by Richard McGowan, Ph.D I traveled back to my childhood hometown, Shoreham, New York, for the Fourth of July celebrations this year. From the town’s western border, the Long Island Sound, I could — and did — use my cell phone to capture the fireworks in Connecticut. Shoreham to Connecticut is a swift 35-minute boat ride for a sturdy Boston whaler. The trip meant seeing my old haunts and being with lifelong friends, producing in me…

Potemkin village, noun: an impressive facade designed to hide an undesirable fact or condition. The promise of downtown redevelopment has a lot to do with advancing political narratives, plus selling overpriced consultation, depressed real estate and tons and tons of rebar and concrete. It has little to do with our prosperity. The cycle goes like this: 1) Officials realize that although they cannot create prosperity they can campaign on the citizenry’s hopes for it; 2) consultants are hired to present a full-color vision…

We welcome this week’s debate over which of the candidates for Secretary of State is the truest Hoosier. It allows us to address our concern that Indiana politicians have for some time been expatriating after building careers on the backs of Indiana voters and collecting a sufficient number of government checks. The debate is rich in irony in that Beau Bayh, from a family known for treating Indiana as a mailing address, has claimed the high ground thanks to a supine media. In any…

by Mark Franke Most Americans can recall the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence. “When in the Course of human events” and “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Perhaps that is as it should be, that we remember the Declaration as a philosophical document expressing our national aspirations. But the Declaration’s purpose was not simply philosophical. It also was a political document, carefully constructed to rally a mishmash of separate colonies into a…

Could it be that the nation is divided not by east or west, urban or rural, colored or white, rich or poor, but by the attractive and the unattractive? I am speaking in relative terms, of course, but there is in life what sociologists call a “beauty premium.” Handsome people are given advantages that homely people are not. Yes, it is unfair but it is ingrained in the human psyche, in the DNA even. The phenomenon is seriously studied by…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. My wife and I traveled to northern Wisconsin and along the way, we drove through a tiny town, Three Lakes. The town had a historical marker for Cy Williams, a name that jogged my memory as a very good major league ballplayer. So I went to baseball-reference.com and read his summary stat line: CareerWAR AB H HR BA R RBI SB OBP SLG OPS OPS+ 36.9 6780 1981 251 .292 1024 1005…

Now that we have Muslim communities with which to compare, let’s be grateful for our Amish. It turns out you can preserve your values and way of life without trying to behead everyone around them. Some time ago, my wife and I took a drive in the Amish country near us. About twilight we passed a teen-aged couple holding hands on a buggy ride. They were obviously in love, and it occurred to us that whatever the Amish are missing in…

by Dan Eichenberger M.D. The people who wrote the Constitution did not want a government that ran our health care, schools, retirement plans or local businesses. They created a federal government with a short list of specific powers. Everything else was supposed to stay with people, families, churches, towns and the states. James Madison explained this clearly in Federalist No. 45. He wrote that the powers given to the federal government “are few and defined.” The powers kept by…

Indiana liberals are getting nervous that the word “socialism” is being bandied about these days. They want you to know there is no such thing as socialism, and even if there were it might not be such a bad thing. I know this because a professor of political science tells me so in this morning’s Capital Chronicle. And professors of political science, please know, can be trusted on such matters. They are why 72 percent of college students in Generation Z…

by Mark Franke It was on September 17, 1787, that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention lined up to sign the document they had jointly written. Well, most of them did; 39 of the 42 present signed. That’s a positive margin of 93 percent. Imagine getting that kind of consensus on major legislation in our Congress today. What those 39 founders signed was a proposed Constitution, one that needed to be ratified by at least two…