Written

Colors in a bubble

Masks and truckers present a study in how the bubble of the Capitol forms.

By Justin Katz | February 10, 2022 |

I suspect they’re wildly overrepresented in the items that Twitter pushes onto my screen, but Rhode Island progressives are really something to behold in their reaction to Democrat Governor Dan McKee’s belated and overly hesitant removal of statewide mask mandates. As I suggested earlier, for many of the recognizable personalities, their rhetoric is probably wholly…

A water drop and ripples

That CDC masking poster is mostly propaganda.

By Justin Katz | February 10, 2022 |

Recently, Rhode Island Twitter has become a display of people who seem deranged with fear about the end of mask mandates.  It’s a curious puzzle. Some of the known progressives are probably responding to the movement’s understanding that keeping people depressed and isolated is in their ideological and political interests, and that surely filters out…

Microphone in front of a curtain

Beware what follows Bob.

By Justin Katz | February 9, 2022 |

Bob Walsh, who has been the executive director of the National Education Association of Rhode Island as long as many of us have been paying attention, or even been present in the state, has announced his impending retirement. Some on the conservative side are understandably happy to hear the news, but I’d caution a bit…

A masked figure shushes silence

Coming to the edge of permissible reality is an unnerving experience.

By Justin Katz | February 9, 2022 |

Is it possible to make it literally impossible for politically incorrect truths to be spoken?

Romeo and Juliet

Once you go deplorable, you’ll know that we’re adorable.

By Justin Katz | February 8, 2022 |

To begin with, let me apologize for the subject line.  Once it occurred to me, I couldn’t let it go. If you’re of a certain age, you may recognize the sexual undertones of the phrase, which I began thinking about after stumbling across a Twitter exchange between apparent progressive Liz Gledhill and known conservative Nicole…

The moon over a weathervane

Dr. Skoly coverage may be another indication that the narrative is changing.

By Justin Katz | February 8, 2022 |

Among the encouraging signs that are beginning to peak out of the COVID chill like early buds in spring is that coverage of Dr. Stephen Skoly’s lawsuit hasn’t been limited to the website of the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, of which he’s chairman, and national conservative sites like The Daily Signal.  The Providence Journal…

A water drop and ripples

An issue so obvious that I agree with Al Sharpton.

By Justin Katz | February 7, 2022 |

Having grown up in the New York City tri-state area, I’ve been aware of Al Sharpton for a long, long time.  This may be the first time I’ve ever been aware of agreeing with him: “… you cannot normalize what they are doing in China. And to go there and act like all is well…

A water drop and ripples

The pizza assignment is an unlabeled example of “pleasure-based sex ed.”

By Justin Katz | February 7, 2022 |

Erika Sanzi shared a post on Parents Defending Education about a school assignment to teach kids about sexual consent.  Working in groups, students design a pizza that their partners will like by communicating with non-verbal cues.  Everybody likes cheese, but not everybody will want olives.  Here’s step number two: “Now mirror these preferences in relation…

A dark net

Social media and COVID are in symbiosis.

By Justin Katz | February 7, 2022 |

Something clicked as I listened to the podcast version of the Megyn Kelly episode embedded from YouTube below. Her primary guest was Tristan Harris, a Silicon Valley player who’s been warning about the manipulative dangers of social media.  He’s taken the Stanford classes on “persuasive technology” along with the tech entrepreneurs and knows how it…

Emily Barger on NowThis

“Youth media” is more concerned with Democrats than with minorities on the Supreme Court.

By Justin Katz | February 4, 2022 |

Accuracy in Media gave me some space to express frustration with the dishonesty of a video from NowThis that attempts to cover for Joe Biden’s pledge to pick the next Supreme Court justice from a narrow demographic: NowThis is lying to its young audience when it claims that “conservatives are freaking out at the idea of a…