by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. At times, one has to sympathize with public officials. Put yourself in the shoes of a member of the South Bend Board of Public Works. On Monday, Nov. 24, a plan to shelter up to 60 homeless men from Dec. 1 to April 1 was submitted to South Bend Common Council, and on the following morning, the Board of Public Works was expected to consider the proposal. According to the…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. For Christians approaching the difficult decisions of this election year, it is important to keep four concepts in balance: 1) God’s good Creation; 2) the “Fall of man”; 3) the potential for partial, earthly Redemption; and 4) an eager hope for full, heavenly Restoration. Even outside of Christianity, one still sees at least the first three elements in play: In every aspect of life everyone has an ideal in mind, a…

by Andrea Neal Diesel engines made Columbus a Fortune 500 city. World-famous architecture put Columbus on the map. Give J. Irwin Miller credit for both achievements. As chairman and CEO of Cummins Inc. from 1934 to 1977, Miller turned an unprofitable Indiana-based business into a global leader in diesel engines and related technology that today reports net income of $1.65 billion a year. As a philanthropist and man of faith, Miller took seriously his company’s…

“I have to turn on my television with a stick (for fear of getting bit)” — Mike Pence A HERO OF MINE is the unnamed police officer that a CNN camera showed walking the streets of San Francisco after the 1989 earthquake. He was yelling up to shaken residents in their high-rise apartments that nobody was coming to help them. It was a disaster, he felt the need to explain; they would have to get water…

by Andrea Neal Two of the 20th century’s most popular song writers hailed from Indiana, both so distinctive that the mention of their names brings to mind such familiar melodies as “Night and Day,” “It’s De-Lovely,” “Georgia on My Mind” and “Stardust.” Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael grew up on different sides of the track but followed similar paths to celebrity. Porter, born in Peru in 1891, had a privileged childhood as the grandson of…

DON’T BE SHOCKED or particulary dismayed that the GOP gubernatorial candidate appears to be trailing by double digits. Be reminded that Indiana Republican conventions rarely resemble Indiana Republicans — not everyday ones, anyway. Columbia Club apparatchiks are more like it. Eric Holcomb, wish him the best, stands as the pluperfect example. Please know this does not reflect an opinion as to whether as governor he would be good or bad relative to what the Democrats plan…

THOSE OF YOU WRESTLING with the various glooms of this presidential election might be heartened by what I have learned about politics as the president of the Shoaff Lake Shoreline Anglers League. The League does not permit the use of a tongue-twisting acronym, a sure sign that an organization has untrustworthy aspirations. Nor does it make public its membership, being two, one of whom, a computer technician with government contracts, prefers to remain anonymous. The…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. Recently, a scholar from Liberty Fund, an Indianapolis-based educational foundation, visited Ball State University and gave a lecture entitled “Karl Marx 101” to the student-led Economics Club. Twenty or so students attended. About half of them had read the assigned excerpts from Marx and Engels’ “Communist Manifesto.” Dr. Peter Mentzel provided some biographical details about Karl Marx and outlined three major themes of Marx’s analysis. First, like Adam Smith and David…

by Andrea Neal For a trip back to the “good ol’ days,” nothing beats a burger at The Suds in Greenwood where cruising, carhops and curb service are still the main ingredients of a Saturday night on the town. A uniquely American institution that developed along with the car culture, the drive-in restaurant was introduced in the 1920s, enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and conceded victory in the 1970s to the more efficient drive-through…

George Gilder. The Scandal of Money: Why Wall Street Recovers but the Economy Never Does (Regnery Publishing) by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. If negative interest rates do not make any sense to you, this book will be of interest. George Gilder, techno-utopian advocate, reminds us of times when money and interest rates stood for something other than tools to be manipulated by officials of the Federal Reserve System (the FED) in a futile attempt to…