Justin Katz
John Derbyshire has done what few non-college professors are willing to do: he’s actually read Michelle Obama’s senior thesis. Overall, he believes (and I agree) that it will and should have minimal effect on the presidential race, but he makes a worthy point: … the slight negative is negative because the thesis reveals a cast…
Perhaps a new Cuban declaration could assert the right of all people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of par (paragraphs rearranged): Golf had been played on the island since the 1920s. At the time of the 1959 revolution, Havana boasted two award-winning courses, at the Havana Country Club and the Biltmore, which hosted such…
My first reaction to Steve Peoples’ story, yesterday, about legislation to expedite rules changes in light of fiscal emergency was that the day we listen to the Poverty Institute’s Linda Katz on the topic of “the way to run a business” is the day we ought to listen to her on the topic of “the…
In today’s Providence Journal, a young Ivy Leaguer with a hyphenated name adds too my still-short list of old-man moments (note the sentence that I’ve italicized): But that is all that I have ever known as an adult: a reviled America under George Bush, and a Congress dominated by petty bickering instead of big ideas.…
A few weeks ago, Dan Yorke brought one of his coworkers (a sports guy) into the studio to discuss his Massachusetts primary vote for Barack Obama. That coworker characterized himself as the only non-racist person he knew and sought to explain why it was appropriate to look at Obama and see only a black man…
East Providence’s Silver Spring Elementary School parent teacher club ought to make its letters available to citizens for use in other municipalities: [Club president Tracy] McCaughey and others met with City Manager Richard Brown and Schools Supt. Jacqueline Forbes earlier this month. The city leaders allegedly confirmed one or more school closings is a “very…
Just to see what’s going on out there, I ran a Monster.com job search for the first time in years. I had forgotten how completely unqualified the ads can make you feel. That seems to be the result when corporate HR departments are given more twenty words to describe a job opening. A made-up example:…
As the budget clock ticks, the General Assembly has been taking its precious time figuring out how to resolve the mess. One imagines the legislators hiding in dark corners awaiting a miracle. What they need to be doing, at the very least, is making the sorts of noises that would show their comprehension of the…
Honestly, I’m not always looking to accentuate the negative, when it comes to Rhode Island. It’s just important for us to have a clear picture of what’s going on (going wrong) with our state. Consider Lynn Arditi’s coverage of the decreasing demand for building permits: Rhode Island’s new home construction slowed last year, with the…
.. it must be the glass that I’m chewing. It certainly couldn’t have anything to do with a song about dancing with one’s daughter before “the clock strikes midnight.” I pass this along because I’m not sure how many New Englanders allow their radio dials to pause on 91.1FM. It’s an “inspirational” station. [Whisper] That…