Justin Katz

Inaugural Schadenfreude

By Justin Katz | January 20, 2005 | Comments Off on Inaugural Schadenfreude

What can one do but marvel that Providence Journal page B.01 columnist Bob Kerr would commit this to print: It’s a day to be silly. We’re not just inaugurating a president; we’re inaugurating a whole new way of life in which the entire country becomes its own reality show. People watch us from other places,…

Memo to the President

By Justin Katz | January 19, 2005 |

“Lukewarm” support for the FMA is just fine, Mr. President. See my piece today on NRO for details.

The Power of a Podium

By Justin Katz | January 18, 2005 | Comments Off on The Power of a Podium

A 230-word piece in the Providence Journal nicely captures the good that disputatious writers like Edward Achorn and (to a much lesser extent… for now) us here at Anchor Rising can do: [RI House Speaker William] Murphy had said he would seek an advisory opinion from the state Supreme Court, but said today that he…

No Gods Before the Lord Your God

By Justin Katz | January 17, 2005 |

Matthew Jerzyk of Providence has a particularly restrictive view of the appropriate content of public monuments: We have hundreds of places in our city for monuments of the Ten Commandments; they are called churches. Our public spaces, however, should be reserved to memorialize our common faith in government. For example, if any city official wants…

Small Ethics Issues vs. Big Ethics Issues

By Justin Katz | January 16, 2005 | Comments Off on Small Ethics Issues vs. Big Ethics Issues

William Harris of Barrington proves that I’m not alone in seeing a bit of nitpicking in the ethics charges against Governor Carcieri: A more cynical analysis might conclude that it is an example of a state body hounding the governor to accomplish partisan objectives. While I support the goals of ethics reform, I believe it…

Finding the Same-Sex Marriage Story

By Justin Katz | January 15, 2005 | Comments Off on Finding the Same-Sex Marriage Story

This story appeared almost two weeks ago, but I wanted to do a little research and give the matter some thought: The School Committee requested clarification from the courts after Cheryl McCullough, who worked as a health teacher and guidance counselor at Tiverton High School for 27 years, applied for health insurance for Joyce Boivin,…

A General Cloud of Suspicion

By Justin Katz | January 14, 2005 | Comments Off on A General Cloud of Suspicion

Dan Yorke railed against this possibility on Wednesday: Under pressure from law-enforcement officials who want to use the roadblocks again, Governor Carcieri is deciding whether to ask the state Supreme Court to reconsider a 1989 decision that sobriety checkpoints violate the state Constitution. If Carcieri goes along with Attorney General Patrick Lynch, who wants him…

Cutting the Safety-Net Industry

By Justin Katz | January 14, 2005 | Comments Off on Cutting the Safety-Net Industry

The latest salvo in the long-running local discussion of the relationship between social workers and socialism comes from Richard Hill of Narragansett: Schools of social work offer little to no education on how to run a business. Thus, some social workers have no concept of how to succeed without getting a check from the government.…

It’s a Mad, Mad World — Eh, Liberals?

By Justin Katz | January 10, 2005 |

Questions of schadenfreude’s sinfulness aside, I have to thank Northeast Dilemma for pointing on New England Republican to an uplifting column by Katha Pollitt. I daresay that, with this paragraph, Pollitt opens wide the thickets that hide the secret path to a sunnier political perspective: Sometimes I think America is becoming another place, unrecognizable. David…

Making Excerptions

By Justin Katz | January 10, 2005 | Comments Off on Making Excerptions

Just in case you still haven’t made it to the magazine store for the latest issue of National Review, Marriage Debate Blog has posted another excerpt of my piece therein.