Blue v. Red

Man jogging on a treadmill while on cell phone threatened by snake

When did life-optimizers become snowflakes?

By Justin Katz | May 16, 2024 |

A self-improvement celebrity’s partisan trigger warning provides a warning about the extent to which we’ve lost our civic heritage.

A water drop and ripples

I’ve lived under a wide variety of partisan combinations in government at the state and federal levels.

By Justin Katz | April 30, 2024 |

With that perspective, I’d suggest that America works better when voters put the adults in charge but then laugh at them through media and entertainment.  Once, adults could be of either party, but they became increasingly of the Republican variety.  Unfortunately, voters’ frustration with the inability to return to adult policies is loosening that rule,…

A water drop and ripples

Western tradition already has the answer to the attempts to undermine it.

By Justin Katz | April 30, 2024 |

That’s why, although I agree with Jordan, here, I think he’s a step away from the key point: We must reframe. A libertarian lean is correct, but valorizing success won’t work. The impulse to identify with the oppressed has to be changed to wanting to help people, to make THEM successful. It’s the principle at…

A water drop and ripples

Why are the key questions of politics so easy to ignore?

By Justin Katz | April 29, 2024 |

This exchange between CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr has made the rounds and received its share of commentary: To my mind, the most telling part is when Collins looks for a comparison among conservatives to progressive bureaucratic government impositions and points to a local library debate. What Barr should have…

A water drop and ripples

Democrats are moving deeper into the dark side of triangulation.

By Justin Katz | April 29, 2024 |

The concept of triangulation used to mean politicians looked at the political landscape and positioned themselves on the field to advance their policy goals.  The worsening development, facilitated by mass media and social media, is the attempt to manipulate the landscape.  That’s where we start to think of the Overton Window, shifting the range of…

A water drop and ripples

Not long ago, objecting to the Trump cases would have been uncontroversial.

By Justin Katz | April 22, 2024 |

As he’s done for a long time, Mark Steyn zeros in on the truth with panache: There are times, however, when it is necessary not to conceal it. This week’s Trump Trial of the Week is the bazillionth attempt by the ruling party to nail the leader of the opposition on …something, anything, whatever’s to…

A water drop and ripples

Always see yourself as acting, not reacting.

By Justin Katz | April 15, 2024 |

A point I made yesterday in an essay on Dust in the Light was that we communicate with God in where we choose to direct our attention, and one of the ways in which we make that choice is by how we act.  Taking an action is like moving your position on the landscape; your observations…

Artwork of a worker transforming into a boss

Increased productivity is a communal good.

By Justin Katz | April 12, 2024 |

Somehow, despite ample reason for civic disappointment, I find I’m becoming less cynical as I get older, not more.  Even now, when I come across reasoning like that expressed by young progressive Democrat Representative David Morales, I can’t help but feel hope that we can salvage reason from the flames of ideology: Here’s the reality:…

A healthcare panel gives thumbs down.

Politics This Week: Under Their Thumb

By Justin Katz | April 1, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz warn of growing government control and corruption.

A water drop and ripples

Maybe mental illness isn’t the cause of progressivism.

By Justin Katz | March 14, 2024 |

This is an interesting bit of data, and Frank Fleming’s response is humorous, but a question of causation and another bit of information are relevant: The bit of information that’s missing is the percentage of each group who’s asked a healthcare provider to diagnose a mental health condition. No doubt, psychologists and psychiatrists could find something…