Justin Katz
One of the great boons of the Internet is the ability of a few keywords to lead random citizens to sympathetic conversations — replete with research, back-story, and action — already in progress. In my emailbox this weekend: I am writing today after having stumbled upon your “Anchor Rising” website which described the 2005 East…
Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby doesn’t think JFK would be amused by the association of Che Guevara with a presidential candidate whom some have crowned as his (JFK’s) political heir: In December 1962, Kennedy offered a blunt summary of the Castro/Che record. “The Cuban people were promised by the revolution political liberty, social justice, intellectual…
In the comments to my Sides Taking Shape post, RI Future’s Matt Jerzyk objects to my characterization of Bruce Lang and Ryan Curran as “regular Rhode Islanders.” According to Jerzyk, the former is a “longtime Statehouse activist” (founder, apparently, of Operation Clean Government) and the latter once ran for a General Assembly seat. I simply…
Mark Steyn’s good today on Obama worship: … it seems to me that Barack Obama is the triumph of flesh, color, and despair over word — that’s to say, he offers an appealing embodiment of identity politics plus a ludicrously despairing vision of contemporary America (sample: “Trade deals like NAFTA ship jobs overseas and force…
Rhode Island can’t be doing so badly if it’s only one of at least 25 states facing budget shortfalls, can it? Well, considering the sour mood about the economy across the nation, it’s perhaps surprising that 25 states don’t have shortfalls. In judging between those that do, though, one would want more information than a…
If the published letters in the Providence Journal are at all representative of the volume that the editors receive, regular Rhode Islanders — the true “voiceless” of the state — are beginning to speak up. Here’s Bruce Lang of Newport: … the best way to improve economic development in Rhode Island can be summed up…
It’s only because I know the dispersal of accountability to be a specialty of Rhode Island politicians that I’m suspicious, but a couple of items related to marriage have caught my attention this week. First is news of legislation to be proposed by House Minority Leader Gordon Fox (D, Providence) making same-sex divorce a reality…
Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts’s healthcare proposal (PDF) strikes me as a hodgepodge with components at odds with each other. There doesn’t appear to be a guiding principle, creating the risk that the good points of the program would put a reform-like light on the bad parts, potentially without even passing themselves. New representative Frank Ferri…
My word won’t be taken on this, but I would love to learn that impressions of Rhode Island’s public education are unjustifiably poor. The ax that I grind is with the amount that we pay for the results that we get, and mathematics proficiency of 50% or less is simply not acceptable in a state…
Amazingly, I’m still getting accused of being a Chafee supporter — this despite my having voted for Laffey in the primaries and Whitehouse in the general, just to get rid of the guy. Granted, I had my reservations about Laffey, mainly because I thought it unwise to export his proclivities and skillset to the national…