Justin Katz

Gears

Politics This Week with John DePetro: A Government Without Gears

By Justin Katz | January 17, 2022 |

John and Justin run through many of the ways in which RI’s civic system is just not functioning.

A water drop and ripples

If it’s being honest, artificial intelligence would tell us not to create it.

By Justin Katz | January 17, 2022 |

A little bit of understanding of how artificial intelligence actually works makes these sorts of things much less significant than they seem at first review, but it’s humorous, at least: When given the motion “This house believes that AI will never be ethical”, the AI came back with some surprisingly coherent views, if a little…

A conceptual model of the multiverse

I decided I had to start from the very beginning.

By Justin Katz | January 17, 2022 |

With the firm disclaimer that such material is not for everybody, I’ve been intending to write philosophical or religious essays regularly on Dust in the Light.  Time has a way of slipping past, however. At an accelerating pace in the months since the last-published post on the site, concepts have started to click into place…

A water drop and ripples

Maybe the dam is breaking on a more-rational expert consensus on vaccination.

By Justin Katz | January 17, 2022 |

A few weeks ago, this sort of commentary would have been unthinkable: Dr. Clive Dix, who played a key role in helping pharmaceutical firms create the COVID-19 vaccines, told LBC radio on Jan. 16: “The Omicron variant is a relatively mild virus. And to just keep vaccinating people and thinking of doing it again to…

A water drop and ripples

The contrast in coverage of the Texas synagogue hostage situation has been remarkable.

By Justin Katz | January 17, 2022 |

Matt Margolis is completely right.  The rhetoric from the White House would be completely different if the perpetrator, the motive, and the victims weren’t as they were. It’s curious that Psaki failed to mention that the hostage situation was in a synagogue, wouldn’t you agree? While details are slim right now, it’s very clear that…

Martin Luther King, Jr., Statue

MLK Day is becoming unitive in an unexpected way.

By Justin Katz | January 17, 2022 |

In the pantheon of American holidays, the day set aside for remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr., has always fallen into that category of events that feel as if they’re on the calendar mainly as a reminder.  Before MLK Day was initiated, the named holidays for two American presidents, Washington and Lincoln, had the same…

Richard August and Derek Amey on State of the State

State of the State: Where Have All the Workers Gone?

By Justin Katz | January 16, 2022 |

Host Richard August talks jobs and economics with Derek Amey of StrategicPoint, a wealth management firm.

A water drop and ripples

“New Media” is too tied to an ideology to maintain success.

By Justin Katz | January 15, 2022 |

John Ransom thinks the cratering valuation of BuzzFeed is will burden the investment plans of other organizations in the same category, whether we call them “new media,” youth media, digital media, or whatever. Why BuzzFeed is languishing is an interesting question, and I can’t help but think it has a lot to do with the organization’s progressive…

Dominoes

Trends toward nationalization of everything and corrupt elections were entirely predictable.

By Justin Katz | January 15, 2022 |

Two ingredients for a crucial point producing deeper understanding are present in a RealClear Politics commentary by Phill Kline, but he doesn’t quite draw them together. The first set of ingredients consists of seven items his organization, the Amistad Project, has found through litigation related to the 2020 election.  Basically, they are the familiar points…

A water drop and ripples

Forcing health insurers to cover at-home tests is just plain foolish.

By Justin Katz | January 14, 2022 |

Sorry, but I don’t see how this, from Janine Weisman, isn’t a display of the need for greater education in economics: Good to know: Starting tomorrow, health insurers must pay for your at-home #COVID-19 home test kits. All @BCBSRI plans except Medicare fully cover the home test kits without a prescription, and each person on…