The Media: Prescience Matters “A journalist needs a disciplined reverence for the facts, because the temptations of story-telling are strong and seductive.” — Lance Morrow in “The Noise of Typewriters” A SCHOLAR OF OUR FOUNDATION is an expert at framing questions, instructions and context for Artificial Intelligence (AI). He and others are training a new profession, Prompt Engineer, manned by a brave new generation of young men and women learning how to design, refine and optimize the…

by Mark Franke I have a fondness for counter-factual history, perhaps too much so. This category of fiction begins with a what if question about some critical point in history and then hypothesizes a chain of events to follow. Some end up with a radically different ending while others argue that history would have worked itself back to the same end point. This type of thinking can be an interesting diversion or simply a recreational…

Pimping for Data Centers “The idea is to get back to a society where people can live together as neighbors and not just as wage slaves or bureaucratic cogs.” — G.K. Chesterton LOOK, I LIKE PROGRESS as much as the next guy but sacrificing local autonomy is stupid. There are nine distinct regions of Indiana, each with its own charm and value; the Legislature would be wise — economically and politically — to preserve them, not…

Our ‘Somali Mindset’ WHY, REALLY, do the impoverished want to come to America? Is it the promises embedded in our Declaration of Independence? Perhaps a legal system based on 800 years of Common Law and respect for private property? Liberty with responsibility? That would make us proud. But why is it, to pick an example from the news, that 75 percent of Somalis in the U.S. are unemployed? And should we be glad that an estimated 10,000 Haitians…

‘Home’ Needs Some Definition COMMUNITY TRUST is breaking down as crime becomes more wanton, the roads are disintegrating in sub-zero temperatures and the city budget is not prioritized. So what is our mayor doing? Bringing casino gambling to town and establishing government grocery stores, to repeat complaints of mine, plus some new diversions. Among the last is a seminar this weekend to allay the fears of anyone in our city in violation of U.S. immigration law. The mayor…

by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. The Trump-Powell feud over the interest rate is Shakespearean. Who knew that monetary policy could be so riveting? At this point, Kevin Warsh has emerged from a list of pretenders as President Trump’s nominee for the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve (Fed), replacing Jerome Powell.   The big question on everyone’s mind: If Warsh is appointed, does this mean that Trump will now have a direct hand in setting…

Return of the 1-Room Schoolhouse SCHOOL CHOICE, an issue championed by the Indiana Policy Review Foundation since its beginning, has taken root. Thirty-four states including Indiana have adopted some form of school choice, with 1.5 million students participating. Now another of the foundation’s early recommendations, micro schools, is gaining attention as well — a high-tech version of the one-room schoolhouse. Micro schools were the dream of the late Ron Reinking, an adjunct scholar of the foundation and a Fort…

by Mark Franke It seems that every time gas prices jump up at the pump, politicians are quick to find media microphones to blame Big Oil or the Arabs or the previous administration. That’s what we do best these days — find someone to blame. It saves mental energy otherwise wasted on research and analysis. Let me provide a personal example. A close friend used to complain constantly that Fort Wayne had the highest gas…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. For people who are uncertain about whether the mayor of New York is indeed a socialist, and a Marxist at that, it is worth reading his inaugural address in light of the “measures” Marx proposed at the end of The Communist Manifesto’s section II and other scattered ideas. Of course, parallels exist from the first sentence of Mayor Mamdani’s address: “To those who insist that the era of big government is…

Beau Bayh to the Rescue ONE SUPPOSES now that Beau Bayh has drawn on his vast criminal forensic experience to explicate the Minneapolis chaos for us — “Participation in a protest and lawful firearm possession are not justification for the use of deadly force” — there’s not much left to say.  Before we leave the subject, though, I would like to raise a point made by our friend Stephen Moore of Unleash Prosperity. Moore, possibly anticipating a decision by Gov.…