Media Metrics: Extra! Extra! Read All About It I QUIT COMPLAINING about the mass media a few years ago when it became clear that nobody was interested in differentiating between newsmen and broadcasters let alone in understanding the distortion of corporate ownership. I still notice things, though. A trained eye can see the malefic impact of Internet metrics. Headlines and stories are written today to gain inscrutable “clicks,” “reaches” and “reactions.” That, directly or indirectly, is how the…

by Mark Franke Since I am unemployed and unemployable, I am blessed with the luxury of deciding how I spend my time. That is not necessarily a good thing as I am a soft target for church and community related volunteer jobs. It’s my own fault so I won’t blame anyone else for the fact that my days are usually filled with meetings, volunteer work jobs and non-degree graduate school classes. One obligation I have…

Phony Altruism and an Apple Plethora In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all, By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”— Rudyard Kipling, 1919 WE ARE TOYING with the idea for a new personal advice column. It would allow only one question, “Do you think this is something…

Thanksgiving in Kenya GRANTED, I MAY NOT KNOW what is expected of a modern governor these days. Somehow, though, I didn’t think it would involve traveling to Kenya for Thanksgiving. What’s he doing in Kenya? Well, the governor, his wife and entourage are visiting Indiana National Guard troops there. Whoa, now I’m really confused. What is our National Guard doing in Kenya? The governor doesn’t answer my calls so I’m working off a clipping from the…

by Mark Franke Joe Manchin is hard to figure out. He likes to see himself as a moderate who thinks independently of party and ideology. Many desperately want to believe that. His recent decision not to seek reelection as a senator from West Virginia has been spun to meet the interests, might I say delusions, of the never-Trump and not-Biden tribes. Was it a principled decision driven by the insurmountable divisiveness in Washington, a climate…

Exposing the Eco-Devo Game AT LAST, an actually issue of critical economic importance in the governor’s race. Mike Braun has called attention to his GOP primary opponent’s role in creating a statewide eco-devo network that runs on favors and political connections. “Eric Doden has been using donations from people who received taxpayer-funded benefits while he was running the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and Greater Fort Wayne to fund his campaign to hide from his liberal…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. About a month ago, the Indianapolis Star reported that “One of Indianapolis’s most popular charter schools is expanding to create an all-girls STEM-focused K-8 school.” Inside Indiana Business said “the school, called Girls IN STEM Academy . . .  will open in partnership with the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, Every Girl Can STEM and Purdue Polytechnic High School.” The likely impetus for such a school was educational data regarding undergraduate majors by…

by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. James C. Capretta, fellow at the American Enterprise Institutes, asks, “How can the largest items in the federal budget, Social Security and Medicare, be preserved without more borrowing? (Tightening the Terms of the Social Contract, Law and Liberty, Nov. 7, 2023)” The original concept of tying retiree benefit payouts to the payroll taxes has been stretched. Due to the growing gap between Social Security and Medicare contributions and payouts, the federal…

by Mark Franke ”Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” These words of Thomas Jefferson can be found in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, immediately after the more recognizable “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Jefferson writes that it is to secure these rights that governments exist. The argument of the day was that King and Parliament did not have the consent of…

A Man Without a City I HAVE THE COMPLETE off-year election results in front of me. My analysis? God seems to use elections to warn us that democracy is not going to be our salvation. Around here, we unthinkably reelect everybody. Our top council vote-getter is a race merchant with a socialist bent. Our pay-to-play mayor won his fifth term without risking a single original thought. Democracy killed Socrates, you know, the father of Western philosophy — and on a…