Justin Katz

For Those in Need of Comparison

By Justin Katz | June 25, 2007 |

Michelle Malkin has republished photos of what actual non-separation of church and state looks like. Others have rightly emphasized the silence that this oppression inspires on the international stage, but given recent discussion around here, I’ll make a tangential point: Some Westerners apparently believe that allowing Christians to buck the secularist system within their own…

Religious Freedom, Except When Denied

By Justin Katz | June 24, 2007 |

Raising yet another sticky issue on the Sabbath, I note that Connecticut has decided that Roman Catholic hospitals may not behave as if the Roman Catholic faith is actually, you know, true: Victim advocates cheered a recent bill requiring all Connecticut hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims, but Roman Catholic leaders see it…

A Reminder That There Are More Important Things in Life

By Justin Katz | June 24, 2007 |

The real-Earth geography of Middle Earth revealed. Given the necessary changes to the landscape since the Third Age, I’d say this is yet another argument against the Theory of Evolution.

Tempus Fugit, Tempers Figit

By Justin Katz | June 24, 2007 |

Look. All I want is to be able to support my family. I don’t claim to be perfect. I don’t claim to have made a lifetime of sensible (or even reasonable) decisions. But looking around at the wealth squandered in this state, trying to squeeze bare-chested between the barbed stucco dams by which others have…

Political Date Rape

By Justin Katz | June 23, 2007 |

Although some readers will surely see it as over-the-top rhetoric, I can’t help but find something analogous to “dating violence” in the General Assembly’s treatment of lower governments. To politically capitalize on a horrible murder, the state legislature has — without any argument or evidence that such legislation will do one bit of good —…

It’s as if They’re Mocking Us

By Justin Katz | June 23, 2007 |

You have to laugh so as not to cry: The General Assembly has given final approval to two bills – (2007 – S0804A) by Senator Issa and (2007 – H6235) by Rep. Raymond C. Church (D-Dist. 48, North Smithfield, Burrillville) – to empanel a 15-member study commission to report back to the legislature early next…

A Word from a Neighbor

By Justin Katz | June 21, 2007 |

I can’t imagine what I would do — or, more to the point, demand — if my little square of land turned out to be contaminated. My family would probably be moving into somebody’s basement while we tried to figure out how to either save the property or extricate ourselves from ownership of it. Folks…

Stacking the Bidding Deck Against a Revolution

By Justin Katz | June 18, 2007 |

As much as I encourage our readers to come up with brilliant political reactions to instances of our state government’s corrupt insanity, I’m not prepared to be sanguine about the midnight amendment’s (PDF) effects. According to a plain reading of the text, here’s how the in-house group that may potentially be privatized (read, the union…

Go Ahead. Make My Father’s Day.

By Justin Katz | June 15, 2007 |

What better preparation for the arbitrary holiday celebrating fathers could there be than to goad readers into explaining why fathers don’t matter? Or, more specifically, why children don’t need mothers and fathers. The Wall Street Journal offers the opportunity: A growing body of research offers new insight. Fathers can have a distinct impact on children…

Separation of What and State?

By Justin Katz | June 14, 2007 |

I get the feeling that people (like Peter O’Connell of East Greenwich) who would get incensed at this paragraph, from a story about Philadelphia’s declaring itself the City of Brotherly Love and fetal massacre: Cardinal Justin Rigali, the spiritual leader of hundreds of thousands of Roman Catholics in the region, immediately responded with a rebuke…