‘The Unhoused’: A Sign of the Times GOVERNMENTS ARE GOOD at making warning signs of all sorts — “No Left Turn,” “Cattle Crossing,” “Detour,” “Masks Required” and so forth. We propose hanging one in the Indianapolis mayor’s office. It would read, “Moral Hazard Ahead.” Let me explain. I depend on my Indianapolis Star for the latest harebrained scheme to perfect mankind. It rarely lets me down. Earlier this week I found this headline: “Housing Is Key to Reducing…

by Rep. Jake Teshka You can tell a lot about what a person values by examining how they spend their money. In fact, right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” (Mt. 6:21). By extension, you can tell — or rather you should be able to tell — what society values by examining government expenditures.  As the 2025 budget session of the…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. Pew Research noted that “The rise in gun deaths among children and teens is part of a broader recent increase in firearm deaths among Americans overall.” Indiana may be contributing to the increase. WRTV posted a story on Aug. 19 entitled “IMPD voices concerns after 3 children were shot in Indianapolis Sunday.”  The subtitle stated, “Police and local gun shop owner feel accidental gun shots are completely preventable.” On the same day, the Indianapolis…

by James O’Donnell, M.B.A. “Once upon a time . . . they lived happily ever after.”  We all know those words and likely have happy memories of reading them to our children or maybe recalling hearing them ourselves when we were young. In fairy tales, things work out – “they lived happily ever after.” There are no wars, no genocides. Everybody makes up in the end, and we sleep tight. Not so usually in the real…

by MARK FRANKE Many of the things I read in the national media don’t resonate as true for where I live in northeast Indiana. And that is usually a good thing. Take, for example, a recent CNN report on attitudes children have about playing with other children. Children have been playing with each other since time immemorial with the usual mix of sheer fun and the occasional contretemps that is quickly settled, mostly without the involvement of…

An Unconscious Indiana GOP IF YOU ARE ONLY slightly concerned about the efficacy of Indiana’s Republican officeholders, attend one of their fundraisers. You will be deeply concerned  I’m not talking about their policy proposals, the usual fare of quasi-reforms and adjustments to what would soon return to a status quo ante. What is concerning, existentially concerning, is their unawareness of how desperate the rest of us feel about the direction of our state and nation. For everything is hunky-dory in Indianapolis. The super-majority, bolstered with new conservative voters activated by the…

by James O’Donnell, M.B.A. I’m one of many who will find himself this election season having to hold his nose as I vote for my presidential choice. I think a fair number of Americans may be in the same camp. I’m also one of those who probably thinks too much. Thinks too much about what is important versus, say, what’s urgent or hot or cute. One of the questions I keep asking myself is, how…

Get Ready, Here Comes Oct. 7 LET’S PUT GOV. ERIC HOLCOMB and Indiana’s ruling GOP establishment on notice: It will be on their heads if there are violent incidents on any of the state’s campuses this Monday as the culturally insane among us celebrate the first anniversary of the Hamas slaughter of Israeli families. It will be up to the effete Governor Holcomb — God help us — to bolster the university presidents in the understanding that campus…

Don’t Give Up on the Young I’VE FOUND THE YOUNG OVERRATED. They don’t have much money, they’re always moving around and they invariably lean socialists or worse. Nonetheless, people I respect tell me they are important  — “the future,” don’t you know — so I try to stay open-minded. Now comes news from Canada that young people there are discovering that the world of Justin Trudeau (and by association Kamala Harris) doesn’t work. Michael Bonner, a Canadian writer, makes…

MARK FRANKE When I was taking driver’s training in high school, the teacher in my car always played the local rock ‘n’ roll station on the car’s radio. One song that was popular then was “Silence is Golden” by The Tremeloes. I used to have nightmares about the song, perhaps due to the fact it was playing when the teacher had to hit his special brake to prevent me from gunning it through a red…