Author: Craig Ladwig

by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. Philosopher and economist, Adam Smith, in The Theory of Moral Sentiment written in 1759, wrote about the dangers to societies characterized by large-scale anger, resentment and a desire for revenge. He outlines a theory of justice and punishment that surprisingly was not primarily grounded in reducing crime.   Smith describes certain characteristics of human…

Writing for ‘Clicks’ OUR BOOK REVIEWER Mark Franke has written one of his customarily insightful essays, this one on “the end of reading.” I commend it to your attention here.  Franke cites a disturbing statistic: less than 50 percent of adults read a single book in 2022. Although I have no statistics, let me offer a corollary…

by Mark Franke “The End of Reading Is Here” was the title of an essay link I received in my email from The Atlantic magazine. I would have expected this to be written by a whiny old curmudgeon like me or a librarian worried about her job or even by a retired language arts teacher like my…

America: An Idea or Just a Place? THERE IS A DEBATE swirling around the candidacy of Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP candidate for governor in neighboring Ohio. It is whether America is an idea or just a place. We can resolve it right here. “America isn’t a place, it’s an idea.” Vivek Ramaswamy, July 1, 2021 First,…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. When I taught business ethics at Butler (1993-2018), Butler was consistently over 60 percent female, once hitting a 65+ percent female population. Inasmuch as any applied ethics course must deal with “real world” data, the data were given to students when we addressed affirmative action policies. That triggered several of my male students to visit my…

Our Government Grocery Store WE DON’T UNDERSTAND the concern over New York City’s government grocery stores. It is said they are economically impossible, that is, you cannot price groceries at a 30 percent discount and somehow manage the 1-3 percent profit margins that characterize the industry. But we have our own government grocery store in…

Indiana’s Law School ‘Quotas’ CALL US SILLY but we had assumed that Indiana applicants, academic credentials being equal, would have priority at the tax-supported Maurer School of Law in Bloomington. We were wrong. Some time ago we asked an adjunct scholar of the foundation, at the time a member of the law school’s admissions committee, to review the school’s policies…

by Mark Franke If you want to get depressed or even a tad frightened, read “The Coming Storm: Power, Conflicts, and Warnings from History” (Henry Holt and Company 2026, 219 pages plus notes, $21 hardcover at Amazon) by Yale professor Odd Arne Westad. The book is an analysis of great power politics in the 21st century…

by Dan Eichenberger M.D. In 2025, the U.S. federal government is projected to spend around $7 trillion — roughly 23 percent of the nation’s entire economic output. More than half of that spending goes to mandatory “entitlement” programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other benefits. Social Security alone accounts for about 22 percent of…

by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. For low-income households, putting food on the table is the highest priority-and rightly so. Yet electricity, water, heating and telephone bills strongly increase the stress levels of both low- and middle-income households. This month, approximately 41,500 households received a letter this from the South Bend Mayor describing the City’s Utility…