Written

An aerial photograph of the U.S. at night.

High-speed internet is an asset Rhode Island should build on.

By Justin Katz | May 4, 2021 |

Obviously, those of us who choose to live in Rhode Island feel the state has a lot to recommend it, even as we’re perpetually frustrated by its flaws.  While making decisions for the future, we should build on our strengths.  Explicitly noting it as a reason to move to the state, TechRepublic’s N.F. Mendoza reports…

The RI Convention Center

These are the acts of a government that is no longer a representative of the people.

By Justin Katz | May 4, 2021 |

It’s funny how obviously incentives play a role in people’s actions, such that you get the same response to the same incentive even though the issues at hand are completely distinct.  Consider Katherine Gregg’s recent article in the Providence Journal after the attorney general confirmed that the RI Convention Center can no longer hide its payroll…

Aaron Regunberg tweet about free markets

The government is competing for workers, but paying them as service beneficiaries.

By Justin Katz | May 3, 2021 |

Leave it to Ivy League progressive Aaron Regunberg to stick with the far-left line no matter how clueless or heartless it might seem in the tweet shown as the featured image of this post: Just wild how the folks most invested in the Giant Spaghetti Monster idea of an all-knowing free market are complaining that…

A child being vaccinated

Public health and “science” are becoming pure instruments of control.

By Justin Katz | May 3, 2021 |

Most Americans have probably never given it a thought, but it’s common for state governments to offer exemptions, as for religious beliefs, when they skirt the line of individual sovereignty.  Connecticut appears poised to cross that line by wiping away religious exemptions for vaccines: The State Senate passed the repeal of religious exemption for childhood…

RI COVID cases in context of mask mandates

At some point, the masks are going to have to come off.

By Justin Katz | May 3, 2021 |

Dr. Andrew Bostom argues, on behalf of the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, that we’ve reached that point.  Actually, he suggests that it was reached long ago (if we should have imposed a mask mandate at all): … from 2008 through the end of 2020, 12 randomized, controlled trials—the gold standard for judging medical…

A mailbox

Why is Rhode Island so often on “ten worst” lists?

By Justin Katz | May 3, 2021 |

The Foundation for Government Accountability has published a short report titled, “Top 10 Examples of Outrageous Unemployment Fraud in 2020 — And How to Fix It.”  Most of the blurbs concern specific fraud rings or techniques, but Rhode Island’s entry is more general: Ocean State Drowns in Fraud As recently as October 2020, Rhode Island…

Tax man spraypaint

Income tax policy is a good study to understand how politics works.

By Justin Katz | April 30, 2021 |

With the need to rebuild readership of Anchor Rising, the calculation of using Twitter unfortunately changed for me, and I’ve had to return to it to some extent.  The experience has been a useful reminder that the platform is not entirely without benefit. For instance, during Biden’s speech the other night, Biden-sympathetic Brown University PoliSci…

The Tragedy of RIDE’s LEAP Report

By Justin Katz | April 30, 2021 |

A little bit of document sleuthing points to the possibility that the RI Dept. of Education’s Learning, Equity & Accelerated Pathways Task Force buried findings that might really challenge the status quo and improve Ocean State education for our children.

WPRI image of hate sticker suspects

Without a sense of proportion, free expression is easily lost.

By Justin Katz | April 30, 2021 |

Maybe it’s evidence that I’m a creature from another age (if not another dimension), but I find news reports like this one out of Bristol disturbing, although probably not for the reason WPRI’s Bay Gammans thought it newsworthy: Bristol police are asking for the public’s help as they investigate reports of concerning stickers being posted…

Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung

People are noticing that Fenton-Fung has proven a far-left progressive.

By Justin Katz | April 30, 2021 |

The Cranston Herald has published a (shall we say) strongly worded letter by resident Suzanne Downing noting (as I did a few months ago) that Republican state representative Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung is not voting as one would expect a Republican to do: As a resident of District 15 in Cranston I was happy to support Barbara Ann…