Justin Katz
Even a week after I read the related piece, this biopsis (if I may coin a term for “biographic synopsis”) lingers on the mind: Guevara, a physician with no formal military training, was also something else, critics say: prolific executioner, dogmatic totalitarian and co-designer of the Cuban police state and indoctrination apparatus. The version in…
There would seem to be a lesson here for folks prone to the sort of ultra-decisive decision making that occurred on the University of Rhode Island campus between the time when I was impressed, as a high school student, with URI’s reputation as a party school and the time when I found myself there after…
Rhode Island, where the unbidden friendliness of a stranger is front page news: … neither motorists nor pedestrians could ignore the man in the pale blue shirt and bright white sneakers yesterday morning standing between the Providence Biltmore and The Westin Providence hotels. Why, he wasn’t asking for a thing; their befuddled faces finally began…
The following blurb (from page 12 of this PDF of the 10/11 Rhode Island Catholic) reminds us that stem-cell research can be moral and miraculous: Three year-old Andrew Mueting of Dodge City is a bright, happy-golucky, energetic little boy. But when he was four months old, doctors gave him a bleak prognosis. Born with malignant…
Knowledge of the approaching precipice in Rhode Island — or rather, the precipice that Rhode Island is approaching — has moved off the commentary pages in the Providence Journal. Here’s Lifebeat section columnist Mark Patinkin today: “Fascinating, Spock. It seems this planet has organized itself into the perfectly self-destructive organism.” “Indeed, sir. As one example,…
It would seem that Kiersten Marek has misunderstood my impetus for considering private schools for my children. Citing a study by the Center on Education Policy that finds “no evidence that private schools actually increase student performance,” she notes: Over at Anchorrising.com, self-declared union-hater Justin Katz is wondering if he should send his children to…
You’ll note the new ad at left for the College Republican Federation of Rhode Island. Click on over to see what they’re up to these days. We rightward Rhode Islanders are always worrying that our opportunities are limited to change the way in which things are done here (and thought here), and it increasingly seems…
Among the qualities from which I recoiled during last night’s school committee meeting in Tiverton was the teachers’ apparent enthusiasm for playing the unionist role. I’m simultaneously amused and discouraged to learn that they have actually gotten so much into it that the union itself is having to do some reining in: Last week, Rearick…
I wish more parents and townspeople attended these school committee meetings, because were more to witness the behavior of the unionists (one hesitates to speak of them principally as teachers), I’ve little doubt that support for them would evaporate even more rapidly than it is currently doing. The committee discussed volunteers for various extracurricular activities,…
Patrick Crowley took the podium making his case for the teachers’ to be paid for striking, and I can see that the teachers, at least those in attendance, are not but so embarrassed by his antics. He began his presentation by insisting that he be able to cross examine administrators. The committee’s lawyer stated that…