Justin Katz

The Intraconservative Debate Kicks into Gear

By Justin Katz | October 20, 2006 |

Over in the Corner, Kathryn Jean Lopez takes up the call of pro-Republican conservatives: You’d just be a punk (I’m just borrowing Mona’s reader’s word ) if you actually care about issues like activist judges, abortion (today there is still not a ban on partial-birth abortion, still held up in court), marriage, but stay home…

Requiring a Moral Excuse for Due Diligence

By Justin Katz | October 18, 2006 | Comments Off on Requiring a Moral Excuse for Due Diligence

The comments to my most recent post on same-sex marriage rapidly branched off into discussion of a Westerly Republican politician who is, apparently, homosexual. Having not researched the man for myself, I won’t presume to offer analysis; I’ll merely explain that the initial question posed by a commenter, Bryan, was: “How can a man who…

To Baghdad Without Virgil

By Justin Katz | October 14, 2006 | Comments Off on To Baghdad Without Virgil

Over on the Autonomist, Rhode Island blogger D. Alighieri is seeing the reality in Iraq for himself. So far, he’s put up video of his bounce in Jordan and a first impression of Baghdad: Yesterday, a car bomb exploded a few miles from here. I watched the black plume boil towards the sky. This place…

How Sue and Jill’s Wedding Affects… the Knights of Columbus?

By Justin Katz | October 14, 2006 |

This latest of a string of similar stories from Canada over the past few years ought to be taken into consideration as the individual steps toward Rhode Island’s undemocratic importation of same-sex marriage are taken: In 2003 [the Knights in Port Coquitlam, B.C.] discovered that their hall had been rented by a lesbian couple to…

Whitehouse Supports Carcieri?

By Justin Katz | October 14, 2006 |

While running errands on my way home from work yesterday afternoon, I heard Sheldon Whitehouse explain to Dan Yorke’s radio listeners that balance between the parties is important in the federal government (from part 2 of Yorke’s streaming audio): … right now the Republicans have a monopoly on power in Washington. They do not provide…

A Note on Rejected Comments

By Justin Katz | October 12, 2006 | Comments Off on A Note on Rejected Comments

We’ve had enough readers email to ask why their comments have been rejected that it’s worth offering a preemptive explanation. Since we’re constantly inundated with automatically generated comment spam, we employ a variety of solutions to cut down on the amount. One solution is to close down comments and trackbacks after a certain period of…

Reading the Fine Print on Healthcare

By Justin Katz | October 5, 2006 |

When one brushes away the rhetoric, one finds the contradictions beneath. In one post, RIFuture notes Charlie Fogarty’s new healthcare plan, which, I discovered after wading through the usual political policy mire, will be funded in part as follows: Rather than spending state tax dollars on tax cuts for the wealthy few, high-priced consultants and…

When the Snakes Do the Talking

By Justin Katz | October 3, 2006 | Comments Off on When the Snakes Do the Talking

They sure teach the kids to string their thoughts together at the University of Rhode Island. Consider Gabriel Lugo’s letter to the URI student paper, The Good 5¢ Cigar, apologizing for mistakenly “paint[ing] the author’s person with the same irrational beliefs” as some fundamentalist Christians whom that other student had, in a limited way, defended.…

The Trust of Children

By Justin Katz | October 3, 2006 |

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…

Foley: The Political Sitcom’s Season Premier

By Justin Katz | October 3, 2006 |

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…