(For the use of the membership only)  A POINTED EXCHANGE during a recent council meeting in my hometown served to demarcate the two sides of what will be a statewide, city-by-city debate over municipal collective-bargaining. And it did so without emotionalism, ideology or self-serving posture. The flow of the argument forced the council to see the issue through the eyes of the only people who really matter — the city’s most productive employees. It started when…

To ensure an advance copy of the summer journal, please update your membership under the “Join Us” button above. June 15, 2014 ‘A Constitutional Moment’ “The prospect for success of an Article V convention is based on a growing awareness of inherent dysfunction in the traditional apparatuses of government. In other words, the people know we are suffering from a fundamental problem — a political cancer, rather than a simple chest cold — and that a…

by Bruce Ippel, M.D. My libertarian bent makes me skeptical of any government program, especially one that is thrown together to “solve” a crisis. The particular crisis I’m writing about is the marked increase in the abuse of prescribed pain medication in our country. Before the 1980s, doctors in our country rarely prescribed strong pain medication for chronic pain. These highly potent opioids were mostly reserved for acute injuries like chain-saw wounds and those dying…

HAS ANYONE noticed that the people expressing surprise that the Veterans Administration (VA) not only failed its charges but also shunted them aside were not the veterans themselves? No, surprised were the wives, the sisters, the children, the whistle-blowers and other well-meaning innocents. The actual veterans, those still alive, expected as much. Their bar for outrage, after years of dealing with government bureaucracy in its various forms, was set far, far lower. My last (I…

by Andrea Neal A half-century after the Declaration of Independence was issued, the Frenchman who helped the United States win the American Revolution returned to this country on a victory tour. It was a landmark event for cities on his itinerary. Jeffersonville, Indiana, was one of them. The 1824-25 visit to the United States by the 67-year-old Marquis de Lafayette, last surviving general of the Revolutionary War, dominated headlines for a year. The closest modern…

by Tyler Watts, Ph.D. Dear President Obama: This may sound strange to you coming from someone like me, but here goes: Thanks for awakening the American people to the dangers of excessive government. Your actions raised an alarm that inaugurated the most radical fiscal reform in America since the 16th Amendment. Let me explain. Your presidency brought the term “trillion-dollar deficit” into our vocabulary and oversaw a doubling of the national debt. While politicians had long professed concern about burdening…

In a May 10 article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, “Two on Council Favor Limiting Unions,” union officials express surprise that their council would be considering legislation that might end mandatory collective bargaining with city employees. Both officials were active and welcome participants at an all-day Indiana Policy Review Foundation seminar last year titled “The Economics of Public Safety.” Four different presentations by credentialed speakers that day made clear why a city council might…

Editor’s Note:  The Mount Vernon Assembly, a group organized by Indiana Senate President Pro-Tem David Long to study constitutional reform, held its second meeting June 12-13 in Indianapolis. The group, made up of currently serving state legislators throughout the nation, first met in December 2013 to begin discussing the states’ ability to amend the U.S. Constitution as outlined in Article V of the U.S. Constitution.  by Tyler Watts, Ph.D. The United States are in a…

by Andrea Neal In 1975, Jessamyn West wrote a novel based on a true yet astonishing Indiana story. The Massacre at Fall Creek recounts the 1824 murders of nine Indians in Madison County and the ensuing trial and death sentences of the white male perpetrators. In the last chapter, a respected white preacher by the name of Caleb turned to his Native American acquaintances to reflect on the executions they witnessed: “This will be remembered…

by Scott Smith Talk about conflicted: What is a free-market disciple to think about the prospect of wind farms? That’s the discussion I had with Craig Ladwig, editor of the Indiana Policy Review, and a decided fence sitter when it comes to wind farms. For those unfamiliar with IPR, they’re a conservative bunch, but with a definite libertarian bent. They don’t much care for economic-development incentives, such as tax abatements, but they don’t like the…