Written

A water drop and ripples

And we await the official statements about hate not being tolerated…

By Justin Katz | February 20, 2023 |

Let’s see how different the reaction is to this incident compared with vandalism targeting other religious groups.

Governor McKee and a relevant screenshot

Governor McKee Refuses to Explain Highly Selective Enforcement Against Dr. Skoly

By Monique Chartier | February 16, 2023 |

Late last month, Dr. Stephen Skoly’s legal team, New Civil Liberties Alliance, filed a response to the State of Rhode Island’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit he had filed for “arbitrarily and unlawfully” ending his surgical practice and for violating his First Amendment rights.

Potions and skull

Junk science in service of trans ideology is an assault on truth.

By Justin Katz | February 10, 2023 |

One of the ways in which our society has gotten to its current predicament is a combined corruption of and overreliance on science.  Contrary to those who treat it as a source of existential truth, science is merely a process for answering questions.  My preferred formulation is that it’s a way of coming to agreement…

Racial conflict fist as a green light

History suggests that now is the time to start speaking up in Rhode Island.

By Justin Katz | February 8, 2023 |

A broad review of history suggests that the time to stop a dangerous social or political trend is when the changes being implemented are relatively minor and the concerns are arguably still hypothetical.  At that stage, the general value of cooperation can overcome the preferences of this or that faction.  As the factions disregard the…

Surveillance cameras on a pole

Providence’s mugging visitors is a dumb (but typical) thing to do.

By Justin Katz | February 7, 2023 |

Although the bit has probably been recycled many times, the easiest version to find is a scene from L.A. Story, with Steve Martin.  A street ATM has two lines:  On the right are people waiting to take out cash; on the left are people waiting for their turn to mug them.  As Martin walks away with his…

A water drop and ripples

Journalists face a real risk to digging into Antifa.

By Justin Katz | January 30, 2023 |

Andy Ngo continues to do the work mainstream journalists won’t digging into the ranks of Antifa: They present themselves as rebels against the system, fighting to preserve a piece of local woodland. Yet many of the terrorist suspects arrested and charged over occupying government property and the violent attack in downtown Atlanta on Saturday are…

A message in a bottle at the beach

Rhode Island Republicans need a new policy strategy.

By Justin Katz | January 30, 2023 |

Two stories in the news recently have been nagging at me in combination over the past week.  The first is the Republican response to Democrat Governor Dan McKee’s State of the State address, as delivered by Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz.  Here’s the part that resonates particularly oddly: Where McKee called for cutting…

A behind the back cash bribe

Rhode Island’s privileged class may begin getting more than half off its property taxes.

By Justin Katz | January 27, 2023 |

Once upon a time, the common wisdom was that government work couldn’t compete with the private sector for pay but made up for it in benefits and job security.  Whether that was ever true, I don’t know, but it has long been the case that government workers in Rhode Island get the best of all…

A hooded man in shadows

Goyette is a problem for mainstream Democrats.

By Justin Katz | January 18, 2023 |

Or rather, he would be if anybody were reporting on the story.  As Republican state representative Brian Newberry noted a week ago on Twitter, Jordan Goyette’s story is not one that anybody in Rhode Island’s mainstream is keen to cover: If you picture the news media as a filtering machine, Goyette falls easily through one…

A teacher reads to children

Maybe we should try for a more-empathetic political atmosphere.

By Justin Katz | January 13, 2023 |

Somewhere or other in my social media flow, I recently came across the outrage of a moment, wherein a director of communications for a school district jumped in to halt a Dr. Seuss reading that had prompted discussion of America’s racial past: The assistant director of communications for Olentangy Local School District abruptly stopped the…