by Mark Franke Journalist Bill Bishop coined the term “the Big Sort” to describe an increasing propensity among Americans to sort themselves into clusters of like-minded groups. One would think this is only natural as people tend to gravitate toward others with similar interests, lifestyles and affinities. Take housing. To a large extent we tend to buy houses in neighborhoods that attract us, not least due to housing costs reflecting our income levels. We buy…

Please click HERE to update your membership and register for an advance copy of the spring journal.  Your donation supports the quarterly journal, policy seminars and our weekly backgrounders and columns.  Coming in the Spring Indiana Policy Review Arthur Russell Quilhot | ‘The Quilhot Bid’ (Morris)Cover Essay | Scoring the Indiana Legislature (Arp)Special Report | Saturation CRT (Abbott)Morris | A Truth-in-Legislation Act / Who Owns the History? / Zero Tolerance for the Word Police / A generation Bereft of ‘Snow Days’ / Picking…

by Leo Morris The Indiana Senate recently demonstrated what seemed to be a prime example of legislative thuggery in action. A bill was before senators that would have, among other things, changed the burden of proof from parents to schools in certain special education disputes. They not only defeated the measure but bullied its sponsor, Republican Dennis Kruse of Auburn, into changing his vote so that the bill could go down by a rare unanimous…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. Dollar Tree was in the news last month, announcing that its standard price will increase from a $1 to $1.25. It’s a sign of the times that “dollar” stores (including Family Dollar and Dollar General) are moving beyond a mere dollar to higher prices. This isn’t a new phenomenon. Have you heard of “five-and-dime” stores? They were the “dollar stores” of their day, with common prices of a nickel and a dime. Woolworth’s…

AFTER ALL THESE YEARS covering politicians it is hard to admit they still terrify me.  This week it was particularly so, beginning with Joe Biden’s blunt assertion that we shouldn’t worry about nuclear war. Is there something he isn’t sharing? Do we have a secret weapon that will render all of the mad men in the world harmless?  He didn’t say. But if Biden, who has misjudged so much, says we shouldn’t worry about nuclear war,…

Chicago Politics, Indiana Style WHAT KIND OF CITY would you have if venal operators could be rewarded with municipal contracts relative to their political contributions — aside of course from the obvious moral degradation? Let me help answer that. You would have a city that functions to serve arbitrary goals, ones that conform not to citizen priorities but to the scheming of individual campaign contributors. That means construction of oversized parking garages, half-empty convention centers, superfluous river walks, grandiose mass transit,…

by Leo Morris The Kokomo Tribune has published a fascinating story about teachers-in-training at Indiana State University and their nearly universal disapproval of proposed state legislation that would limit how race and other topics are treated in the classroom. Some of their comments are quite revealing. “If we attempt to teach history without controversy, then we will not be able to teach at all,” said one prospective teacher who wanted to impart the sins of Andrew…

Cronyism: The Republican Malady HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED what’s wrong with the Indiana Republican Party? No, I don’t mean blithely welcoming large groups of random Afghans that we learn may have included security threats now in hiding. And no, I don’t mean sending the head of the state police to the Statehouse to override the Second Amendment. My complaint concerns economics, what you would think would be a GOP strong point. It is epitomized in a bill this…

by Mark Franke “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” (Matthew 5:11 ESV) He did warn us. Christians have been persecuted throughout history but always elsewhere. So why here? And why now? This is America, a nation founded on unalienable rights being granted by a Creator most everyone in 1776 assumed was the Christian God. Growing up in the 1950s,…

by Leo Morris I have a new phrase to add to your vocabulary and self-help guide: the Quilhot bid. It comes from Russ Quilhot, who hosted the weekly afternoon card games a group of us old codgers participated in. I played bridge with him Wednesday before last. On Thursday he died. It was one of those abrupt and unwelcome events that encourage us to put everything else in perspective. I am tempted to say he…