Culture

Same-sex married mummies

Only some facts matter when using kids’ TV to indoctrinate them.

By Justin Katz | August 25, 2021 |

Somehow my youngest child discovered the Netflix original cartoon series, Ridley Jones, and wanted to watch it.  Being very wary of any children’s television programs produced within the past two years, I did some research. The premise is that Ridley watches over a museum with her mother and grandmother, and at night the exhibits come to…

A water drop and ripples

Comedy Central’s version of Toby Flenderson Cancels ‘Diversity Day’ from its The Office re-runs

By Marc Comtois | August 25, 2021 |

According to Daily Wire (first discovered by Barstool), Comedy Central doesn’t find a particular episode of the sitcom The Office funny after all. The episode is famous for its politically incorrect storyline which features boss Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) forcing the paper company staff to participate in a racial diversity seminar where he speaks in…

A water drop and ripples

I’ve been listening to Billboard Top 100 playlists from the ’80s and ’90s.

By Justin Katz | August 25, 2021 |

Something really strange happened in 1990.  There are some stand-outs, but mostly, pop/rock music fell off a cliff for a year.

Mother touching baby's hand

The Thomas More Society has entered the lawsuit against Rhode Island’s abortion “codification” statute.

By Justin Katz | August 23, 2021 |

Not so surprisingly, I haven’t seen much news concerning a lawsuit pro-life organizations filed in 2019 against the state’s new law “codifying” abortion into law in case Roe v. Wade is overturned.  There has been a development, however, according to Brian Fraga of the Rhode Island Catholic reports: In its brief, which was submitted to the Supreme…

This UVA saga shows that woke incentives and systems are terrifying.

By Justin Katz | August 17, 2021 |

The story of Morgan Bettinger at the University of Virginia, as Mairead McArdle describes it for the Daily Wire, is terrifying. Driving home on a Friday last summer, before her senior year, McArdle came upon a BLM-related roadblock.  She got out of her car and chatted with “a city dump truck driver who was blocking the…

Statue of Jesus kneeling

Making our lives sacred and meaningful means suffering ceases to be suffering.

By Justin Katz | August 16, 2021 |

I’ve slipped a bit on my plan to have one of these essays on Dust in the Light each week — partly because my time has had to be spent elsewhere, and partly because they take longer to write than a typical post. This weekend, I took up the ideas of sacredness and meaning in life,…

The late repenters in Purgatory

Attacks on merit in education will most harm vulnerable students (like in Providence).

By Justin Katz | August 13, 2021 |

Glenn Reynolds is correct to say that the situation Joel Kotkin described in a recent American Mind essay “might as well be a foreign plot to weaken America.” Of course, it needn’t be that.  Reducing the rigor of American education benefits not only our global adversaries, but also the people and institutions charged with conducting education…

An old, rusty chain

CRT education is preparation to unite us all in chains.

By Justin Katz | August 5, 2021 |

This portion of Ramona Bessinger’s experience with the shift toward critical race theory (CRT) in Providence Public Schools may be the most fundamental to danger the ideology actually represents: What saddened me most was that I would not be teaching the Holocaust any longer. The Holocaust unit included one of the following: either Anne Frank,…

Hasbro building on a red sky

At this point, just assume that every company and organization is out to indoctrinate your children.

By Justin Katz | July 23, 2021 |

In recent years, one worrisome question as political stories have unfolded has been:  Where are the whistleblowers? James O’Keefe has found another one for Project Veritas.  David Johnson is a packaging contractor with Rhode Island–based toy company Hasbro, who is also a Black man, and couldn’t watch the company go down the path of using packaging…

Eugene Delacroix Fanatics of Tangiers

Progressives continue to use “conversion therapy” bans to convert our country into a theocracy.

By Justin Katz | July 15, 2021 |

Back when the Democrats of Rhode Island imposed their radical religion on the people of the Ocean State in 2017 with a “conversion therapy” ban, I pointed out that it didn’t just affect the therapy of children, but adults, as well.  I went on to emphasize exactly how this was the state government imposing a religious…