Blue v. Red

It’s Settled, Then

By Justin Katz | June 15, 2008 |

Peter Schweizer offers a very interesting read on studies finding that conservatives are happier, friendlier, more charitable, and more likely to hug their children, while liberals are… ahem… otherwise: Much of the desire to distribute wealth and higher taxation is motivated by envy – the desire to take more from someone else – and bitterness.…

Economic Savvy When It Really Matters

By Justin Katz | June 12, 2008 |

Yes, it does seem that leftward politicos do seem to have a better grasp economics when they are directly affected by a policy: Feinstein, head of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, was forced to deal with reality. “It’s cratering,” the Washington Post quoted Feinstein as saying [referring to the government-run Senate dining services].…

Palatable Decline

By Justin Katz | May 26, 2008 |

It’s a small thing, to be sure, but a comment that Ian Donnis made to his own recent post on economic development in Rhode Island points to an increasingly sore spot: … hopefully the effort to promote “green jobs,” which I’ve written about previously in the Phoenix, will also yield dividends. It is not my…

Engaged Citizens and In-Group Activists

By Justin Katz | May 1, 2008 |

As commenter Will noted in response to Marc’s post, Matt Jerzyk thought it worth pointing out something that surely we all noticed (indeed, on which we three mused when the photographer told us that he’d be shooting the RI Future gang the following night): that the Phoenix photos buck left/right stereotypes. In that quality, however,…

Don’t Pie Me, Bro!

By Justin Katz | April 23, 2008 |

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman joins the list of pundits to face the confectionary firing squad: Friedman ducked, and was left with only minor streams of the sugary green goo on his black pants and turtleneck. He stood in bewilderment and mild disgust as the young man and woman bolted from the stage and…

Poison in the Blogosphere and an Ailing Canary in Rhode Island

By Justin Katz | April 14, 2008 |

Every couple of years, it seems, a student from Brown will contact me for comment in an article about blogging for the Brown Daily Herald. It’s traditionally been a unifying topic: although we’ve got different emphases, we Rhode Island bloggers will all agree about the value and opportunities that the medium offers, not the least…

The Line Starts on the Left

By Justin Katz | April 7, 2008 |

I have to admit that I’ve been unfair to National Education Association Rhode Island Assistant Director Patrick Crowley. From time to time I’ve wondered whether I’ve played some small role in reducing his undeserved credibility, but now I see that my efforts toward that goal are hardly measurable in comparison to his own. I’m sure…

A Further Thought

By Justin Katz | March 29, 2008 |

But let’s not lose sight of a principle that looms pretty large in conservative philosophy: that social pressure is often the appropriate means of guiding individuals toward behavior that is healthy for society. This concept puts conservatives at the obvious political disadvantage of giving liberals cover to declare that they judge nothing but judgement and…

The Damage of Cheap Political Points

By Justin Katz | March 28, 2008 |

Providence Journal photographer Kathy Borchers (and her editor) lobbed a softball out there to accompany Steve Peoples’s predictable coverage of the other night’s State House events (PDF), and Matt Jerzyk hammered it into the ground: In one corner we have MEN IN SUITS who are longtime advocates for lowering taxes on the richest millionaires and…

Another Winter of Discontent

By Justin Katz | March 24, 2008 |

Perchance I wasn’t alone among readers of Saturday’s Projo opinion pages in recalling Mac’s piece on NRO back in 2004: In fact, the entire Winter Soldiers Investigation was a lie. It was inspired by Mark Lane’s 1970 book entitled Conversations with Americans, which claimed to recount atrocity stories by Vietnam veterans. This book was panned…