Civil Liberties

A donkey dressed as a king gives a speech

Politics This Week: Languishing in a Partisan State

By Justin Katz | January 21, 2025 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz check in on the state of RI as the national landscape changes.

A water drop and ripples

A belated word on Russia-funded conservative commentators.

By Justin Katz | October 1, 2024 |

The news cycle flows by so quickly, lately, that political actors and activists are learning it’s sometimes best to just keep your head down and let the controversy of the day join the rest of the noise tomorrow.  Nonetheless, I think there’s something worth noting in the now-passed story about Russia funding some conservative commentators.…

A water drop and ripples

Our national police force is starting to remind me of the Rhode Island mob.

By Justin Katz | September 3, 2024 |

Mark Steyn raises the peculiarity of the mysterious deaths of two businessmen who actually managed to beat the U.S. Department of Justice’s process-is-the-punishment racket.  Apparently, the statistics suggest that the DOJ way overcharges its targets in the hopes of pushing for a settlement:  “95 percent of cases are won by prosecutors, 90 percent of those…

A water drop and ripples

You can tell we’ve inadequately educated our population about fascism…

By Justin Katz | August 27, 2024 |

… by the discomfiting fascist, Orwellian tone of this campaign from supposed good-government-group Common Cause RI:   It’s bad enough on its face, but it’s worse when you break down the manipulative message. First, Common Cause wants you to believe that you can instantly identify “disinformation about voting.” Next, the organization asserts that you have…

A water drop and ripples

We can put to bed any lingering doubt that “hate speech” restrictions are about creating a subjective end-run around freedom of speech.

By Justin Katz | July 1, 2024 |

Maybe some Millennials are too young to remember, but the ability of government school students to wear whatever t-shirts they wanted was once a major theme in the mainstream media.  These days, we’re learning that it’s highly dependent on the message of the shirt: In 2023, the seventh grader at John T. Nichols Middle School…

A crowd mocks a mismatched boy while not noticing people getting away with things

Politics This Week: What People Don’t Care About

By Justin Katz | June 11, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz put a spotlight on the aspects of controversies that nobody seems to notice.

A glowing child emerges in the midst of a crowd of crazed monsters

Citizens need stronger self-defense rights against activist assault (for civilizational defense).

By Justin Katz | May 30, 2024 |

We’re getting strong reminders, lately, that a free society with mutual respect for rights is vulnerable to those who have no such respect and don’t much like freedom.  Among the most-stark examples I’ve seen is this incident, in which pro-Hamas Columbia activists encircle and bodily remove a student who objected to their destroying a campus…

A water drop and ripples

Forced integration is not the way to solve segregated outcomes.

By Justin Katz | May 28, 2024 |

The problem at the heart of well-meaning progressive policies is that they tend to ignore second-order effects.  They want outcome X, so they push policy U and ignore that side-effects V and W also happen, and consequences Y and Z might not prove desirable.  Housing mandates, for example, require on their face that we cede…

A water drop and ripples

These are the choices will-to-power policies will drive us toward.

By Justin Katz | May 2, 2024 |

“Had the girl not broken the law by purchasing and using pepper spray, she likely would have been raped — or worse.” Sure, the story Stephen Green is sharing comes from Denmark, and sure, one big advantage we have in the United States is the Second Amendment.  But policies change and, increasingly, our rights can…

Girls jump class in a 1960s gym class

Title IX Becoming a Victim of Its Own Success

By Donna J. Cook | April 19, 2024 |

Title IX has given generations of American girls and young women athletic opportunities on an equal footing, but that success has made it vulnerable to the latest social revolution.