Blue v. Red

The Look of “Balance” in the New Year

By Justin Katz | January 2, 2009 |

It isn’t my intention, with this post, to gripe about not being included on a list in which we’d be in awkward company, but I do think it worthwhile to point out that Crowley’s “Rhode Island Blog Round Up” probably gives a better sense of the truth than declarations by a man who considers them…

Corporations Are Only People When Barney Wants to Give Them Something

By Justin Katz | December 29, 2008 |

I just came across this bit of economic philosophy from Congressman Barney Frank (D – MA), on 60 Minutes, that contradicts the standard liberal construct (emphasis added): STAHL: But there was never any doubt that Frank himself didn’t want the car companies to go under. What about the idea that, in capitalism, if a company…

On Love and Confidence

By Justin Katz | December 28, 2008 |

Perhaps it’s his lack of children that enables liberal columnist Joel Stein so succinctly to enunciate one of the more damaging failures of philosophy in modern culture: True love is the blind belief that your child is the smartest, cutest, most charming person in the world, one you would gladly die for. The ineluctable consequence…

A Gift to the RI Right

By Justin Katz | December 22, 2008 |

I don’t know what makes Ian think think this news would “irritate” us: “Crowley to succeed Jerzyk at RI’s Future.” There’s even more reason for optimism in the fact that the RI Left doesn’t understand what a gift to Ocean State conservatives this is.

Life as We Know It, or More Incitement to Riot

By Justin Katz | November 16, 2008 |

And now for an opportunity for Northeastern conservatives to nod in a knowing fashion: … just before the election, [14-year-old Illinois student] Catherine consulted with her history teacher, then bravely wore a unique T-shirt to school and recorded the comments of teachers and students in her journal. The T-shirt bore the simple yet quite subversive…

A Tyrannical Mindset

By Justin Katz | November 15, 2008 |

Of course, we can’t tar a social movement with the acts of a few, but at some point, the volume of incidents bespeaks a mindset. One assaulted immigrant may not suffice. One elderly woman mobbed and forced to watch as her cross is stomped may still fall short. I wonder, though, how many vandalized churches…

The Armies of Tolerance

By Justin Katz | November 14, 2008 |

Clearly, this 67-year-old woman was inciting the peaceful crowd to violence. Too bad the police weren’t there to arrest her! (Video of the aftermath, and the original incident from a different angle here.)

What “Moderate” Means…

By Justin Katz | November 1, 2008 |

… would seem to be precisely what skeptics thought it meant when Ken Block launched his party of that name about a year ago — namely, susceptible to pressure and manipulation. At the time, Block wrote an Engaged Citizen post in which he declared: All ridiculous culture war issues aside, the time is right now…

Admitting What Must Be Done

By Justin Katz | October 30, 2008 |

Even just a hint that Governor Carcieri likes the notion of eliminating the income tax, almost as a philosophical matter, is enough to induce the fury of Johnathan Berard (emphasis added): As a taxpayer, I’m mad because the state decided to go more than $33 million dollars over budget, but as a student, I’m absolutely…

On the Happiness of Conservatives

By Justin Katz | October 26, 2008 |

Something has seemed tellingly erroneous about liberals’ declarations of conservatives’ desperateness and their premature schadenfreude related to the presumed outcome of the election. Liberals misapprehend something very basic in the conservative philosophy, which, although it varies in form and degree across the right-wing spectrum, is partly definitive. Those perplexed by the partisan or ideological happiness…