Essays
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Eichenberger: Flock Cameras in Perspective
Read more: Eichenberger: Flock Cameras in Perspectiveby Dan Eichenberger M.D Flock Safety’s license-plate cameras have caused a major debate across the country. Some cities have ended their contracts, and lawsuits claim the cameras violate the Constitution. People from both political parties worry about too much government surveillance. The cameras are easy to spot, connected to large databases, and searchable by police. That is why they get more public attention than many other forms of tracking that happen every day. The debate often…
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McGowan: A Colin Kaepernick Refresher
Read more: McGowan: A Colin Kaepernick Refresherby Richard McGowan, Ph.D. One of my friends remarked that “Ignorance of the past is poor national policy.” It is also poor media policy, especially since that ignorance often guides national policy. This year, on August 31, the 10th anniversary of Colin Kaepernick’s antics on the football field, various media recalled his behavior. The Seattle Medium reported him saying “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that…
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The Way to Remember 9/11
Read more: The Way to Remember 9/11“Islam is peace; it has brought peace to the world.” – George W. Bush, six days after 9/11. Everyone other than the stray Democrat Socialist mourns today for the 2,297 innocents, including 441 first responders, who died in the terrorist attack on the New York World Trade Center 25 years ago. But we also mourn something else — this nation’s inability to differentiate good from evil in its public policy. It is important to remember that…
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Is the GOP Ready for War?
Read more: Is the GOP Ready for War?Military historians note a phenomenon when war breaks out. The generals who had achieved high rank during peacetime are nowhere to be found. That relates, I’m sorry to say, to the Indiana GOP’s upcoming battle against socialism. The reason peacetime generals do not matriculate to war is chaos, it cannot be simulated at a war college or in managing a garrison budget. It is as Grand Marshal Ferdinand Foch famously observed of the French: “Superb generals in peacetime…
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The Mocking Generations
Read more: The Mocking Generations“To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.” — Chinese proverb We are nearing the season for high-school reunions. Could one class hold a valuable secret for upcoming generations? My nominee would be the class of 1963, those born at the tail end of World War II, one that has little in common with the others that will gather this month to relive old times. It is said only half-jokiningly that its members are the last survivors of…
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Eichenberger: The Corruption of Equity
Read more: Eichenberger: The Corruption of Equityby Dan Eichenberger M.D. For most of history, the word “equity” meant something simple and good: fairness. It meant treating people justly, looking at the real situation, and not applying rules so rigidly that they caused harm. Today, many on the progressive left use the same word to mean something different. They claim that true fairness requires equal outcomes. If one group ends up with more money, better jobs, or higher test scores than another, they say the…
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Franke: Unalienable Rights
Read more: Franke: Unalienable Rightsby Mark Franke What is it about us Americans and our hurry to move on to the next thing? By Christmas night the TV commercials are changing over to the next retail season and by New Year’s Day, the advertising demigods have made the snow disappear. Forget the 12 days of Christmas and the fact that winter has just begun. It is time to move on. I fear the same has happened with our celebration…
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A Defense of the ALPR Cameras
Read more: A Defense of the ALPR CamerasThere’s a big difference between the automated corner camera and the venerable corner policeman, an institution long recognized for accelerating investigations, raising crime clearance rates, locating missing people, reducing auto theft and generally keeping our streets safe for the law-abiding. The difference? We can no longer afford the policeman. But the much-hated cameras, known as Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) cameras, are embarrassingly efficient. Nor are they subject to the will of public-sector unions or high-minded…
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Eichenberger: Meritocracy
Read more: Eichenberger: Meritocracyby Dan Eichenberger M.D. The word “meritocracy” was born as an insult. In 1958, British sociologist Michael Young published The Rise of the Meritocracy, a dystopian satire warning that a society ruled by intelligence and effort would create a new, more arrogant elite and a resentful underclass. The Left later embraced the term’s pejorative spirit. Today the Democratic Socialists of America and progressive intellectuals treat meritocracy as a dangerous myth and an ideology that legitimizes inequality, stigmatizes…
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Public ‘Service’ Understood
Read more: Public ‘Service’ UnderstoodI’m having trouble sorting out the Andy Zay settlement this week. Zay, a former state senator, describes himself as a “public servant.” As commissioner of the Indiana Utilities, though, he displeased his boss the governor and was fired, somewhat abruptly. But this is politics, not tiddlywinks. Wouldn’t grown-ups just agree to disagree and go their own way? A difference of opinion, a policy clash? Zay could run for governor if he feels that strongly about it. Indeed, my first reaction…