Justin Katz
This comment from Greg, in conversation with Old Time Liberal, is surprising in the degree to which he sets aside incisive surety for a conservative’s spin on the mushy milieu of liberal emotivism: I love to engage in raucous political debate with people from the other side of the fence. In person (Blogs I mostly…
An interesting passage from Steve Peoples’s second part to the Projo’s series on local unions: LABOR UNIONS and their allies walk a fine line when it comes to influencing elections. State and federal campaign finance laws have strict limits on what is, and isn’t, permissible. That may be why Ocean State Action is actually made…
It would seem that there’s something cultural about young-adult joblessness: Much of the spike in unemployment was caused by an unusually large surge of teenagers and people in their 20s into the labor force. And those young workers had little success finding work. The jobless rate among 16- to 19-year-olds rose to 18.7 percent from…
Much of the criticism (and all of the hatemail) related to my op-ed regarding Lt. Michael Morse and unionization in RI has only served to exacerbate my reservations. Namely, when I say “unionization,” they hear “firefighters.” When I say, “I’ve concluded that public-sector unionization is among the villains in Rhode Island,” they hear, “you get…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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.…
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…