by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. The four-year-old howled when big brother called him, “Little Tiny Stinky Baby.” After being chastised by parents and promising never to do it again, the seven-year-old simply continued taunting little brother by calling him “L.T.S.B.” Big brother, following an awakening through sessions at school and church, confessed to mom that he was acting like a bully and would try to stop. Less inclined to share personal regrets for having bullied,…

INDIANA’S REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR is siding with those who say the state’s shifting definition of “hate” trumps a thousand years of common law. The front office of the Pacers may drop the word “owner” because it supposedly implies slavery. And a city administration sees nothing wrong with using tax money to fund a local “news” magazine that proclaims the mayor’s programs a success. What those three positions have in common is a delusion that individual rights…

by Leo Morris I can barely keep track of all the shaming going on these days. There is fat shaming. And slut shaming. And stay-at-home-mom shaming and LGBTQ shaming and even religion shaming. And we have apparently become so judgmental that as soon as we feel properly chastised about one form of shaming, another one comes around. It’s almost impossible for me to keep up, even when so many others seem aware. There is a…

by Leo Morris Have you ever driven a car without wearing your seatbelt? Shame on you. That makes you just one of the scofflaws, those people who think they can do whatever they want to, regardless of the rules everyone else has agreed to abide by. You deserve whatever punishment you get. Have you ever ridden a motorcycle without wearing a helmet? Bravo for you. That makes you a champion of individual rights, who realizes…

by Leo Morris “Socialism” has become such a loose term, open to such a variety of interpretations, that people can end up arguing past each other, some of us attacking something we incorrectly think the other side is defending. Those of us on the attack tend to be thinking of the formal, classical definition in which the state takes over the means of production, which means we focus on the horrible things that happen when…

by Andrew Horning Orwell was right. “Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.” So it’s natural that people today (perhaps Mayor Pete Buttigieg) think our nation’s founders were not just slaveholders and sexists, but also idiots. However, before we eliminate the Electoral College, grant illegal aliens the legal right to vote, lower the voting age again, try to…

by T. Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. To many Americans, the mention of Florida conjures up images of orange juice. For others, it’s Disney theme parks, a place to escape harsh winters, or even a place to spend the rest of your life. All represent things Floridians export to other Americans. Popular thinking aside, there is nothing intrinsically beneficial to Floridians about exporting things like orange juice to other Americans. Exported orange juice represents juice not…

by T. Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. Whether one is a . . . churchman or a heathen, it is useful to know the causes and consequences of economic phenomena. — George Stigler (Nobel Prize in Economics, 1982) “Forgive us, Lord, for we eat food harvested by people working for starvation wages.” So spoke the leader of the congregational prayer at my church. Taken literally, it meant that each congregant’s mealtime bounty (including mine) traces to…

by Leo Morris I did not attend my college commencement because, at the time, it did not seem that obvious a demarcation in my life. I’d split my post-secondary time between two schools, with military service in the middle. I still lived with my parents for the first phase at Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne and commuted from 45 minutes away for the second one at Ball State University, so I never had that “bonding with a…

by Leo Morris It’s amazing how so-called professional journalists can report the bare facts and somehow miss the bigger story right in front of them. Here is the news report from KOB-4 out of Albuquerque, N.M.: Two girls in Roswell had a plan to get a message to their grandparents in Heaven. Shayla and Haylie Chaves wrote a letter, put it in a sealed bag and tied it to a balloon. The letter eventually landed…