Justin Katz
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,…
Although I can’t recall any particular instances of his using it, except when helping me with my homework, I associate the phrase “think it through” with my father. It has always seemed, I suppose, to summarize a particular approach to the world — almost a philosophy — that he emphasizes. Not to leap too quickly…
An unsigned editorial on thephoenix.com (from which I’ve borrowed that picture) takes the oh-so-tolerant position that disagreement with its opposition to allowing Massachusetts’ citizens to vote on same-sex marriage is simply ugly bigotry: Bigot is, to be sure, a nasty name. But what would you call someone who denied women or blacks the right to…
Via (“beautifully put”) Andrew Stuttaford, from the Pub Philosopher (emphasis added): Having a history degree, she also knows that the world could not have been made in 4004 BC and she has studied enough science to know that much of what is written in the Bible cannot possibly be true. … We are drawn to…
You’ve likely come across the notion that a society that rejects a governing morality will require laws to fill the void. Well, have you noticed that those whose societal aspirations run against the grain of traditional morality are often quick to treat all objections — even mere expressions of concern — as if they are…
So Rhode Island is hemoraging its young and ambitious citizens. That’s not really news, but its mention gives us an excuse to consider our state in broad terms. Any state-sized entity will have a broad middle for which life simply goes on — with more or less difficulty — whatever the trends along the all-important…
The wonders that modern science is promising in the very near future (really, so near we can touch it, honest) seem so bright that they impart such sparkling innocence that even constitutional pessimists fail to see obvious dark sides. One such, John Derbyshire, writes: If you don’t like eugenics, you are not going to like…
I know the dollar amount is minimal, and I’m not even sure that I’d make any blanket policy suggestions, but something just seems wrong with making taxpayers cover expenses for this: Rhode Island sent three state lawmakers to Washington, D.C., last month for a conference put on by the Center for Policy Alternatives. Rep. Edith…
I wish I were confident that we will soon reach a time when sentiments the likes of this, from Mark Steyn, can safely be ignored as repetitive: Many of us think about the long-term shifts necessary to win this struggle: euthanizing the United Nations and overhauling other malign and anachronistic institutions. Fat chance. Mustaf Jama’s…
Twice in the past few weeks, I’ve felt compelled to write to the Providence Journal regarding letters that appeared on its opinion page. Both letters dealt with the abstinence versus contraception education debate, and both cited specific “scientific” studies for the pro-contraception side. And in each case, my letter specifically addressed the study in question,…
