Written

A water drop and ripples

Miserable RICAS scores won’t mean any response from Rhode Island.

By Justin Katz | October 18, 2023 |

Dan McGowan notes that new standardized test scores are out for Rhode Island public schools, and they’re not good. Elsewhere, he finds a silver lining in the fact that English-language learners do better at English and are nearly caught up in math, but it seems like an indication of how poorly the schools are doing…

A water drop and ripples

This is too little too late from the likes of Jha.

By Justin Katz | October 16, 2023 |

Nonetheless, it’s worth noting this mild corrective from Brown University’s Dr. Ashish Jha on Newsmakers, as summarized in a recent “Nesi’s Notes” column: “I think we all in public health could have done a better job of communicating with more humility about what we knew and didn’t know. There was a desire by some people to…

A water drop and ripples

Education is the place to start trying to fix what’s wrong in RI and America.

By Justin Katz | October 13, 2023 |

As people newly look up from their lives to wonder about the craziness with which we’re surrounded — from collegiate support for Hamas to economic ignorance to scientific illiteracy to an inability to grapple with logic — they should turn their gaze toward our schools. Consider this recent Boston Globe column from Dan McGowan: The state’s most…

A water drop and ripples

The impulse to invert the report of 40 babies with their heads cut off story is shocking.

By Justin Katz | October 11, 2023 |

True enough that it’s important to be skeptical of all reports, particularly the most horrific, at a time like this, but still… there is an air around some of those insisting that the story is not yet verified that implies if this story isn’t true, the whole atrocity is not that bad.  Psychologically, they seem…

A water drop and ripples

If strange or silent responses from progressives about Hamas’s atrocities seem odd…

By Justin Katz | October 10, 2023 |

… the explanation might be more than silent discomfort with a faction of their tribe’s doing something nakedly evil.  To progressives, this sort of thing must happen and is expected.  Maybe they find it lamentable (or maybe not), but they see it as inevitable on the path to their vision of justice. Tom Holland argues,…

Monkey statues in see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil poses

Journalists find distrust of mail ballots inexplicable because they don’t want it explained.

By Justin Katz | October 10, 2023 |

Whether it’s deliberate manipulation or just a sloppy resort to groupthink, Nancy Lavin’s recent article on Rhode Island Current is a good illustration of how issues can be framed to support the preferences of the powerful. Note this section: Proponents tout these expansions as ways to improve voter turnout and access while easing the pressure…

A girl resembling Anne Frank sitting and covering her face

You could argue including the hidden parts of Anne Frank’s diary is a secondary violation.

By Justin Katz | October 9, 2023 |

A recent teapot tempest in the Censorship Wars (at least the skirmishes over keeping arguably pornographic and sex-promoting work out of elementary school libraries) has to do with parents’ objecting to a graphic novel version of Ann Frank’s diary.  You can dig multiple layers into the story, though, for a more-full picture. The first layer,…

A crowd argues and riots in a large, dark hall

Let’s give real thought to why American government is in such a state.

By Justin Katz | October 8, 2023 |

As Americans on both sides of the political aisle highlight how poorly situated our federal government is in a time of international volatility (albeit for different reasons), we can’t look only at events of the past few months.  We also can’t assume we know the full answer fully from our own perspectives, so this is…

A water drop and ripples

What’s the outrage standard we should apply to video of Biden kicking his dog?

By Justin Katz | October 7, 2023 |

I ask because that looks pretty clearly to be what happens in the video attached to this tweet: Given some online interactions, I’m not even sure Democrat partisans are psychologically capable of seeing the kick — as if it’s one of those optical illusions that some people just don’t process. I suppose the best-case scenario…

A young figure looks up the stairs in a shadowy building

Don’t allow the trans movement to undermine good parenting.

By Justin Katz | October 6, 2023 |

As public figures establish new norms in keeping with the fashionable ideology of the trans movement, parents have to recall their primary responsibility, even if it means the discomfort of suggesting other parents are wrong.