The Outstater: Don’t Put Your Hopes in this Session
“They say you can’t study Kabbalah until you are at least 40 years old. You have to have experienced at least one generation making the same mistakes as the previous one.” — The playwright David Mamet by Craig Ladwig Tim George, program director at WBAT radio in Marion, asked a most serious question on the Read the full article…

Op-Ed: Let’s Elect Mayors Who Understand Property Rights
by Jason Arp In politics, the clock until the next election never stops ticking. While most folks are still licking their wounds or quietly celebrating the recent election results, the political class has already begun the next campaign. Of particular interest is the scramble to name the frontrunner in my city’s mayoral race. And since Read the full article…

Neal: Educators in an Era of ‘Fake’ News
by Andrea Neal The Internet Revolution has changed the way I teach my Eighth Grade history students. In addition to learning about presidents and politics, students today need intensive instruction in avoiding plagiarism, verifying sources and spotting fake news. Since I left journalism and became a teacher 14 years ago, I have constantly battled the Read the full article…

The Outstater: Passenger Rail and the Mencken Axiom
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” — H.L. Mencken by Craig Read the full article…

Half Past the Month: ‘False’ News
“Newspaper editors separate the wheat from the chaff and print the chaff.” — Adlai Stevensen by Craig Ladwig You won’t read any of this in your morning newspaper but Indiana is hurting for news, “false” or otherwise. The Associated Press Bureau here is minimally staffed. The capital city newspaper, once the state’s arbiter of sound Read the full article…

Backgrounder: Capitalism or Cronyism?
by John Pickerill As I’m writing this, the stock market is breaking above 19,900. That’s a 1,000-point increase since Donald Trump was elected. So this must be proof that people believe Trump will generate a healthy economy, right? After all, if people are willing to buy stock in American companies it must mean they’re confident Read the full article…

