(Repost of Sept. 1, 2011, white paper) By Tyler Watts, Ph.D. Indiana public policies, from state tax rates and environmental regulations to local noise and smoking ordinances, have tremendous implications for the viability of particular business firms, as well as the general “business climate” of the state. Businessmen and economists generally understand that a state’s laws and regulations are an important determinant of the relative advantages of doing business there. The Indiana Chamber of Commerce, which aims to “cultivate…

Editors: The author, an adjunct scholar of the foundation and a native of the Midwest, recently moved to Florida, where he teaches social entrepreneurship and conflict resolution. (790 words). by Sam Staley, Ph.D. I have avoided talking about the Confederate battle-flag debate because I figured I had nothing to add, and it was a lose-lose situation. Then I read this article from USA Today reporting on their poll showing that Americans are “split” on what…

by Andy Horning This Fourth of July it is clear that our society’s failings are not the Constitution’s fault. It’s our collective political ignorance and sloth that allow politicians to slip the chains and jump the fence of constitutional rule of law. Despite what you’ve been told, the constitutions, state and federal, are still short and simple enough. You don’t need a decoder ring or a 10-dollar-a-minute lawyer murmuring incantations over your shoulder to understand…

“Sometimes you just have to look reality in the eye and deny it.” — Garrison Keillor by Craig Ladwig (Fort Wayne) — Lutherans are known as apolitical even here where Germanfest is just another summer weekend. So the news was greeted with surprise — or an emotion as close to that as Lutherans allow — when one group’s president issued a politically edged press statement. Until that moment, you see, some in this fiercely independent…

For the use of the membership only. by Tom Huston In a recent column, David Brooks of the New York Times  called for the name of Robert E. Lee to be stripped from schools, highways, bridges and other monuments and memorials except for those, such as Washington and Lee University, which are clearly related to his post-war activity. The idea is that by erasing historic memory and reimagining the past, you affirm your commitment to…

by Andrea Neal Though his name is not nearly as familiar as John Deere’s, James Oliver of South Bend revolutionized agriculture with his invention of a new type of plow. An 1878 advertisement for the Oliver Chilled Plow boasted: “Buy no other. Will last for years, and no blacksmith’s bill to pay. It is the only guaranteed chilled plow made.” That wasn’t hyperbole. At its height, Oliver’s company produced 300 plows a day, exporting them…

by Bruce Ippel, M.D. Melting ice caps: Many drown. Massive droughts: Many more starve. Climate change: Ruins everything for those who are left. These types of thoughts are behind the worldwide drumbeat of our news media. Yikes! If it’s anything like they predicted for Y2K, we might as well all spend an hour in a closed garage with the car running. Or not. As a physician, I’ve learned to be a cynical optimist. That means…

For the use of the membership only (675 words) THE RECORD-BREAKING two-and-a-half-hour Cadillac Barbie IN Pride Parade last week was a great success. Aside from the visual interest, it signaled that a new culture had arrived, the old one having been redefined to a point of irrelevance. Progress, you say, down with bigotry! OK, but let’s reflect in passing. The event was given above-the-fold coverage by the “Equality Matters” reporter of the Indianapolis Star, which…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. We saw the face of evil in Charleston, South Carolina. A 21- year-old man, Dylann Roof, took the lives of nine innocent people who had welcomed him into their house of worship. If any crime calls for the death sentence, this is it. We saw the same face two years ago in Boston when a 26-year-old man and his 19-year-old brother planted a bomb at a marathon race killing three and…

For the use of the membership only. THE NUMBER ONE ITEM on the agenda of the Indiana Democratic Party these days is gay rights. It is all that party leaders talk about, and it is all that the party’s principal organ – the Indianapolis Star – writes about. There are a number of reasons why the gay agenda has top priority among Hoosier Democrats: 1) The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community is a key…