Political Thought

Diverse men praying

Wokeness can be resisted, but preparation is needed.

By Justin Katz | May 20, 2021 |

In a recent New York Post column, Instapundit Glenn Reynolds offers three strategies for resisting the woke mob: Lesson one: Don’t panic — and don’t give in. … Never apologize, don’t act afraid, and, to borrow a phrase from Obama, “punch back twice as hard.” Call the mob out for what it is: a bunch of bad…

RI State House over caution tape

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Progressives Without Answers

By Justin Katz | May 19, 2021 |

For this week’s conversation, John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss Rhode Island progressives’ inability to come up with solutions for problems that their policies have created.

URI Professor Donna Hughes

Donna Hughes’s advocacy against “sex work” and trafficking comes not from prudery, but experience.

By Justin Katz | May 18, 2021 |

Professor Hughes, of the University of Rhode Island, has worked with many women who have been harmed by the “industry,” which she has found to be irredeemably exploitative. That point comes through clearly in her appearance on Jay Nordlinger’s Q&A podcast. The episode is worth a listen, particularly for libertarians and progressives who don’t understand what anybody…

Mother touching baby's hand

If your life can be upended for saying “men cannot get pregnant,” they can enforce any religious dogma at all.

By Justin Katz | May 18, 2021 |

We’ve been seeing more and more stories like this, which Matt Margolis posted on PJ Media: Francisco José Contreras, a politician in Spain, was temporarily suspended from Twitter last week after declaring that “a man cannot get pregnant” because he has “no uterus or eggs,” in response to an article he shared about a transgender “male”…

38 Special

RI at the leading edge of civil rights… when stopped from violating them.

By Justin Katz | May 18, 2021 |

You’d think it’d be a bigger deal locally that the Ocean State (Cranston, specifically) is at the center of a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision that police violated a resident’s Fourth Amendment rights by seizing his guns without a warrant.  Here’s the ruling on this obvious case.  Credit has to go to the ACLU for…

Air Force One

Biden’s Rhode Island landing was a subtle reminder of something that’s off, here.

By Justin Katz | May 17, 2021 |

The local media was all atwitter, last week, over the expectation that Air Force One was going to land at Rhode Island’s T.F. Green Airport.  “Rhode Island is becoming a hot spot for White House dignitaries” proclaimed Ted Nesi on WPRI. But despite the various tweets of “I just heard the plane!,” Joe Biden was…

Tiara Mack talks with John DePetro

John DePetro’s interview with Sen. Tiara Mack on Providence violence should be a media example.

By Justin Katz | May 17, 2021 |

DePetro caught up with Mack on the streets of Providence while covering the recent spate of shootings there, and it’s a must-watch five minutes.  DePetro was respectful, but really pressed Mack on her beliefs about what’s going on in Providence and the effects of her own public statements. In a nutshell, to Tiara Mack, violence…

Image of COVID as planet Earth

Getting the Vaccine to Be a Revolutionary

By Justin Katz | May 14, 2021 |

Everything about the COVID response and vaccination pressure has been wrong, but that doesn’t mean being vaccinated isn’t the least risky option, including for those who feel the urgency to stop the erosions of our rights.

A floor chart spanning the floor and walls

Unelected boards provide an opportunity to teachable moment for honest progressives.

By Justin Katz | May 13, 2021 |

For a moment of cross-ideological sympathy, I was ecstatic to see progressive journalist Steve Ahlquist publish an essay with the title, “How does the public hold unelected boards, councils, commissions and departments accountable?,” a couple months ago on Uprise RI: From a political point of view, these unelected boards are a great insulator from the…

A printing machine

To defang fake news, promote economic freedom and free speech.

By Justin Katz | May 13, 2021 |

The common wisdom, of course, is that fake news is a byproduct of freedom, but it doesn’t work out that way, according to a Heritage study by Anthony Kim. Our findings reiterate the importance of economic freedom as the fundamental need for enhancing public trust. Pre-existing economic freedom perceptions are the building blocks for stability…