Justin Katz

Re-3: A Republican Crack-up?

By Justin Katz | March 25, 2005 |

I guess I’ve always lumped the country-club folks with the managerialists. Whatever the case, I’d be inclined to include libertarians in your breakdown of the factions. And regarding those libertarians, let’s just say I’m not quite as optimistic that the abstract principle that you’ve noted will serve as sufficient glue. My general sense is that…

Re: A Republican Crack-up?

By Justin Katz | March 25, 2005 | Comments Off on Re: A Republican Crack-up?

I’ve thought much the same thing for a while, Andrew, although I emphasize the tentative Republicans’ libertarianism, rather than what you call “managerialism.” It’s unfortunate that Terri Schiavo has become the excuse of the week for libertarians to stomp their feet about the “theocrats” with whom they have to share a coalition. As I see…

Chipping at the Edges

By Justin Katz | March 23, 2005 |

Mark Steyn writes the following in a piece that touches on the Terri Schiavo case: You can read similar stories in almost any corner of the developed world, except perhaps the Netherlands, where discretionary euthanasia is so advanced it’s news if the kid makes it out of the maternity ward. As the New York Times…

Maybe Your State Representatives Want You to Be Poor

By Justin Katz | March 19, 2005 | Comments Off on Maybe Your State Representatives Want You to Be Poor

It’s called “the Curley effect,” according to an absolutely must-read column by Tom Coyne of RIPolicyAnalysis: The authors note that “in his six mayoral races, between 1913 and 1951, James Curley represented the poorest and most ethnically distinct of Boston’s Irish. The city’s Brahmins always despised him because of his policies, his corruption, and his…

Saving Terri Is Your First Amendment Right

By Justin Katz | March 18, 2005 | Comments Off on Saving Terri Is Your First Amendment Right

Over on Dust in the Light I’ve explained that Terri Schiavo’s life has become a legitimate matter of interest for millions of Americans, and that it is our First Amendment right to demand that Congress do everything in its power to answer our grievance. Every court case does not get an appeal to Congress, but…

Ripping Out a Handful of Furr

By Justin Katz | March 18, 2005 | Comments Off on Ripping Out a Handful of Furr

Rocco DiPippo has a piece on FrongPageMag investigating Montclair State University’s Grover Furr — professor of (apparently) Leftism. From the extended version that Rocco has published on his blog: … the reader might have concluded that Professor Furr, by spreading disinformation, pushing Marxism and communism on his students, and advocating for one of mankind’s greatest…

Without a Culpable Citizenry, There Is No Freedom

By Justin Katz | March 18, 2005 | Comments Off on Without a Culpable Citizenry, There Is No Freedom

I was going to respond to a letter by Jayne Platt: We can call and write our representatives. I do, I really do. Should I quit my job and babysit the Assembly, watching every bill that comes to the floor? Then, I ask, why should I vote? Stopping a self-serving, destructive bill needs to be…

Moving Rhode Island to the Right

By Justin Katz | March 14, 2005 | Comments Off on Moving Rhode Island to the Right

Figures I’d find out about this at the last minute and that it’s on a day when I’m busy and under the weather, but any of you who are healthy and free might be interested to know that Dinesh D’Souza will be speaking at Brown tonight at 8:00 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching…

Life Is a Yes-or-No Question

By Justin Katz | March 11, 2005 | Comments Off on Life Is a Yes-or-No Question

For a guest column on TheFactIs.org, a news and commentary site sponsored by the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute and the Culture of Life Foundation, I’ve expanded on my thoughts related to Stanley Kurtz’s Policy Review piece about population decline and the possible social strategies for dealing with it. The bottom line is that…

A Moment of Dead Silence

By Justin Katz | March 3, 2005 |

As a subjective guide to Don’s previous post, laying out facts and considerations in the case of Terri Schiavo, I offer the following anecdote from Fr. Rob Johansen, which I found via Lane Core: In the course of our conversation, [a well-respected neurologist] made reference to the standard use of MRI and PET scans to…