Justin Katz

A water drop and ripples

Geena Pham isn’t really disproving Morgan’s concerns. [Language warning]

By Justin Katz | December 28, 2021 |

Geena Pham is a progressive candidate for state senate and a public school teacher.  Here she is tweeting about Patricia Morgan’s controversial comment: Delete your fucking Twitter, Patricia. You’re a disgrace to Rhode Island. Honestly, a world in which a public school teacher running for political office tweets such a thing is exactly a world in…

Multiracial hands on a table

Watch the progressive mainstream media pile on Morgan for the narrative in real time.

By Justin Katz | December 28, 2021 |

Republican state representative from West Warwick Patricia Morgan has gone viral with the following tweet: I had a black friend. I liked her and I think she liked me, too. But now she is hostile and unpleasant. I am sure I didn’t do anything to her, except be white. Is that what teachers and our…

A water drop and ripples

Maybe deceptive media is secretly anti-vax?

By Justin Katz | December 28, 2021 |

I’m with Ed Driscoll in finding it political that CBS would edit out its reporter’s complaints about the harm of COVID restrictions on kids: Longtime CBS reporter and chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford went viral on Sunday and Monday on social media following comments, meant to air on Sunday’s Face the Nation, that slammed our…

Hospital beds

RI’s Problem Isn’t COVID as an Illness, but as a Test Result.

By Justin Katz | December 28, 2021 |

NPR caters to the narrative that the unvaccinated are destroying hospitals while the occupant of the White House does his best “to help,” but even a superficial investigation changes the picture fundamentally.

2021 written in beach sand

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Closing out 2021

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2021 |

John and Justin wrap up 2021 with discussion of how COVID politics have been going in RI and some predictions for Ocean State politics in the year to come.

A water drop and ripples

Stop and think about the economics of non-profits.

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2021 |

Articles like this from the New York Times are a fascinating view into a worldview where the frame is just shifted (off, I’d say) by a little bit.  (Search the link in Google to read the article if it’s blocked when you click.) In a Northern California school district, the superintendent is taking shifts as a lunchroom…

Cato's 2021 freedom map

Rhode Island’s kicking freedom out the door.

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2021 |

The Cato Institute’s Freedom in the 50 States index has Rhode Island slipping to 41st most free (i.e., 10th least free) for 2021, with the following ranks in its three major subcategories: Fiscal, #27 Personal, #33 Regulatory, #43 Keep in mind, of course, that this is freedom as defined by the libertarian Cato Institute, and…

A water drop and ripples

Eliminating risk is risky business.

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2021 |

I see Glenn Reynolds shares my concerns about charging forward with cures for every nuisance illness. On the one hand, a universal flu vaccine would be great. On the other, say it works for several decades and then a strain of flu evades it. Wouldn’t it be an ugly “virgin field” epidemic at that point?…

A water drop and ripples

McKee is doing exactly what King George did.

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2021 |

This complaint in the Declaration of Independence came to mind while reading Democrat Governor Dan McKee’s executive order on the calculation of unemployment insurance fees for businesses: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. Here’s the relevant text from McKee’s order: References to…

Christmas lights reflected in a puddle

Overcoming Christmas Blandness

By Justin Katz | December 25, 2021 |

At different times in my life, I’ve found my ability to focus on brainwork hindered by various things.  Sometimes, it’s been videogames.  Sometimes, binge-watching television shows.  Sometimes, social media.  Even simplistic games like solitaire, mahjong, 2048, or sudoku. Recently, my chief distraction has been contemplating the construction of reality, especially around the point at which…