by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. The Professor and the Madman is Simon Winchester’s 1998 account of the world’s most impressive dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary (the OED). Winchester details its origins and development, focusing on its chief editor (Professor James Murray) and one of its chief contributors who was a “madman” (Dr. William Minor). Mel Gibson bought the movie rights immediately and it was released last month with Gibson playing the part of Murray and Sean…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. The year is 1943. America has entered World War II in full force and Germany is on the defensive. In the minds of many, the war was all but won. But what would we do with the victory? “In The Year of our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis,” Alan Jacobs describes the work of five prominent Christian thinkers: Jacques Maritain, Simone Weil, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis and…

A CHART BY the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in a June 18 editorial confuses Indiana’s gun-crime statistics. The editorial, “Threat of Inaction: Weekend Shootings Drive Home Urgency,” attempts to support the gun-control position of past Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke, formerly director of the Brady Center/Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C., now at Indiana University. “Failure to debate and discuss [gun-control] proposals that have been suggested means that those candidates and officials…

by Leo Morris My reaction might not have been typical. I saw that photo of employees turning their backs on Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and did not immediately decry the insolent rudeness of federal bureaucrats. I felt sorry for them. I was thinking about cats. Many people – dog owners, typically – incorrectly assume that when cats turn their backs to their owners, they are proclaiming their independence with a show of aloof indifference. But…

OK, ERIC HOLCOMB is not my type of governor for a dozen reasons, none of which is particularly fair or kind. My criticism, therefore, can be dismissed as heckling. That said, and absent serious statewide media, someone must point out how out of touch this man is. Does he have any clue what working-class Hoosierdom cares about? I submit for your review an example to the negative. It is rare to find a government program…

by David Penticuff The nonchalance public officials in Indiana show practical democracy and the public’s right to know is perhaps only rivaled by the indifference of the public itself. That is how a parasitic bumbledom thrives. It’s just too much trouble to keep everyone honest and expose how public treasure is spent for personal gain. Even if we did, would the plight of the community workforce be any different? Hard to say since, as our…

“One of the vehicles crashed into a telephone pole in the 3400 block of Wells Street and two suspects fled into the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo. Parts of the zoo were evacuated as police apprehended two of the suspects.” — June 14, 2019, WANE TV “A man was shot to death in the Walmart parking lot on Coldwater Road (the retail center of the city) as the sun shone and customers looked on.” — June…

by Leo Morris It pains me to confess this, but I am an ultracrepidarian. You might not want to hear it, but there’s a good chance you are one as well. The word describes people who “express opinions on matters outside the scope of their knowledge or expertise.” It comes from the Latin for “beyond the sandal or shoe,” adapted from the longer “‘the cobbler should not judge beyond his shoe.” That, according to Pliny…

Since 2004, about 1,800 newspapers or 20 percent of the total have folded or merged, while in the last decade 32,000 of the industry’s employees have lost their jobs. — The Washington Times, June 12, 2019 YOU WOULD THINK it would be the kind of story journalists would fight to get. It has it all — Main Street crony capitalists, venal out-of-state investors, legal manipulations, compliant if not compromised local officials. And it is sitting…

by Leo Morris Perhaps it’s time we stop obsessing so much over fake news and worry a little more about fake reviews. It’s not that fake news isn’t a problem. It’s a big one. But constantly complaining about the fake variety elevates the “real” news to a lofty position it probably hasn’t deserved in a long time. The fourth-estate ideal, of the press as an honest watchdog of government and a fair and impartial chronicler…