by Leo Morris Most of you have undoubtedly experienced déjà vu, that eerie sense that something you have never encountered before is nonetheless somehow familiar. Most of you have undoubtedly experienced déjà vu, that eerie sense that something you have never encountered before is nonetheless somehow familiar. My apologies. I know that was just a cheap joke, but I couldn’t resist. Humor provides a needed escape valve when we are overwhelmed with the dreary “Groundhog Day” feeling…

by Mark Franke “O, wad some Power the giftie gie usTo see oursels as others see us!” This quotation from a poem by Robert Burns is clear even if written in a Scottish-English vernacular. He speaks to a universal human inadequacy — seeing ourselves from the other person’s point of view. This can be quite humbling should we actually succeed, especially if we come to realize the impression we are making. The same applies to…

If ‘Democracy’ Fails, Then What? THE WEEK BEGAN with my county chairman sounding the alarm that “democracy” will be at risk in 2024. “He keeps using that word but I do not think it means what he thinks it means,” to quote a meme of the great Inigo Montoya. Let me pair that with another popular meme, “The Constitution was written to protect us from our government; it doesn’t, so now what?” The first reminds us that we can’t count…

by Leo Morris In preparation for the upcoming general election, how about an awful political joke? What’s the definition of a presidential pork sandwich? Answer: a slab of Benjamin Harrison between two slices of Grover Cleveland. OK, you were warned it was awful. But, consider a little background, which has the added benefit of explaining Indiana’s contribution to the election integrity most voters take for granted today. Grover Cleveland won the presidential election of 1884…

At Last, a Law for our Times A FRIEND THIS WEEK introduced me to Brandolini’s Law, known on the Internet as “the bullshit asymmetry principle.” First, though, some background. Many years ago the foundation had the good fortune to commission a brilliant woman, a nationally known economist. We asked her to analyze the budget submitted that year by the Indiana governor at the time, the fiscally nimble Evan Bayh. The analysis cost $10,000, as I recall. We were…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. My wife and I often disagree on political issues. She tends toward Aristotelian thought and toward Platonic thought. Aristotle’s book, “Politics,” analyzes structures of government and argues for a democracy, more or less. Plato’s dialogue, “The Republic,” stresses the character of those who would rule. The dialogue concludes by opposing “the philosopher-ruler,” the person of wisdom and beneficence, to that of a tyrant, in whose character power and self-interest are intertwined. Aristotle’s…

by Mark Franke So what do you think about . . .? Before you even finish the question, expect to hear a litany on everything that is wrong with our country and who is to blame. Granted, there are a lot of things going wrong these days as we geezers are well aware. It just isn’t the 1950s anymore. Sure, things are bad or at least seem to be worse than any time in recent…

Public-Private Cronyism IF YOU QUESTION the shedload of economic-development projects in your city, you are a bad citizen, a naysayer. We are guilty, of course. The president of our local redevelopment commission said as much recently, publicly rebuking our city councilman. The councilman, a former banker, had dared wonder if all the fiscal work-arounds designed to win a council majority weren’t costing us control of our city. Far from it, lectured the commissioner, a retired philharmonic administrator. He says we are building…

by Leo Morris Here’s how it happens. You have a drink with your meal at a favorite restaurant, then drive home with no problem. Then, sometime later, you’re at another restaurant, and you think, well, one drink was no problem. What can be wrong with two drinks? And if you can drive safely with two drinks, you reason another time at another restaurant, why can’t you handle three? So it goes, on and on, until…

by Mark Franke Oscar Wilde: I wish I had said that. James McNeill Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will. I have mixed feelings about Oscar Wilde. He was witty, sure, but one senses that he was more impressed with himself than others were. Perhaps I am being unfair, but then Whistler’s retort suggests that Wilde’s contemporaries felt the same. Were some of Wilde’s bon mots, shall we say, recycled? With a pervasive and ubiquitous internet…