Written

A water drop and ripples

We’re slipping off the tracks with COVID.

By Justin Katz | December 6, 2021 |

We’ve reached the point that an obvious, relatively mild head cold that peters away over a weekend can keep a child out of school for days.  Testing sites in Rhode Island are saying it can take up to 72 hours to get results from COVID tests.  Pharmacies are a day out for appointments, with who-knows-how-long…

A water drop and ripples

Omicron is starting to look like a natural vaccine!

By Justin Katz | December 6, 2021 |

At least that’s how some health professionals are seeing it: Dr. Omar Hamada on Dec. 1 said that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 may provide natural immunity without inducing severe illness, as the symptoms so far resemble more of a “mild, common cold” in South Africa. In an interview with NTD’s “Capitol Report,” the emergency…

Felix Vallotton, Box Seats at the Theater

Trinity Rep Falls Back on the Woke Grift to Bully Reviewer

By Justin Katz | December 6, 2021 |

Trinity Rep’s open letter in response to a mostly positive review of A Christmas Carol in the Providence Journal isn’t just thinned skinned; it’s chillingly fascist.

Statue of Jesus kneeling

They don’t even know that they are Christians.

By Justin Katz | December 5, 2021 |

In the middle of the Sixteenth Century, St. Francis Xavier wrote to his friend, St. Ignatius of Loyola, of his experience ministering to Christians in India: We have visited the villages of the new converts who accepted the Christian religion a few years ago. No Portuguese live here, the country is so utterly barren and…

A water drop and ripples

Why is the Western media always selling a story about the evil of the West?

By Justin Katz | December 4, 2021 |

You’ve probably heard the mainstream media claim that we’re facing the Omicron variant (which may represent the merger of COVID with the common cold) because greedy, racist Westerners were refusing to share their vaccines with Africa.  Drew Holden and Aaron Sibarium suggest in the Washington Free Beacon that this analysis is all wrong: In fact, several…

Blake Filippi's official portrait

Filippi was right to resist the lure of a relatively open campaign space.

By Justin Katz | December 4, 2021 |

Political observers in Rhode Island shouldn’t be surprised by this announcement from Rhode Island House Minority Leader Blake Filippi: Representing the People of Charlestown, Block Island, South Kingstown and Westerly is the best job, one which I hope to continue in the years ahead. I look forward to helping the Republican nominee for Governor, and…

The sun rising or setting

It’s time to check in on our willingness to comply.

By Justin Katz | December 3, 2021 |

When I became a vaccine supporter in the spring, my reasoning involved a balance of risks and of tradeoffs.  Over several posts I won’t dig out of the archive right now, I concluded that the risks of the vaccines were extremely low and that they did improve outcomes versus COVID-19, even though the risks posed…

A water drop and ripples

How about an “unceded” holy territory?

By Justin Katz | December 3, 2021 |

Well, this is another indication of why the United States should exit the United Nations: The United Nations approved a resolution targeting Israel and denying Judaism’s link to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Wednesday in a 129-11 vote. The resolution referred to the Temple Mount exclusively by its Muslim name, al-Haram al-Sharif. The text…

Homeless man "seeking human kindness"

Progressives are never homeless at the State House.

By Justin Katz | December 3, 2021 |

An observer doesn’t have to be cynical to wonder why the Huffington Post published its extensive article warning of the RI Political Co-Op’s division of Ocean State progressives yesterday.  After all, the article was fueled in large part by “a left-wing Rhode Island activist who requested anonymity to protect professional relationships.”  Anonymous sourcing in a case…

A water drop and ripples

Material from Hunter Biden’s laptop references Joe Biden’s dimensia?

By Justin Katz | December 3, 2021 |

Sheesh!  As Stephen Green suggests, getting this sort of information out to the public before an election seems like exactly the sort of thing that justify investing power in a news media: Ablow was close to Hunter and also served as his onetime landlord, the book says. In February 2019, Ablow and Hunter discussed hosting a…