Justin Katz
I thought of A. Douglas, from Providence, today: This past summer has been the bloodiest summer of the war for U.S. soldiers; Iraqi deaths from sectarian violence have doubled this year; and there is no political progress in Iraq. This is not a policy that deserves more time. It is way beyond the time to…
Ed Kinane must be so proud: Iran’s parliament voted Saturday to designate the CIA and the U.S. Army as “terrorist organizations,” a largely symbolic response to a U.S. Senate resolution seeking a similar designation for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. The parliament said the Army and the CIA were terrorists because of the atomic bombing of Japan;…
The phrase “useful idiot” comes to mind, and as disinclined as I am to further its reach, an op-ed by Ed Kinane in today’s Providence Journal — “The U.S., not Iran, is the terrorist nation” — is simply too stunning (if predictable) not to note: This drumbeat of war displays a grotesque double standard. Who…
Westerly Sun reporter Chris Keegan has answered, via email, my question about the complaint that the NEA’s Peter Gingras filed with the State Labor Relations Board against Bill Felkner. Apparently, Gringas specifically mentioned Felkner’s blog during a phone conversation with Keegan. In other words — although I don’t know whether any penalties exist for doing…
Although it’s wise to hesitate before giving too much weight to one exchange and one piece of writing, I’m very encouraged that my general approach to movement politics appears to have resonated with Randy Jackvony (pixellation victim): I asked another blogger, Justin Katz of www.anchorrising.com, what he thought about political discourse over the Internet. His…
In a letter to the Sakonnet Times, Class of ’09 Tiverton High School student Lexy Halpen expresses her frustration with the ongoing contract negotiations of those responsible for her education: … Not only is it ridiculous that the school committee won’t fix this problem, but myself and my classmates are losing out on everything until…
So you’ve traveled with your daughter on the journey that has led her to freshman year at the University of Rhode Island, and within a couple of weeks of looking to the student paper, The Good 5¢ Cigar, to understand the community of which she is now a part — perhaps to glean some tips…
Having investigated the laws cited in the complaint against Bill Felkner, I’m reasonably confident that I’m either missing something or somebody else is misstating something. In his Westerly Sun article (subscription required), Chris Keegan wrote the following (emphasis added): In a letter to the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board filed on Thursday, Peter Gingras…
Watch as some MSNBC guy named David Schuster (perhaps a misspelling of “shyster”) ambushes U.S. Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R, Tennessee) with a request that she name the last person in her district killed in Iraq. I find the following to be the despicable aspect of his barrage, because it traps the interviewee with the usual…
It may be that the education discussion needs a broader context, because there’s a substantial way in which Thomas’s argument is beside the point: As to the point I was actually raising, yes, it matters what pocket the money comes from. Andrew’s comment raises exactly this issue. My view is that basing education funding on…