Outstater: Veterans Day
Listening to our officeholders, insecure to the point of panic, make their recurrent promises to “fight” for us, I realize that my annual Veteran’s Day column is two months late. The date always slips by me, the holiday being understated to the point of ephemera in my politically correct corner of suburbia. That’s not entirely Read the full article…
Letter: Daniels Response to the State of the Union
Watching Gov. Mitch Daniels last night deliver his response to the State of the Union, the mind jumped ahead to Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012. The hunches of my wife and my optometrist have proved out. Barack Obama has won reelection. How, though, did it happen? In a column written after the South Carolina primary, Pat Read the full article…
Hoosier Jobs: It’s Productivity, Stupid
For immediate release (587 words) Here is an exercise in junior-high math. It takes 100 workers 100 days to make a locomotive. The workers are paid $100 per day. What are the labor costs of the locomotive? Answer: $1 million. Here is a more advanced problem. Suppose another set of workers are paid $200 a Read the full article…
Can We ‘Handle the Truth’ About Cost Overruns?
For immediate release (678 words with optional cuts) “The truth? You can’t handle the truth.” — Jack Nicholson as Marine Col. Nathan Jessup on the witness stand in “A Few Good Men.” Perhaps politicians believe we can’t “handle the truth” about the costs of building and public works projects. They rarely put all the facts Read the full article…
Narcissistic Journalism
We have been looking for something on the front page of our morning newspaper. It is a headline, a story, that is journalism’s equivalent of the archaeology’s “Cambrian explosion” — a point of view that accounts for all points of view. We have dug deep but have come up empty even though our search has Read the full article…
Year-Round University Good for Parents and Taxpayers
For release Jan. 18 and thereafter (670 words) Purdue University’s decision to convert to a year-round trimester system is good for students, good for parents and long-run will be good for taxpayers. The only downside is that it may take 10 years to fully implement. Other state universities should take note. Few taxpayer resources are Read the full article…
