by Leo Morris If you had any doubts about the embrace of socialism by the 2020 Democratic presidential field, they should be gone by now. One of Indiana’s own potential contenders – South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg – has jumped into the collectivist basket with both feet. Although acknowledging that America has a market-based economy and is “committed to democracy,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper that a discussion about a policy can no longer be…

Q.  Regarding historical accuracy, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with how socialism is taught in Indiana public schools? Click HERE to participate in this quarter’s sample of membership opinion. 

A DIGITAL ECONOMICS EXPERT at the University of North Carolina estimates that for every newspaper that has closed in recent years, 10 have been so hollowed out that they exist in name only. She calls them “ghost papers,” newspapers that pretend to report the news but lack the resources to do so. There could be as many as 2,000 of them. I subscribe to one. Picking up this weekend’s edition, for example, there is an…

by Leo Morris I’ve been reading up on the wisdom of the crowd, the theory holding that a large group of people’s aggregated answers to certain questions are often superior to the answer given by any individual within the group, even one judged to be an expert on the subject at hand. It’s a well-documented phenomenon with a sterling pedigree, however our many experiences with various versions of “the public is a moron” might lead…

by Dave Penticuff The best thing, we think, about Foxconn Technology Group’s now reconsidered plans for a U.S. manufacturing plant is that they apparently never considered my Indiana county for the project. Where we would be if they had turned to our County Economic Growth Council for incentives to locate in our community? We’d be considerably poorer, no doubt. Foxconn is becoming Wisconsin’s lesson to be learned, and an unfortunate part of the legacy left…

by Leo Morris I hired someone to do something around my house recently, and when the job was done, I texted a message of appreciation: “Good job at a fair price. Thanks.” Don’t know what I expected – perhaps a hearty “You’re welcome” or a cheery “Don’t mention it, that’s what we’re here for” – but I heard nothing back. That bothered me until I finally realized they had probably felt insulted. In these days…

by Mark Franke We’ve been here before, the “here” being an attempted politicization of the Supreme Court by a political party. Justice Brett Kavanaugh is being lined up as the next target. Once the midterm elections gave the Democrats a majority in the House of Representatives, new Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler was overheard plotting possible impeachment proceedings against Justice Kavanaugh. This week a freshman member of that committee, Joe Neguse, publicly declared impeachment proceedings…

“The narrative was right, but the facts were wrong.” — Columnist Evan Thomas on learning of the innocence of the Duke lacrosse team by Craig Ladwig Perhaps the national media never really believed that a four-minute video clip showed overt racism by MAGA-hat-wearing southern teenagers. Maybe it didn’t care whether the killing of a seven-year-old black girl in Houston was by an imaginary white man in a hate crime or simply a routine gang-related homicide.…

by Leo Morris Pierre was a knucklehead. He was my first feline companion and lived to the ripe old age of 19 despite being an indoor-outdoor cat with more spunk than sense. At least once or twice a year, he would come home after a neighborhood excursion all battered and bloodied and spitting mad. A nap and a bite of food or two later, he was ready to head back out. It’s not that he…

“According to Amazon, the cost per job for New York taxpayers is $48,000 for its new headquarters, compared with $22,000 for Virginia and $13,000 for Tennessee. In a statement released by Amazon, Gov.  Andrew Cuomo called the agreement ‘one of the largest, most competitive economic-development investments in U.S. history.’” — Nov. 11, 2018, Fox5 News, New York City  GOV. ERIC HOLCOMB was “thrilled” to tell us last week that he persuaded 320 companies to locate or grow in Indiana. These businesses, the governor announced in…