by T. Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. The uproar over President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariff pronouncements has been a déjà vu moment for me. Early on in the Jimmy Carter administration, I was an economist for the U.S. Department of Labor and a member of the administration’s “Footwear Task Force” committee. The committee was implicitly charged with honoring Carter’s campaign promise to grant import relief to American shoe producers. Gerald Ford’s preceding administration had rejected…

 by Leo Morris I enjoy my regular coiffure-adjustment sessions because they give me a glimpse of something I seldom get to see — the back of my head, when the barber sticks the small mirror in front of my face so I can see into the giant mirror behind me. He always asks a variation of the same question, which tickles me no end: “So, what do you think?” What am I supposed to say to that? “It…

by Mark Franke What is the definition of a religion? By that I mean to ask: What is that which is protected under the First Amendment in its right to be freely exercised apart from governmental obstruction? Most would likely think in concrete, structural terms such as a church, synagogue or mosque building as the focal point of the religion being practiced. Symbols are important too, as more than a billion Christians this week commemorate…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. Bernie Carbo was such a rule-breaker that some of his biggest moments in baseball are blurs he can’t recall. Years of marijuana, alcohol, amphetamines, pain pills, and sleeping pills will do that to you. He doesn’t remember striking out to end the 10th inning of Game 6 in the 1975 World Series—but he does remember hitting the big home run two innings earlier. The Boston Red Sox were battling the Cincinnati…

PLEASE MARK TODAY’S RECURRENT ANNOUNCEMENT that another of the Indianapolis Star’s top editors is reluctantly leaving Indiana, a place that he or she profess to have come to love, and, having accomplished all of his or her assigned tasks in this God-forsaken place, has been called back to Rome, blah, blah, blah . . . Three immediate observations: 1. Follow the Ambition — Organizations such as Gannett are full of predatory junior editors cruising the shallows for control of any of the chain’s major dailies.…

 by Joe Squadrito For two decades now our political leaders and school officials have been attempting to deal with the tragedies which have occurred in our school systems. The senseless slaughter of our children and educators has prompted numerous proposals ranging in firearms legislation to mental health intervention. Some of these proposals have merit and are worthy of consideration and enactment. Others fall far short of the intended goal. I do not believe arming teachers is…

by Leo Morris Let’s hear a faint word of encouragement for “family values,” that concept heaped with so much derisive scorn by too many liberals and showered with so much empty praise by too many conservatives. These values are weaker than ever at a time when we need them to be stronger than ever. I remember my youth in the 1960s, when parents worked hard to prevent the introduction of sex education in schools so…

(For the use of the membership only, not for publication, distribution, quotation or reproduction.) “Our parents don’t know how to use a ******* democracy, so we have to.” — David Hogg, 18, an organizer of the “March for Our Lives” protests. YOUNG PEOPLE ARE ASSUMED to have magical qualities. They are the future, it is said incessantly. The question, though, is whether it is a future they will want once they get there. Some of us…

For the use of the membership only. COMPLAINING ABOUT what a newspaper doesn’t print is like complaining about a shoe store that doesn’t carry your size. But not exactly. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution sets newspapers above other businesses, extends privileges that would land the owner of a shoe store in jail. In exchange, it is assumed that the newspaper will print what it considers the truth. Please know that these privileges are…

 by Leo Morris I am a heartless monster who doesn’t care that our children are being slaughtered in their schools. I am an inhuman fiend indifferent to the plight of future generations who will inherit the ravaged planet we will leave them. I will be saddened but not terribly surprised if that is a common reaction to this column. I write in defense of freedom and so must be prepared for the predictable pushback from…