by Andrea Neal From the time he was a youngster, Eli Lilly was fascinated by pharmaceuticals. At 16, he served as an apprentice at the Good Samaritan Drugstore in Lafayette. During the day, he stocked shelves, washed bottles and ran errands. At night, he pored over the United States Pharmacopoeia to learn everything he could about mixing drugs. By age 20, Lilly had earned a certificate of proficiency in the field. Next, he opened a…

“In the abstract, we may envision an Olympian perfection of perfect beings in Washington doing the business of their employers, the people, but any of us who has ever been at a zoning meeting with our property at stake is aware of the urge to cut through all the pernicious bullshit and go straight to firearms.” — the playwright David Mamet WHAT DO WE DO when the citizenry simply isn’t good enough, when administrators, planners…

For the use of the membership only (465 words). THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR pulled out all stops in its Sunday, April 12, edition. While it gave priority coverage to the many ways in which Republicans hate gays and dream up ways to discriminate against them, it didn’t neglect the race card. In an article headlined “Uneven Indiana,” it addressed a problem I have harped about for the past several years: the decline in median family income.…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. Travel back to 1956 to a professional meeting of psychiatrists. Most in the group are smoking cigarettes, thinking nothing of it. Most also agree that homosexuality is a mental disorder. Fast forward to 2015 to a similar group. No one dares light up a cigarette and the overwhelming majority thinks being gay is not a disorder and are appalled by the suggestion that it is. Yes, how times and social mores…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. We pay taxes every day. But for many people, April 15th represents “Tax Day” — the day when our income-tax forms are due. Many people file their 1040’s sooner, particularly when they’re receiving refunds. They have allowed the government to keep too much of their money all year. So why should they extend the interest-free loan to the government for a few more months? In terms of taxes on income, payroll…

For the use of the membership only (622 words) “If the legislators were trying to reinforce Indiana’s image as a backwater, it couldn’t have done better than this (the Religious Liberty law). I Googled ‘Indiana’ Tuesday morning, and this issue was at the top of the page. How embarrassing.” — Matthew Tully in the April 3 Indianapolis Star AS THE RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM HYSTERIA SUBSIDES, the governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner, is threatening to “rip the economic…

by Stephen M. King, Ph.D. Bill Clinton’s tawdry affair with Monica Lewinsky in 1998 spawned dozens of books, articles and essays. None was more stinging than William Bennett’s “The Death of Outrage.” Therein, Bennett, former secretary of education under George H.W. Bush, excoriated Bill Clinton and largely the political Left for their utter disregard of political propriety and disregard for moral character. More importantly, Bennett lamented the utter lack of outrage by the American public.…

by Andrea Neal Purdue Boilermakers can thank the Morrill Land Grant Act for their highly regarded college diploma. The law, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, gave federal land to states if they agreed to use the land-sale proceeds to start colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts for the children of the working class. With the Morrill Act’s passage, one historian noted, “higher education in the United States was no longer confined to its…

by Tom Charles Huston The renowned historian Kareem Abdul-Jabbar opines in Time magazine that, as a consequence of adopting its Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Indiana has put itself “on the wrong side of history.” Mr. Abdul-Jabbar must have studied off-season at the knee of James H. Madison at Indiana University. When used in the context of predicting ultimate winners, “history” is a determinist term of art. Viewed through a 17th-century Whig lens, history is the…

For the use of the membership only; not for duplication, distribution or quotation without permission of the author. by Tom Charles Huston Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis) articulates the Democratic case against the religious-freedom statute in a temperate and reasoned Facebook post while professing his own commitment to defending “anyone’s right to their belief and any church’s right to exercise its own creed.” It is this sort of assurance that best explains why advocates of the…