Justin Katz
Via a predictably political RI Future post, I came across this even more predictably political DailyKos post: You do not abuse the trust of children. If you find out about the possible abuse of children, you have a duty to stop it. A duty. An imperative. An oath. All those words that men say, and…
For more than a year, now, I’ve been directing conversations with my politically-interested friends toward an issue that has concerned me as one who has found (very) modest success as a socio-political writer: my growing disinterest in the political debate du jour. A prominent experiential example: I used to check the Corner two to five…
I had been thinking about a Robert Whitcomb column earlier, and it could not have been more timely. Writes Whitcomb: The terminology has been successful in cutting taxes for the wealthy and reducing programs that particularly assist the middle and lower classes. More generally, it makes Americans forget that the socio-economic walls are getting higher.…
Rhode Island’s marriage law is astonishingly specific when it comes to which relatives men may not marry: Men forbidden to marry kindred. — No man shall marry his mother, grandmother, daughter, son’s daughter, daughter’s daughter, stepmother, grandfather’s wife, son’s wife, son’s son’s wife, daughter’s son’s wife, wife’s mother, wife’s grandmother, wife’s daughter, wife’s son’s daughter,…
If one presses, as in the comments to a post by Don Hawthorne, it is possible to get a straightforward answer. Writes Bobby Oliveira of the Constitutional requirement that religion be banned from the public sphere: Since everyone will not choose to participate, based on belief systems, you cannot allow some belief system to obtain…
Long before September 11, even before the 2000 elections, it seemed to me that our culture, and therefore society and government, was moving toward the right. This is not to say that I expected, or desired, a loss of the broad principles of fairness, mutual respect, and mutual responsibility that drove the leftward lurch. However,…
There have been times, over the past year, when I’ve felt compelled, in public and private intra–Anchor Rising discussions, to defend commenter Anthony. This is how he reciprocates: If you can’t vote for Chafee over Sheldon Whitehouse, you are not a Republican. You are not a conservative. You are just a disgruntled, pathetic sore loser.…
Is it worth forcing change in the Republican Party at Rhode Island and national levels by voting for a Democrat whom I despise, or would it be enough simply not to vote (or to write in Ronald Reagan)? And a related question: Is the “slightly better” leadership of the Republican Party only postponing, perhaps with…
The flier at left, which arrived at my house within the past week (fittingly, on garbage day), will stand as the final motivation for me to actually take the time to go out on primary day and actively vote against Linc Chafee. No doubt exacerbated by current events and the specific fears that plague aware…
Charles Bakst correctly identifies one of the reasons I’ve been feeling more favorably toward Steve Laffey of late: … the more Chafee attacks him, the cooler and calmer Laffey tries to come across in debates and ads. More significant, perhaps, has been the gradual emergence of the oh-so-sincere face of Sheldon Whitehouse into view. Culpability…
