Written

A water drop and ripples

McKee’s absolution shows it’s time to disband the Ethics Commission.

By Justin Katz | February 5, 2024 |

This is how appeals to the Ethics Commission often end, these days: From personal experience, I can testify that the Ethics Commission combines the gradual accretion of ethical allowances with the possibility that the commission will completely disregard its precedence to suit its preferences of the moment.  Thus, it tends toward increasing permissiveness with a…

A water drop and ripples

We really need mature leadership in RI, and I wish Neronha were offering it.

By Justin Katz | January 29, 2024 |

Look, I generally disagree with Attorney General Peter Neronha’s politics, but I could put that aside if I thought he were coming to conclusions reasonably.  Unfortunately: I’m certainly not going to defend predatory investment firms, but read the article.  Steward Health Care was already dying.  The story is of an equity firm finding a way…

A water drop and ripples

How many people even know it’s a question why the Brown student was shot?

By Justin Katz | January 29, 2024 |

I warned, when John DePetro and I discussed it some weeks ago, that we shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that the Brown University student shot in Vermont was the victim of anti-Palestinian sentiment.  Now, fully aware how polarized we are, I wouldn’t assert that everybody should take Daniel Greenfield’s FrontPageMag article as proof to the contrary,…

A visual representative of bureaucracy blocks access to a highway

Johnston’s unreachable neighborhood illustrates the problem with insider-ocracy.

By Justin Katz | January 28, 2024 |

Johnston’s challenge gaining access to a neighborhood during emergencies exposes several problems of RI’s way of doing things.

A dense conformist neighborhood on the water

A word on housing.

By Justin Katz | January 24, 2024 |

Amidst all the other happenings in Rhode Islanders’ lives, it’s worth a moment to consider that we’ve reached the point that the General Assembly is delving into such levels of micromanagement as housing setbacks and in-law apartments in local zoning.  That’s a sign that we’re doing things wrong. In the mania of the day (or…

A water drop and ripples

Step lightly toward the bright future of AI medicine.

By Justin Katz | January 17, 2024 |

Such information as this, tweeted by Gregory Conley, is important to keep within your awareness: Such exploration is valuable, but we need strong personal and cultural safeguards against abuse.  Earlier this week, the Dall-E 3 AI (via ChatGPT) I use for many of the images on this site refused to add the Confederate flag on…

A water drop and ripples

Here’s a good thread on the peculiar tactics of progressives.

By Justin Katz | January 17, 2024 |

Over the course of several tweets, John Hayward provides an explanation of why the Left uses tactics that seem sure to bother people rather than win them over, starting here: In brief, these are the shock troops so their slightly more socially legitimate allies can promise to make the disruptions go away for a political…

Toy General Lee car drives up a book open to be a ramp

The Confederate Flag and Irony

By Justin Katz | January 17, 2024 |

Reactionary responses to Nikki Haley’s comments about the Confederate flag show the irony of progressive ideology.

A water drop and ripples

If the mainstream doesn’t know about it, it must not exist.

By Justin Katz | January 16, 2024 |

I earmarked this Boston Globe article, which John DePetro and I discussed last week, for one additional point related to this: “A great scoop can come from anywhere,” said Brian Stelter, a media reporter who previously hosted CNN’s “Reliable Sources” and was a fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. “Right wing media historically has talked about…

A water drop and ripples

The goal is to rewrite our history and unmoor us from it.

By Justin Katz | January 16, 2024 |

Fortunately, this trial balloon has already been deflated, but do not doubt for a moment that the horizon is full of others like it: They (the bureaucrats, progressives, and, sadly, Democrats) believe a rootless country will be easier to subdue and control with permanent power.  I think they’re wrong, but they’ll destroy the country in…