Category: Indiana Writers Group

by Mark Franke This is an excellent opportunity for the Republicans in Congress to assume the role of the loyal opposition, as that term is understood in Britain and elsewhere in the Anglosphere. The term was first invoked by a minority Member of Parliament in 1826 to establish that opposition to government legislation did not…

WHAT IF A CABINET-LEVEL APPOINTEE in the Indiana governor’s office made “radical, homophobic and racially divisive” comments when she was in her late 20s?  In today’s media environment, there would be serious inquiries, right? Well, not apparently if that person fills a historic post as the state’s first “chief equity, inclusion and opportunity officer.” All of that…

by Leo Morris Man’s best friends are becoming more and more helpful. They have been trained to sniff out bombs and drugs and lost hikers and long-buried bodies. Now, there are dogs that can smell COVID-19. When they detect the virus, they simply sit down by the carrier, and that person can then be whisked…

As a service to the membership, we will provide regular updates on the concern expressed yesterday by MSNBC host Joy Reid that if aliens ever attacked earth it might be because humans had failed to fight climate change. We realize there is a lot to unpack there but that’s it, that’s the news alert.

Let’s see if you can remember when Gov. Eric Holcomb said this: “With the radical left now in control of Washington, your governor is your last line of defense, As governor, I will defend your right to be free of socialism and tyranny. Your Second Amendment right to keep your family safe and your freedom…

by Leo Morris I noticed in a couple of recent news reports that Indiana has been made safe again for the bald eagle, which is a simple piece of good news worth celebrating in this era riven by an angry partisan divide and political revenge disguised as a plea for unity. The eagle, a bird…

HERE IS A PROPOSAL to help bring us back together after this week’s bizarre inauguration. It involves restraint and precision in the use of our words, something that George Orwell encouraged in his “Politics and the English Language.” “Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists —…

by Leo Morris There will come a day of reckoning. No matter how often that is said about the reckless abandon with which Washington keeps adding to the national debt, officials keep printing and borrowing so they can keep spending money they do not have. And they will keep doing it until Stein’s Law kicks…

INDIANA SEN. TODD YOUNG in a widely circulated column this week unpacked some Lincolnesque but tired bromides on his way to addressing the calamity that is America. We are not enemies but friends and fellow Americans, he instructs. That and we should do less shouting and more listening. The senator’s little homily, though, hid a personal concern, one to be examined in a moment. First,…

by Leo Morris I participated in a PBS TV show last week – three General Assembly watchers and a host doing our annual legislative preview session – and it was a little unsettling. Because of the pandemic, only two participants were in-studio – properly distanced, of course – and two of us chimed in remotely…