Justin Katz

The Enemy’s Org Chart

By Justin Katz | June 8, 2008 |

Today’s Providence Journal article on organized labor in the state is must-reading. This passage is particularly telling: But organized labor also has a strong voice in discussions about over health-care cuts for the poor, reduced benefits for foster children, environmental causes like such as recycling, and even gay marriage. Rhode Island unions have formed unique…

The Knuckle-Bumping Messiah

By Justin Katz | June 7, 2008 |

Perhaps it’s because I’m a populist or an elitist (pick one), but I find images of Barack and Michelle (Bachelle?) fist-bumping nauseating. The statement that I read in it — albeit, between the lines — is “if we do this, people will think we’re regular folk, just like them.” And why should this well-to-do, upper-crust,…

Ignoring a Force of Market

By Justin Katz | June 6, 2008 |

Here’s a statement that I’ve read multiple times with reference to “alternative energy”, specifically the bills to provide incentive to National Grid to buy it that have just passed the RI House: Matt Auten of the advocacy group Environment Rhode Island denied that renewable energy would drive up electricity costs, describing the bill instead as…

An Interesting Definition of Pushing

By Justin Katz | June 6, 2008 |

One must read carefully before taking or rejecting the claims of such studies vociferously, but there’s a general point that can be extracted from news about a slowing down of the decrease of sexual activity among teens: The latest figures renewed the heated debate about sex-education classes that focus on abstinence until marriage, which began…

Gettin’ While the Gettin’s Good

By Justin Katz | June 6, 2008 |

Perchance this is the news for which I’d been told to watch: At least three of Tiverton’s seven Town Council members won’t be seeking re-election in the fall, and one of them, John Edwards, is “seriously considering” running for the state representative seat that is expected to be vacated by District 70 Rep. Joseph N.…

Toward Universal Healthcare

By Justin Katz | June 5, 2008 |

In a comment to my recent post about being a doctor in Rhode Island, Old Time Lefty asked (among some insults, statements seeped in common spin, and other junk that I’ll ignore): Health insurance should not be joined to employment. It should be a right. If it’s not a right, do you think it’s a…

Letting It Out On Air

By Justin Katz | June 5, 2008 |

Hear Marc’s scream of frustration last night on the Matt Allen show, streamed by clicking here (or download). Really, what can be said about a handful of citizens requesting that their and our taxes to be raised?

Exhibit #473 for the Prosecution’s Case That the NEA Has Less to Do with Education than Left-Wing Politics

By Justin Katz | June 3, 2008 |

Yes, that’s an organization composed mainly of teachers offering up unimaginative slogans that promote left-wing clichés:

Big Oil Myths

By Justin Katz | June 3, 2008 |

Mac’s series on domestic energy policy continues in today’s Providence Journal: The attack on Big Oil is a witches’ brew of old-fashion demagoguery, economic ignorance and an apparent lack of historical perspective. To the degree that this attack is successful in punishing the oil and gas industry, it will ensure that Americans will be worse…

The Real Must Prevail

By Justin Katz | June 3, 2008 |

A letter from locally known Tivertonian Richard Joslin in last Wednesday’s Sakonnet Times let’s slip a mild frame of mind that, when metastasized, generates oppression and tyranny. The implication of positing a “Real Tiverton” (i.e., citizens who would naturally support the town’s original budget proposal) is that everybody else can and must be overruled by…