by Mark Franke There are a lot of benefits of retirement, likely many more than I realize or appreciate, but one is enough free time to follow my local minor league baseball team. The Fort Wayne TinCaps are High A this year with a roster of players who hope to be only one or two steps away from the majors. Fort Wayne has produced a lot of major leaguers over the 28 years of the…

“Weekend violence in Indy sent residents and visitors scrambling for cover in Broad Ripple and Downtown. At least six were shot with one killed in five separate shootings in just two hours. City Officials remained silent and were missing in action all weekend.” — Rick Snyder, Fraternal Order of Police A FRIEND surprised us this weekend by announcing his support for Black Lives Matter. We were surprised because the friend is discerning enough to understand that BLM is not what it…

by Leo Morris For those who haven’t been keeping up with the Congressional Clown Car, a quick update: Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi created a special committee to investigate the Jan. 6 – take your pick – mostly peaceful protest/riot/insurrection. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appointed five Republicans to the 12-member committee, including Jim Banks of Indiana’s Third District. Pelosi rejected two of them, including Banks, because (in the words of more than one news…

THIS COLUMN is dedicated to Indiana issues. That’s why I’m writing about South Africa and Botswana. It is important for Hoosiers to be reminded of the tragedy of failed economic leadership, reminded without the distraction of competing racial and political identities. For South Africa is falling apart, and doing so all on its own, long past the point it can blame a white-dominated superstructure, and falling apart in a way that has lessons for black leaders in urban…

As I sink deeper and deeper into my dotage, I try to husband what brain cells are still functional for what matters most. That means being discriminatory about what I allow inside my cranium. To start, I pay no attention to popular culture. I absolutely refuse to watch movies or I don’t listen to music if the original composer is still living. I haven’t seen a contemporary TV show in decades, at least not voluntarily.…

by Leo Morris I so want to be a good Hoosier, an upstanding citizen who will do the right thing. But Indiana officials are set to give me some money, and I’m terrified that I will squander it on frivolities and let my beloved state down. Well, not “give” me money exactly. So that I won’t be tempted by a sudden infusion of cash, they plan to disguise the gift as a “tax credit” when…

by Leo Morris Thank you, Simone Biles, for pulling me out of the funk I’d talked myself into over sports. On my best days I am ambivalent about athletes. I respect their prowess but resent them for my own physical shortcomings. I admire them for the loyalty they inspire among fans but hate the shallowness and casual arrogance they sometimes exhibit. Just like I’m still in high school, in other words. We all resented them…

“A Raytheon toolkit instructs employees to oppose ‘equality,’ defined as ‘treating each person the same . . . regardless of their differences,’ and strive instead for ‘equity,’ which ‘focuses on the equality of the outcome.’ The company claims that the colorblind standard of ‘equal treatment and access to opportunities’ is not enough; ‘anti-racist’ policies must sometimes utilize unequal treatment to achieve equal outcomes.” — City Journal, July 6, 2021 ‘WE RECOGNIZE that equality of opportunity is sacrificed in pursuit…

by Mark Franke Having passed three patriotic observances — Memorial Day, Flag Day and Independence Day — provides an opportune moment to reflect on the status of patriotism here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. What is its status? That depends on whom you ask, where you look and at what you look. If one spends the day in front of the television watching national news channels, one can’t…

ONE OF THE great things about our form of democracy, perhaps the greatest thing, is that when we find ourselves with inept rulers nobody mounts a revolution and organizes a firing squad. At worst, the rascal is nudged out of office into a six-digit pension. That thought occurred as Gov. Eric Holcomb’s pre-Covid decision to lead a trade mission to China in the middle of a trade war came into sharper focus. Now don’t misunderstand. We like free trade here,…