Category: Indiana Writers Group

“THE WHOLE MODERN WORLD has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives,” C.K. Chesterton famously began. “The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes; the business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.” Holding Chesterton’s thought close, know that the mantle of education reformer is wearing thin for the Indiana…

By Stephen M. King, Ph.D. The Cato Institute, a Washington D.C. libertarian policy think tank, recently released its “2014 Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors.” The results are positive for Indiana. The goal of the biennial report is to grade and comment on all 50 governors’ “fiscal policies from a limited-government perspective.” Only four…

by Andrea Neal George Washington Julian did not think much of compromise. In the decades before the Civil War, he was Indiana’s most radical abolitionist. Although he is little known by Hoosiers today, Julian made a lasting mark on the national scene. “He was always the ready champion of the principle of fundamental democracy —…

By Bruce Ippel, M.D. I have a small business — a service business — but it’s not like your accountant or plumber or lawyer. I’m a doc, a family doc. And I can save your life or at least make it longer and more pleasant. I’ve been in this business a long time. I see…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. One of my favorite professors from graduate-school days passed away on Election Day. Gordon Tullock was a founding member of the Public Choice School of Economics. Public Choice uses economic tools, models and ways of thinking to analyze the decisions of voters, legislators and bureaucrats. Voters, for example, should be well…

POLITICAL UNITY is perhaps the most impossible of human goals. There is no combination of policies on the table in front of us that would achieve it. But the Devil, as a new GOP leadership will soon discover, loves an impossible task. He will have his snare and compromises ready. A veteran political observer, William…

by Andrea Neal “To the end that justice be established, public order maintained, and liberty perpetuated; we, the people of the state of Indiana, grateful to Almighty God for the free exercise of the right to choose our own form of government, do ordain this constitution.” — Preamble, Indiana Constitution Legal scholars say you can…

For the use of the membership only. “I’m drowning, and you’re describing the water,” says the troubled Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) in exasperation at some well-meant but useless advice. — “As Good as It Gets,” directed by James L. Brooks. AS MEMBERS OF A GREAT SOCIETY led by the smartest people, we have been humbled…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. The other day, my wife and I received postcards from the local election board informing us of a change in the location of our polling place. We also received a card informing a previous resident of our house of the change — a resident who is no longer in the state.…

By Tyler Watts, Ph.D. I recently heard a politician promise that he would protect Social Security, arguing that this vaunted program is an inviolable “contract” between the government and seniors. Hah. Now, this politician was just doing what comes naturally; that is, saying anything to appease a particular voting bloc, in this case the powerful…