Not wanting to write a book in response, I’ll probably just bring them up as they become relevant. One side point…

Liquid pouring into an invisible glass

Who Can Claim Cooperation as a Core Value

By Justin Katz | December 29, 2022 |

Whether Western Civilization is fundamentally build on a principle of cooperation is a fundamental philosophical dividing line in our current politics.

A water drop and ripples

Women attempting to enroll in Catholic seminaries as men point to a more-profound problem of sin and radical politics.

By Justin Katz | December 28, 2022 |

Grappling with matters of identity and the complicated experience of being human isn’t, of itself, the problem.  The follow-on transgressions, such as a willful action to deceive and undermine others’ beliefs based on false pretenses, are: “Recently, the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance was made aware of instances where it had been discovered…

A person dressed as Darth Vader sits on stairs.

Politics This Week with John DePetro: The Establishment Back in Control

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz note the return of the RI establishment’s confidence and evidence that its underlying approach remains flawed.

A water drop and ripples

Michael Munger’s reference to Bastiat’s proposal to grow the French economy by burning Paris is a worthwhile reminder.

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2022 |

For that lesson alone, readers should give it a few minutes.  But this paragraph near the end captures something far more intimately relevant to our times than even Munger may have intended: Once you are duped into believing destruction is productive, almost everything that a rational public policy would label as a cost becomes, by…

A Mrs. Claus ornament on a Christmas tree

Why are Christmas trees scarce?

By Justin Katz | December 24, 2022 |

It’s “climate change,” of course; that’s the easy go-to answer for anything having to do with the natural environment.  Even when there’s a more proximate explanation, the global bogeyman has to be tacked on, as the Boston Globe’s Dharna Noor does in this case: The culprit behind all those dead trees: Drought, which hit New England…

A water drop and ripples

I’m not making claims of election fraud, here…

By Justin Katz | December 24, 2022 |

… but the ability to spend $1.7 trillion with relative ease and minimal scrutiny is a whole lot of incentive to manipulate elections.  In debates about such issues, it’s shocking that nobody ever mentions the incentive.

A water drop and ripples

Cicilline doesn’t trust the American people.

By Justin Katz | December 23, 2022 |

Whatever your view of Donald Trump and/or David Cicilline, take a moment to think about the underlying perspective required for a position like this: Democratic Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline is leading an effort to ban former President Donald Trump from holding public office again. If this means anything, it means that Cicilline wants to…