WE NEED YOUR HELP to publish and distribute the quarterly journal. Please consider a tax-exempt donation HERE. An individual membership is $50 and a corporate membership is $120. The foundation accepts credit cards and PayPal (or personal checks to Indiana Policy Review, PO Box 5166, Fort Wayne, IN 46895). Coming in the summer journal . . . Wednesday Whist | Minding Chesterton’s Fence (Morris)Cover Essay | The Soul of Civil Disobedience (Franke)Schansberg | Hobbits Wardrobes and World WarsSpecial…

by Leo Morris The “Anvil Chorus” is the English name for the Coro di Zingari (Italian for “Gypsy chorus”) from act 2, scene 1 of Giuseppe Verdi’s 1853 opera “Il Trovatore.” It depicts Spanish Gypsies striking their anvils at dawn and singing the praises of hard work, good wine and Gypsy women. So, basically, a cacophonous babble from a bunch of good old boys shouting out about the things that matter to them most. Naturally,…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. Last week on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” moderator Chuck Todd played a clip from a recent CBS News interview with Attorney General William Barr. Unfortunately, the clip had been edited in a way that gave the opposite impression of what Barr was trying to say. NBC was publicly taken to task and has now apologized. The fiasco is one more example of general problems we’ve seen over time with the media:…

by Leo Morris Pierre the cat was a once-in-a-lifetime pet, and some of you will know exactly what I mean. He is the one you tell the same stories about over and over to friends more tolerant than they should be. He is the one you compare all other pets to. He is the one that makes you realize each animal might show common species characteristics but also has a unique personality. He is the…

WATCHING A NATIONAL PRESS CONFERENCE in the pandemic era is a painful experience for the aged journalist. It reminds us of the wallow that our profession has become — an abandonment of historical purpose that even without the Internet explains the low esteem in which we are now held. It is sad that this essay must start with the obvious. Polling shows approval percentages for large media so low they correspond to the number of…

by Richard Moss, M.D. My state folded. The people didn’t fail; our government did. Specifically, our governor. Indiana is a red Republican state with two Republican U.S. Senators, seven (out of nine) Republican Congressman, a Republican Statehouse and Senate, and, ostensibly, a Republican governor. Gov. Eric Holcomb is his name. With Republicans like him who needs Democrats.  Holcomb won the governor’s seat in a series of unlikely events. He had never before won elected office. A state…

by Leo Morris I like being asked. It means I have a choice. I can say no. Not that I always do. They’ve been asking me, over and over during this stay-at-home pandemic, to support our local restaurants. If I don’t help them stay afloat by using their carryout and delivery services, their dining rooms may be closed forever once the crisis has passed. It’s been a pleasure to honor that request, even for a…

WE OWE TO NOBEL PHYSICIST Niels Bohr our definition of an expert. He is someone, preferably from out of town, who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. I am an expert — in bluebirdology. More narrowly, I am an expert on how to get the ugly, bad-mannered chirpy house sparrows to leave the beautiful, indigenous bluebirds alone so they can build a nest in your backyard and…

OUR ADJUNCT, MARGARET MENGE, hit on an interesting story this week. The Indiana Department of Workforce Development, the people responsible for making insurance payments from the money collected by force from Hoosier paychecks on the rationale that it would be available in an emergency, seem unable to fulfill that promise. “The thing about unemployment compensation that a lot of people sort of know, but sort of forget, is that it’s not welfare. It’s insurance, with…

by Margaret Menge What if a pandemic hit and hundreds of thousands of people were suddenly unemployed, and when they turned to the people responsible for making insurance payments from the big pot of money — money collected from society by force over many years — those people aren’t there? Don’t pick up the phones. Don’t answer emails. The building where they normally work is locked. And even if you could go there and get…