by Leo Morris When I was in my late 20s – at an age when I knew Utopia was just around the corner if only we could complete the task of perfecting the human race – I discovered Robert Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” It was the perfect bible for those of us who had achieved casual self-enlightenment through “I’m OK, You’re OK” a few years earlier. (Reject your inner parent and inner…

The Indiana Policy Review is joining in a partnership with the Mercatus Center of George Mason University to provide Indiana city councils with expert testimony on public policy issues.  Josh Ferdelman of the center will coordinate requests from our membership and local office-holders for briefings with Mercatus scholars. The staff and adjuncts of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation can join in those briefings, which can be in person or by remote. Researchers for the Mercatus Center, founded in 1980 in Arlington,…

THE SAVVY CONSERVATIVES in my city had taken a step back from local politics. That was understandable. It didn’t make sense handing money to office-holders, watching them ignore campaign promises and then not hear from them until the next campaign. On top of that, incumbents and party favorites were thought to be sure things. You either punched their ticket, however ugly the voting record, or you sat out the dance. You needed to know the players. That may be…

by Leo Morris The Indianapolis Star now has itself a team dedicated to “racial equity,” which includes, thanks to a grant from a nonprofit called Report for America, a reporter who will be tasked with covering “inequity in social services, immigration, cultural institutions, the legal system, education and access to health care – particularly as it affects Black and Latino Hoosiers.” The cynic in me thinks this sounds more like sociology than journalism, with the Star editors taking…

by Steven Keltner, PA Chances are, you’ve changed a test answer at the last second, only to find out your original response was correct. Second-guessing your visceral response is a common occurrence.  Professional test preparation companies generally offer a key piece of advice to deal with this situation: Never change an answer, unless you’re sure you made a mistake or uncover new information that was not considered in your original response.   Fortunately, the consequences…

Editor’s Note:  This was written a few years ago but is a useful primer on the difficulties of government arrangements being considered today for food “deserts” in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. It also relates those difficulties to government management of any politically commanded program that ignores economic realities, specifically K-12 education. by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. With the grocery store crisis in downtown Louisville, we should consider some out-of-the-box approaches. Recent closures have made this food “desert” increasingly bleak. Grocery…

“Communism: great idea, wrong species.” — the sociobiologist E.O. Wilson NOTHING MAKES CONSERVATIVES feel better than knowing they are right — better even than solving the problem. For instance, how about a biting critique of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and damnation of the pusillanimous who abide it? You need spend only a few moments thinking about using tax dollars to teach children to hate themselves and their country and you are ready to confront the local school board. Trust…

by Mark Franke June 14 is Flag Day in the United States, a holiday sandwiched between the patriotic holidays of Memorial Day and Independence Day. Unfortunately, almost no one honors it by flying flags or other appropriate decorations. It’s sad, really. My cul-de-sac has a tradition of putting out small yard flags to line the street on the major holidays. I suggested we add Flag Day to the summer big three and my neighbors agreed.…

I TRY NOT to let old books rule my outlook. But as I write tonight, I am listening to a recording of a local city council meeting and cannot shake a thought so incisive it has long survived its writer. It is an observation from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” through her enigmatic hero John Galt. “When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing. When you see that money is flowing…

by Leo Morris I’m basically a lazy person, so I’m not opposed to the government paying me to do something I might otherwise be inclined to forgo. But it seldom works out. Sometimes, I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ohio, for example, would have given me a chance to win a $1 million lottery just for getting my Covid shots, but I had already been vaccinated and, alas, lived in a different…