by Leo Morris I was going to write a wry but pointed column about Indiana’s coming search for a new tourism slogan, something along the lines of, “Wave on your way to Michigan” or, “Thanks for not stopping by.” Our past attempts to snare visitors with a catchy phrase have always come up embarrassingly short. “Honest to Goodness Indiana” conjured up an aw-shucks image of Andy and Gomer whittling on the front porch. “Restart Your…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. If you’re into C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, or the impact of the World Wars on society, religion and culture, I’d recommend Joe Loconte’s book, “A Hobbit, A Wardrobe and a Great War.” Loconte describes Lewis’ faith journey in detail. Well before “Chronicles of Narnia,” he embraced atheism after being raised in the Anglican church with its “ugly architecture, ugly music and bad poetry” and sermons that seemed “vapid and irrelevant.” Lewis’…

“There is, to put it mildly, a huge spread (in the predictions) — the difference between a death toll on par with the number of people who die from injury and violence annually in the U.S. and one that’s closer to the number of people murdered when the Chinese communists moved to suppress counterrevolutionaries between 1950 and 1953.” — “Why Is It So Hard to Make a COVID-19 Model?” FiveThirtyEight, March 31, 2020 THE VIRUS…

by Leo Morris The newspaper that employed me for more than 30 years has ceased publication. It feels like a death in the family, and I’ve been trying to imagine the obituary: “The News-Sentinel, 187, native of Fort Wayne, Ind., born in 1833, died in 2020 of natural causes. Cherished by loved ones, true friend to the community. Preceded in death by generations of informed residents. Survived by a handful of ink-stained wretches.” RIP. The…

By Margaret Menge What if the government decided to give a massive amount of money to small businesses to help them survive a pandemic but forgot to include anything to make sure the money was really going to businesses that needed it? It would seem like a fairly big oversight. But that is what has happened. Through the CARES Act, the federal government set up two stimulus programs – the Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) and the…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. You may have heard that the Post Office is in the hospital with COVID-19. Part of the problem is that it has some pre-existing conditions. It enjoyed something of a sheltered and spoiled childhood. But that led it to becoming soft and flabby later in life. It has also endured capricious parenting — with regulations that have made its life more difficult. And it’s grown quite old, so it tends to…

The Myth of Universal COVID-19 Testing by Ken Bisson, M.D. I did not vote for Trump in 2016 and I will not vote for Trump or Biden in 2020. I am a medical doctor with no allegiance to Republicans or Democrats. If leaders of either of these parties get something right, I rejoice. When either of these parties get something wrong — unfortunately far too often — I call them out. As a physician, I…

by John Gaski, Ph.D. In reporting daily to the media and public, President Donald Trump recently had the audacity to speak in hopeful terms about a drug treatment for coronavirus that has shown promise. That is literally all he did but apparently it was enough to set off his critics among the liberal Democrats and liberal Democrat media. (It is overdue to apply that compound modifier to the ultra-partisan yellow journalism in today’s U.S.) Trump’s…

by Leo Morris As a journalist, I appreciate the job our TV news folks are doing to keep us informed during these trying times. But, honestly, they’re starting to wear me out. It apparently hasn’t occurred to them that, with only one story to report, they’re bound to repeat themselves. So, at the risk of being the only nasty guest at the happy party, allow me to list the things I’m really tired of hearing.…

by Margaret Menge A rebellion is brewing in Indiana over the governor’s shutdown orders, with more than 100 people planning to rally on Saturday at 3 p.m. outside the governor’s mansion in Indianapolis. A second group is calling for a protest outside the Statehouse on Monday and a third group is planning a protest for May 1. “Our premise is that we want the economy open and we want it open today,” said Andy Lyons,…