Blue v. Red

Psychopaths and Public Debate

By Justin Katz | September 13, 2009 |

The horrible story of senseless killings in Owosso, Michigan, clarifies social dynamics that were the subject of debate after the murder of abortionist George Tiller: Harlan Drake or “Hale” as he is known to friends is now charged with 2 counts of 1st Degree Premeditated Murder for the killings of James “Jim” Pouillon and Mike…

An Inexorable Pull of Echo Chamber Snark?

By Justin Katz | September 10, 2009 |

Putting down his column about the race for attorney general of Rhode Island, I thought about what an improvement the Providence Journal’s Ed Fitzpatrick is over his predecessor. And then he had to go and write a bit of got-a-laugh-at-the-cocktail-party received wisdom like his reaction to the story of parents opting their children out of…

Liberté ou Égalité

By Justin Katz | September 6, 2009 |

It is, unfortunately, behind a subscriber wall, but John O’Sullivan’s recent article about types of revolutions (taking recent unrest in Iran as a starting point) is excellent fodder for Sunday afternoon pondering, while mowing the lawn or whatever you have to do today. In essence, O’Sullivan follows a speech by Italian President Fancesco Cossiga in…

The Thing About Taxation

By Justin Katz | September 1, 2009 |

Oswald Krell is at it, again — proving, this time, that beating a strawman for long enough begins to resemble a pillow fight against one’s self: Low tax states are more violent, have higher rates of teen pregnancy, somewhat higher poverty rates, and lower median incomes. Do low taxes cause these problems? No. Correlation is…

Zigging Left When They Should Zag Right

By Justin Katz | September 1, 2009 |

Not being sufficiently well versed in Japanese politics, I won’t enter the discussion about just how “conservative” the country’s Liberal Democratic Party has been, but the expressed plans of the more-liberal Democratic Party that just won control don’t bode promisingly: Fed up with the [LDP], voters turned overwhelmingly to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan,…

A Warm Anchor Rising Critique Welcome to Brian Hull

By Justin Katz | August 31, 2009 |

We’d like to welcome, of course, Brian Hull to the RI blogscene in his new role as proprietor of RIFuture. I, for one, am hopeful for a return to the collegiality of the Matt Jerzyk years and am determined not to be the cause should that prove unworkable. That said, what better method of offering…

Bob Kerr’s Condescension

By Justin Katz | August 23, 2009 |

Sometimes Bob Kerr is really difficult to take, and I’m beginning to put my finger on the reason. In his Friday column, he characterized Rep. Barney Frank’s quip that conversation with a particular town hall participant would be like “trying to have a conversation with a dining room table” and query as to her planet…

Gut Feeling Confirmed: ACORN Disavows Langevin Event E-Mail

By Monique Chartier | August 19, 2009 |

Following up on Justin’s unease, I conveyed the e-mail in question to the Rhode Island office of ACORN. They responded quickly with the following statement. An e-mail from Rhode Island Young Republicans that supposedly included an e-mail message from ACORN to our members is entirely a hoax and a fabrication. We have seen this pattern…

Just a Gut Feeling

By Justin Katz | August 18, 2009 |

By now, you’ve probably seen somebody or other mentioning this: As you are aware in our prior email, we need your presence at Congressman James Langevin’s Town Hall Meeting at the Warwick police Station 99 Veterans Memorial Drive, Warwick, Rhode Island. We are planning on arriving early at 1:30PM to fill the hall before the…

The Casual Assumption of Correctitude

By Justin Katz | August 17, 2009 |

There are surely practitioners of the stratagem on both political wings, and it’s the sort of ploy into which one can slip from time to time, but it seems to me that it is much more characteristic of liberals to weave rhetorical comforters that allow them to slip opinions through as objective fact. This, from…