Category: Indiana Writers Group

We Have Questions I’M NOT PROUD OF IT but I sent another of my ineffectual, never-to-see-the-light-of-day screeds to the local newspaper, this one asking why coverage of the city council couldn’t include at least a thumbnail account of the dissenting votes. What set me off was a glowing account of the council’s passage without debate of an…

The Secret to Reelection: Money and Malleability  SOME HOLD HOPE that the Indiana Republican Party in its supermajority or even democracy in general is going to get us back on course. That hope doesn’t appear to float. Transparency USA tells us that the top three Indiana GOP Senate fundraisers all won reelection outspending their opponents in both the…

by Mark Franke “O, Wisdom, proceeding from the mouth of the Most High, pervading and permeating all creation, mightily ordering all things. Come, and teach us the way of prudence.” For liturgically minded Christians the Great O Antiphons mark the most contemplative part of Advent. Meant to be chanted one each day beginning on Dec. 17,…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. This year is the 100th anniversary of the term “stereotype” in its modern sense. The term was coined in the late-19th century to describe printing plates and the setting of “type” to produce printed materials. Back in the day, paper and ink were pressed against a plate to produce sheets for newspaper, books,…

by Mark Franke Most people probably think of the ideological spectrum as a straight line, running left to right or right to left depending on one’s perspective. This places the extremes at the edges, furthest from each other. The middle holds the moderates, those who are considered the most reasonable and open-minded, if one identifies…

by Leo Morris Poor Eric Doden. The Fort Wayne businessman has been hugely successful in large part because of his ability to maneuver through bureaucratic government mazes. He calculated that his close ties with the ruling class, an early announcement and a campaign war chest approaching $3 million might give him an easy run as…

Knock, Knock . . I READ A LOT OF HEADLINES. To save time, I’ve learned to sort them into three stacks. The one is announcing that someone has devised a way to help absolutely everybody absolutely equally. The other is that the Biden administration, which has promised to destroy the nation for reasons that only future historians…

by Leo Morris No sentence should strike more fear into the hearts of Hoosier parents than this one, variations of which have appeared in numerous recent news stories: “Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, said a top priority for House Republicans is to ‘re-invent’ high school, so that students can work and use job-based opportunities to receive…

New Boss Just Like the Old Boss THE INDIANA SENATE leadership announced new committee chairmen recently for the 2023 session. We thought it would be interesting to compare the outgoing chairmen with the incoming chairmen. A handy way to do that is to compare ratings of the individual legislators on IndianaScorecard.org, an independent web site that measures…

Civil Rights Rethought For the use of the membership only. HOLD ON TO YOUR HAT, we’re going to talk about race. What would you think if your city council started all over on civil rights, dismantled its “equity” mechanisms and agencies, erased all references from the municipal code and operations? Before you answer, know that we…