Justin Katz
The link is more associative than direct, but something in attempts to use recent research to paint as a myth the pervasive impression of rampant corruption in Rhode Island has seemed off to me. I’ve thought, for example, that there must be something in the fact that journalists put Rhode Island at the top of…
My emphasis is always on increasing opportunity. Because it’s the situation in which I find myself, for example, I believe that many (maybe most) of the people with credit card problems didn’t sink into debt living lavishly with their few thousand dollars of Monopoly credit, but rather because life has continually thrown obstacles at them,…
Such arguments become deep precipitously, but there remains something disconcerting about the method by which society determines the behaviors that are considered within the bounds of normality and those that justify treatment: The book is at least three years away from publication, but it is already stirring bitter debates over a new set of possible…
Since it’s been a topic of discussion around here, it’s worth noting that — although Capitol Records continues on its litigious path, the Recording Industry Association of America is discerning the error of its ways: After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to…
Efforts to “update,” or otherwise change, Rhode Island’s taxation regime give the unmistakable impression of tinkering. That impression is solidified under one insidious phrase, which I’ve italicized in the following paragraph: “It may be in the ’10 [fiscal year budget], not in the supplemental,” Carcieri said [of a plan to broaden the sales tax]. “I…
The solution that David Benkof describes is one that I’ve been suggesting for years: The 30 constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, including Proposition 8 in California, are a direct result of the lawsuits-for-marriage strategy practiced by gays and lesbians since the mid-Nineties, including successful suits in Massachusetts, California and Connecticut. So achieving marriage in three…
So we’re within a couple of hours of the end of the normal school day, and I haven’t seen a snowflake yet. It seems that there ought to be a middle ground between utter calamity during a snowstorm and unnecessary public panic. Would it be too much to orchestrate for early releases to be played…
Offering assistance to steer foreclosed neighborhoods away from blight is a worthwhile goal, and the collection of initiatives recently announced by Governor Carcieri and Senator Reed seems properly targeted. It does seem, however, that the actual owners of the properties (i.e., banks) get a pass on the whole problem. Increasing the risk of lending money…
Everybody’s talking about the Electoral College and the national popular vote movement, ’round here. Ian’s on it in the Phoenix. Matt Sledge talks it up on RI Future (although he doesn’t think it pertinent to mention that he’s the executive director of FairVote RI). Most interesting, however, is Edward Fitzpatrick’s column, because the recent FairVote…
I’m sure there are arguments that it’s financially efficient. That it preserves human capital. That it’s better than alternatives. But when all th talking is done, this is just outrageous: They left the state college system in droves in recent months to avoid paying more for their health insurance or losing it entirely, and they…
