Justin Katz
Somewhere in the hazy period Tuesday between leaving work early at lunch time and leaving Hasbro Children’s Hospital around 8:00 p.m., I read John Fonte’s emailed response to Anchor Rising’s commentary on his recent piece about “civic conservatism.” For most of the remainder of that day, the part of my brain not preoccupied with other…
They’ve obviously got nothing worthwhile to do with their time: Saying that Rhode Island consumers are being taken advantage of when they’re forced to pay surcharges for gift certificates, Rep. Stephen R. Ucci has introduced legislation that would prohibit businesses from charging any additional fees to gift cards or gift certificates. “After certain regulations were…
Providence Phoenix reporter Ian Donnis has ventured forth with a new Phoenix blog, Not for Nothing. He’s been a great resource as a journalist, and I’m sure he’ll continue to be so as a blogger, as well. I can’t help but note, however, this line from Ian’s blog announcement: Political activist Matt Jerzyk, a friend…
Marc notes the latest in modified conservatism, put forward by the Hudson Institute’s John Fonte (director of the institute’s Center for American Common Culture). The piece strikes me — to be honest — as the latest parry in the somewhat ridiculous battle over conservatism that the Republicans’ ineptitude has ussured in — the latest attempt…
Even days later, I find Klaus’s comments to my recent post dizzying. Sometimes — I’d suggest — the fact that every bit of evidence points to your conclusion, even those bits that are contradictory, is above all evidence that your conclusion is a priori. In one breath, industrial manufacturing companies have it all over modern…
Such letters aren’t usually (or now, to be honest with you) worthy of comment, but for some reason, this evening, I can’t resist. To quote John Leistritz of Pawtucket: President Bush’s so-called new strategy for the war in Iraq is actually more of the same — only it commits more U.S. troops to a region…
Supporters of minimum wage increases (used here as an example issue) don’t appear willing to discuss whether their policies would work, would achieve an increase in living standard for working families. Instead, they offer insults about heartlessness and declarations about what the working poor deserve. Their presumption, I guess, is that anybody so cold as…
Ramesh Ponnuru has been offering up clear-headed argumentation on the social conservative side of the stem-cell debate. Readers can follow the latest spat backwards from here, but I think this is a key paragraph: President Clinton’s bioethics commission concluded that “the derivation of stem cells from embryos remaining following infertility treatments is justifiable only if…
The Providence Journal steals some bases in its stem-cell–related editorial today: But amniotic stem cells, though plentiful, may not be able to develop into the full range of cell types that embryonic stem cells provide. Because they are only a few days old, embryonic cells are extremely flexible in terms of what they might become.…
I don’t know whether it was something that he’d recently read or a memory sparked by something that I said, but during a telephone conversation with my Jersey Boy father last night, he said (paraphrasing), “Rhode Island is essentially a playground for the rich, and the rich don’t need a middle class.” The point being,…