Written

A water drop and ripples

The progressive version of community always needs villains.

By Justin Katz | July 5, 2024 |

I don’t want to make too much of it, but something seems off to me about Bill Bartholomew’s crusade against Providence businesses’ commandeering parking spaces to use for use in their valet parking service.  (I assume that means they’re the spaces right in front of the businesses, allowing cars to pull in and then be…

A water drop and ripples

What’s wrong with APRA for profit?

By Justin Katz | July 5, 2024 |

Democrat Speaker of the House Joseph Shekarchi made an interesting statement in passing on a recent episode of WPRI’s Newsmakers.  The spectacle of the state’s top political official instructing a journalist about how to lobby is worth noting, but this is the particular comment I mean, immediately after the speaker referenced the Access to Public Records Act…

Abe Greenwald explains how the radical Left is somehow getting along with reactionary jihadists.

By Justin Katz | July 4, 2024 |

The explanation is worth a read in full: Maybe you’re not convinced. Perhaps you’re inclined to agree with former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who tweeted in May, “Hamas has nothing in common at all with liberal or progressive values.” If you think he has a point, look more closely at those protesting in…

A water drop and ripples

The origin of inflation matters.

By Justin Katz | July 3, 2024 |

This tweet reminds us, incidentally, that it makes a difference where inflation enters the economy, particularly in whom it benefits: If inflation results from an increase in the monetary supply, there’s more money floating around for the same goods and services, and the benefit tilts from the top down (starting with investor types), and effect is…

A purple-haired doctor with blood on her shirt

RI politicians shouldn’t be able to stroll past protecting the butchers of children.

By Justin Katz | July 3, 2024 |

Rhode Island’s governor and Democrat legislators are willing to trample the rights and bodies of children in order to protect medical butchers from facing consequences for their actions.

A water drop and ripples

The problem was the day before yesterday

By Justin Katz | July 3, 2024 |

I’ve been mystified by young(er) adults’ absolute panic about “climate change” in the face of actual experience and the extended timelines of real problems, if they were real.  Then I recently watched The Day After Tomorrow for the first time, and I wondered how huge an impact that movie (and the myriad lesser copies that have…

A water drop and ripples

“Moderates” are wrong to slip from responsibility by poxing both parties.

By Justin Katz | July 2, 2024 |

I appreciate Ken Block’s intellect and civic engagement, but his political commentary leaves much to be desired.  Consider this, from the end of a long recent tweet: I cannot imagine either of these candidates effectively dealing with a crisis, commanding the situation room, keeping the complexities of a crisis fully in their heads, ready to…

A water drop and ripples

We have to think more rationally about taxes.

By Justin Katz | July 2, 2024 |

Because progressives have driven conversations about taxes for much of the last century, our thinking is all askew.  Characteristic of their approach is to focus on who is giving and receiving the money. This isn’t surprising, because like Karl Marx in their personal life, they’re obsessed with other people giving them money, but it generates the…

A water drop and ripples

We can put to bed any lingering doubt that “hate speech” restrictions are about creating a subjective end-run around freedom of speech.

By Justin Katz | July 1, 2024 |

Maybe some Millennials are too young to remember, but the ability of government school students to wear whatever t-shirts they wanted was once a major theme in the mainstream media.  These days, we’re learning that it’s highly dependent on the message of the shirt: In 2023, the seventh grader at John T. Nichols Middle School…

A water drop and ripples

Pride crosswalks are the establishment of religion we should worry about.

By Justin Katz | July 1, 2024 |

Jordan Peterson has this right, but the darkness of the fact needs to be emphasized: We’ve been seeing teens charged with felonies for riding over these sections of road disrespectfully, even as Hamas supporters get away with defacing statues.  It’s obvious we’re being demanded to treat these symbols with reverence, as if they’re the state religion,…