Written

Hospital beds

The hospital merger controversy is our second warning.

By Justin Katz | February 18, 2022 |

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha isn’t wrong to be concerned about a lack of competition in healthcare in our state, but our selective acceptance of market forces is going to start killing Rhode Islanders: Attorney General Peter Neronha on Thursday rejected the proposed merger of Rhode Island’s two largest hospital groups and joined a…

RIPEC state revenue and spending infographic

RIPEC’s recommendation to slow spending is based on obvious facts.

By Justin Katz | February 17, 2022 |

Perhaps the key detail to be found in the report and interactive tools that the Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council (RIPEC) just released is to be found at the top of its associated infographic.  As shown in the featured image of this post, although Rhode Island is the 18th state in the country for per…

A water drop and ripples

How is global warming notch by notch?

By Justin Katz | February 17, 2022 |

A government activist’s comment related to a Rhode Island–specific report on climate change brought something to mind: The planet “is warming, it has been warming. The last two decades have been the warmest in the history of climate records,” Kenneth Kunkel said. This assertion made me wonder what the update was on the 15-year pause…

A water drop and ripples

Keep an eye on the meta-strategies of political opponents.

By Justin Katz | February 17, 2022 |

Tacia MC Truss raises an excellent point, here: Pro tip… when ever a troll won’t leave your feed alone, know that the rest of the antifa scumbags are tweeting and they want to keep you occupied with distractions. See how this works? The point can be expanded.  If the best use of your time at…

Adraien Van De Venne's Allegory of Poverty

It’s amazing how a small shift in perspective can flip the poverty narrative completely around.

By Justin Katz | February 17, 2022 |

Policy decisions can obviously increase or decrease the amount of poverty in a society.  Socialism, for example, is absolutely devastating and has repeatedly proven to result in misery and starvation.  That said, the following pair of tweets from Atlantic writer Clint Smith gets reality precisely backwards, and in a way that is important for everybody…

A hoodie on a beaten school bus

A healthy state would force money-grubbing special interests out of schools.

By Justin Katz | February 16, 2022 |

You know you’re dealing with greedy special interests most concerned with maintaining their own position when you read something like this, emphasis added: The plan has the support of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, the Rhode Island School Superintendents’ Association, the National Education Association Rhode Island and the Hassenfeld Institute for…

A water drop and ripples

If it’s not open and honest, it’s not science.

By Justin Katz | February 16, 2022 |

It’s bad enough when public health authorities encourage doctors and scientists to shape their messages to manipulate the public, but it’s somehow worse when they’re suppressing good news.  That’s what South African Doctor Angelique Coetzee reports having experienced as part of the team that identified Omicron: Speaking to Germany’s Welt newspaper, Dr. Angelique Coetzee, who is…

A water drop and ripples

Watch out for pro-government extremists.

By Justin Katz | February 16, 2022 |

I miss the days when Thaddeus McCotter was a U.S. Congressman.  Here, in a too-true-to-be-the-parody-he-intends essay he warns about the growing power of pro-government extremists: Though alarming and depressing, we can no longer avoid recognizing that America’s greatest domestic threat is from pro-government extremists. We rue that pro-government extremists caused immense destruction during their less-than-“peaceful…

Child being grabbed by monsters

Of course groomers see parents as the enemy, at Teen Vogue or in schools.

By Justin Katz | February 16, 2022 |

As in a horror story in which some trusted institution becomes possessed by an evil force, something has changed in youth culture and our schools. Youth media has long (always?) fostered doubt about whether parents could really understand what their children were going through (as opposed to glossy magazines, Hollywood, and pop stars).  As the evil…

RI House Redistricting Plan D

Redistricting can be a tool of inheritance, at least in one district.

By Justin Katz | February 15, 2022 |

General Assembly politics are a mystery to most Rhode Islanders.  They don’t really understand why anybody wants the job, figuring that some people are just into that sort of thing.  Yes, some people are really, really into it. John G. Edwards, the Fourth, has been the Democrat representative from district 70 since 2008, having previously…