Blue v. Red

The Assumptions Underlying Harrop’s Insanity

By Justin Katz | August 5, 2011 |

One would think that members of an editorial staff would offer each other the service of gently warning their coworkers when they near the deep end. Or perhaps Froma Harrop is firmly convinced of the approaching death of newspapers and is effectively auditioning for a part in the far-left blind heat machine. Granted, her tirade…

A Frothing Projo Editorial and a Much Needed Policy Reversal

By Justin Katz | July 29, 2011 |

“House GOP vs. America” — that’s quite a headline for an unsigned editorial about the debt ceiling battle. The text below it is the sort of summary of economic assumptions and narrow conclusions about specific issues that is therefore impossible to address without revisiting every particular issue and arguing line by line. For example, writes…

The Social Structure of Socialists

By Justin Katz | May 25, 2011 |

Glenn Reynolds highlights an article in the New York Post that hits some familiar notes: For more than 15 years, New York state has led the country in domestic outmigration: For every American who comes here, roughly two depart for other states. This outmigration slowed briefly following the onset of the Great Recession. But a…

Grading by Ideology

By Justin Katz | May 23, 2011 |

An interesting tidbit from over the weekend is that college professors appear to grade differently based on political affiliation: We study grading outcomes associated with professors in an elite university in the United States who were identified — using voter registration records from the county where the university is located — as either Republicans or…

Fun with Froma

By Justin Katz | May 20, 2011 |

Longtime readers know that I’ve never been much of a Froma Harrop fan. People who know her assure me that she’s reasonable, but she starts from (what one might call) the flawed premises of the ruling class. Still, when she focused on Rhode Island, at least she articulated a distinct perspective on matters of local…

Anatomy of a Controversy

By Justin Katz | April 1, 2011 |

With over 250 comments, it’d take quite a bit of catching up, and the horrible policy of letting readers delete a comment when enough of them flag it as “inappropriate” makes the conversation difficult to follow, because comments (including Gordon’s) suddenly disappear, but the response thread to this story on the Tiverton-LittleCompton Patch is a…

Party Games in “Non-Partisan” Tiverton

By Justin Katz | January 13, 2011 |

Back in 2007, I argued against non-partisan elections in Tiverton. Those who disagreed took a very community-oriented view: ARGUING AGAINST asking Tiverton voters whether they’d like to return to partisan elections after one cycle of nonpartisanism, Charter Review Commission member Frank “Richard” Joslin made two points that have the ring of Rhode Islandry: First, that…

Green and Blue v. Red

By Justin Katz | October 9, 2010 |

An op-ed in the New York Post, by Sen. James Inhofe (R, OK) points to a couple of topics worth discussion: One insidious force keeping unemployment high is regulatory uncertainty: Companies that could hire (or re-hire), don’t — because they’re worried about what new restrictions will be coming down from Washington. Congress bears much of…

The Goal Is to Silence, Not to Oppose

By Justin Katz | October 8, 2010 |

The opposition went to the immigration law enforcement rally, last Friday, dressed humorously to distract from their underlying intent, which is to prevent the public from hearing or understanding an argument with which they disagree: Suddenly, demonstrators in polyester clown suits filed through security and entered the State House rotunda, carrying signs that said, “Clown…

Only One Side Counts

By Justin Katz | October 3, 2010 |

I’ve been meaning to note Bob Kerr’s continued function as the elder statesman who says what the younger folks must strive to keep to themselves at the Providence Journal. Here’s the crux of his Wednesday column: You might remember protest. It’s an honored American tradition. It’s how this whole thing got started. People speak out…