Justin Katz
I don’t want to make too much of this, but sometimes we have to put the obvious on the table. Otherwise, we’re apt to wander off in dense forests of complexity because we reject the ability to see in an open field. Journalistic writer Michael Shellenberger makes the so-obvious-it’s-easy-to-ignore point that the West’s throttling down…
The State of the Union speech, as a practice, lost me long ago, during the presidency of Bill Clinton. His practice was a seemingly endless list of special-interest handouts that couldn’t possibly be funded. No new information emerged, and America wasn’t even receiving a useful indication of the administration’s intended direction. The event was performative…
Concerns that the predominant culture might insinuate itself unnecessarily into everything that schools attempt to do have flipped to the aggressive practice of using schools to deconstruct and destroy the predominant culture behind parents’ backs.
Democrat Governor Dan McKee’s letter to Joe Biden expressing our state’s willingness to house refugees from war in Ukraine raises many questions. For instance, why is this particular offering worthy of a prominent, grandiloquent pronouncement while accepting midnight flights of illegal immigrants (mostly young men) is not? Separately, one wonders what it means to welcome…
John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss some of the more mystifying realities on the RI news landscape.
As an emboldened Vladimir Putin causes mayhem on the global stage, it’s important to remember how much our own government is harming the prospects of the United States, as if deliberately humbling our country to bring us down: Upcoming federal oil and gas lease sales will be delayed as the Interior Department figures out how…
For the cost of taxes and the cost of living around here, why do Rhode Islanders tolerate this sort of thing? For the third time in the last four years on national television, the Dunkin’ Donuts Center has served as a national embarrassment, as games have had to be canceled or delayed because the management…
South Kingstown parent advocate Nicole Solas has been, let’s say, having words with Met School special education teacher Emily Bowden. The back-and-forth is mainly social media snark shooting, so we shouldn’t assume that Bowden’s bombast is evidence of the school’s operation, but she does facilitate an important point that isn’t often made in these arguments.…
A very interesting article from Tamara Sacharczyk, of WJAR, puts a spotlight on an aspect of the people’s interaction with government that doesn’t get enough attention: lawsuits: Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent defending state agencies in Rhode Island in recent years, and the NBC 10 I-Team uncovered taxpayers are oftentimes picking up…
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — being a strategic attack disrupting a general atmosphere of peaceful exhaustion among European countries — has a cautionary component for analysts. While one can reasonably suggest that this or that factor is playing a role, strong assertions about the motivations and plans of the people involved are best avoided. That’s…