Written

A water drop and ripples

Get it while it’s mild!

By Justin Katz | December 16, 2021 |

I’m more or less with Stephen Green on this question: I really want to catch the omicron variant, and the sooner the better. … The best part? That Israeli study showing that a combination of natural immunity plus vaccination is the best protection against some nastier variant. I already got the shots. Now science is…

A water drop and ripples

Incorrect truck tolls are another source of inconvenience.

By Justin Katz | December 16, 2021 |

When people in government are pushing for new programs, especially programs to extract money from the economy, it’s crucial to remember all the little unforeseen events — inconveniences, errors, and so on.  The fact that nothing ever works as perfectly in real life as it does on paper is why voters and taxpayers ought always…

Writing on the wall

Fear of school shootings feels a lot like fear of Omicron.

By Justin Katz | December 16, 2021 |

The Omicron count has begun in Rhode Island!  One: The case was detected in a woman in her 20s who lives in Providence County. The individual recently returned to Rhode Island from New York and had previously completed their primary vaccination series. She did not receive a booster shot, according to the health department. Two:…

A water drop and ripples

You really need to witness the absurdity of men in women’s sports.

By Justin Katz | December 15, 2021 |

Understandably the text and numbers provided in news stories about the record-setting run of a male swimmer identifying as a female in Ivy League competitions are kind of abstract to most people.  Matt Walsh provides video of Princeton’s trans superstar lapping the competition: Just to show you how absurd this is. Here’s the trans swimmer…

A child being vaccinated

You’re not alone in vaccine hesitancy for young children.

By Justin Katz | December 15, 2021 |

Overly frightened people with a casual attitude about others’ right to disagree with them may be talking as if you’re unleashing death bombs on your community if you don’t subject your children to COVID-19 vaccines, but nationally, at least, you’re not alone: Around 29% of parents with kids ages 5 to 11 said their kid…

A water drop and ripples

The bias against traditional values is deep and pervasive.

By Justin Katz | December 15, 2021 |

Those who think that a Christian flag should be unique in being disallowed from public flagpoles may not be bigots: Over the past 12 years there have been 284 flags—from LGBTQ rainbow flags, a Turkish flag with the Islamic star, to Communist China flags—raised on a public flagpole owned by the city of Boston. But…

A water drop and ripples

I’m scared for our future.

By Justin Katz | December 15, 2021 |

Welcome to modern America (or Rhode Island, at least).  An unspecified “threatening message” in a girls’ bathroom at Barrington High School has cautious administrators increasing the presence of police until the schools dismiss for Christmas break. In turn, panicked teens are getting themselves on television by petitioning for distance learning because they are (some say)…

A hoodie on a beaten school bus

When they come for school bonds, ask where all the money’s been going.

By Justin Katz | December 15, 2021 |

Our system is set up to ensure that infrastructure, like school buildings, is left to rot.  That dynamic is inevitable when (1) budgeting and negotiations are tilted so heavily in favor of labor and (2) taxpayers can be bullied or forced into spending the additional money to repair or replace buildings when they become bad…

The ACI in Cranston

Prison statistics probably aren’t a stronghold for progressives.

By Justin Katz | December 14, 2021 |

Somewhere in the wilds of Rhode Island progressive social media in the past couple months, I came across the Rhode Island Department of Corrections’ “Fiscal Year 2020 Annual Population Report.” I think the context in which it was deployed like a statistical weapon was to support the claim that inmates at the state Adult Correctional…

A water drop and ripples

Omicron should inspire humility among experts.

By Justin Katz | December 14, 2021 |

Hopefully, an unanticipated silver lining to our society’s COVID-response overkill will be a return among the masses to healthy skepticism about experts.  We all operate by some unarticulated calculation — let’s call it an assessment of action function — then one variable should, yes, be the best available calculation of probability, but that variable has…