The Congressional Trapeze THE PROVOST of my daughter’s college quipped there is only one thing that is exactly as it seems, professional wrestling. I would add two others, the trapeze and Congress. Reading the news of the attempt to name a new Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, I found myself thinking of the Flying Wallendas, the family of trapeze artists, and that difference between phony and authentic. The Wallendas are authentic. But no, they don’t actually fly but…

By Mark Franke “You can observe a lot just by watching.” Yogi Berra Writing a weekly column isn’t as glamorous as my editor described it when he recruited me to do this. Finding an idea worthy of 800 cogent and coherent words every seven days is not as easy as one would think. It’s like that homework assignment from hell: Write a three-page theme due Friday. No greater terror could strike the adolescent heart than…

The Power of Individuals “Top management is discouraged and saddened, and middle management is drinking too much. Morale in the newsroom is fair, because of the recent raises, but the shining brows of the copy boys, traditional emblems of energy and hope, have begun to display odd, unattractive lines. At every level, people want management to stop what it is doing before it is too late.” — Donald Barthelme in the New Yorker, 1980 IT…

By Richard McGowan, Ph.D. Englishman John Locke wrote over 3,000 letters to luminaries in England, France, Netherlands and other European countries. His ideas appear in American documents and provide the foundation for our government. However, during his lifetime, his arguments and reasoning brought him under attack severe enough for him to exile himself to the Netherlands. Locke was an ardent Christian espousing love over power. Here might be his New Year’s wishes for 2023: Most Esteemed Sir and Gentle…

by Jason Arp At our weekly meeting something completely unsurprising happened: Yet another real property tax abatement was granted by the city to a real estate developer. These have become a regular part of the proceedings of any council meeting. This particular abatement was in the form of a 10-year phase-in of real property tax. The prevailing property tax rate in the city is about 3.125 percent on commercial real estate, depending on one’s exact location…

by Mark Franke It’s that time of year when all insist on putting themselves through the annual ritual of making New Year’s resolutions, resolutions honored mostly in the breach. Instead, I intend to spend my intellectual energy reflecting on the major issues of our day. Why does January 1 get to be the start of the new year? Why not March 25 or March 1? This is no flippant question. These dates were the mark…

by Leo Morris It was just last week when I announced my intention to embrace the joy of the Christmas season, “wherever I find it, even if I only stumble across it by accident.” Little did I know that it would don a disguise and hide, daring me to find it. My car wouldn’t start on Wednesday, which was annoying for me, since it was my scheduled bridge day, and more so for my bridge…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. The economist James Gwartney has a thought experiment which illustrates why a system which features socialism and monopoly power is not a good idea. Imagine that government decides to operate all restaurants. Further, your geography determines your restaurant; you will eat at the government (“public”) restaurant in your neighborhood. (To make the analogy more accurate, also assume home cooking — like home schooling, is costly.) What would the incentives be for…

by Tommy Franke Andrea O’Neal recently presented data during the Indiana Policy Review’s Winter Seminar that showed precipitous declines in reading and math proficiency in Indiana K-8 schools. The disturbing graphs looked like the marks of someone skiing down the side of Mt. Everest. The sharp decline in scores began around 2000-2010. What happened during this time that provoked this dangerous decline? Many at the conference attributed it to the breakdown of the nuclear family. But I…

by Mark Franke Anne Perry is a popular author of Victorian era mysteries. She writes several series using her stable of inter-related characters. I’ve read some and understand why she has such a fan base. Every Christmas she releases a novella using her regular characters but not in their usual milieu of murder and depravity. The focus of these short books is on charity, redemption and forgiveness. She writes them for the Christmas season, after…