For the use of the membership only (362 words) THIS GENERATION is going to have to study war some more, alas. Even admirals today don’t seem to know how it works outside their politically corrected service academies. Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, commented the other day that . . . wait, they assign admirals as flacks now? Isn’t that expensive? Anyway, Rear Admiral Kirby doesn’t think the American military leaves anyone behind. “When…

For the use of the membership only (214 words) Indiana politicians settle so comfortably into the role of placeholders. When events reveal a policy void, they rush to fill the space where leadership otherwise might be. This week, one of them noted that the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) doesn’t work. “If we are to correct the VA’s flaws, we must change its culture,” he explained in a news release. No explanation was needed. Veterans…

by Andrea Neal When the first classes were held in 1824, Indiana University had one professor, 10 male students and no building to call its own. The only subjects offered were Latin and Greek. Today, more than 3,000 professors teach 47,000 students on a campus graced by limestone buildings and woodland paths. Undergraduates choose from more than 150 majors. And that’s just at Bloomington. IU has campuses throughout the state and an operating budget of…

(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…