The third annual Bulen Symposium on American Politics, held last Monday at IUPUI, was devoted to “epolitics.” The discussion was lively. Depending upon the speaker, we learned that the Internet has lessened (or increased) political participation, is used more by Republicans (or libertarians), circulates devastating (or puerile) political humor, and will replace “butterfly ballots” with reliable electronics (or will enable fraud of hitherto unknown magnitude).
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Author Archives: Sheila
The Nanny State
The powers that be have recently decreed that Indiana motorists can be stopped and ticketed solely for failure to use their seatbelts. Prior to the new rule, a traffic cop who had stopped you for another violation -speeding, or a missing taillight — could issue a secondary citation if he also found you without proper restraints, but he…
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Defending Parental Rights
Among the most precious rights of parenthood is our right to raise our children in accordance with our own religious beliefs, free of government interference. Clergy are usually among the fiercest defenders of that right. Ministers and rabbis are more…
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With a Whimper
T.S. Eliot wrote “This is the way the world ends….Not with a bang, but a whimper.” I thought of that line from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” when I read the headline in the City State section of the Indianapolis Star on November 10th, detailing events that will probably lead to the demise of AIDServe, Indiana.
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The Continuing Saga of the Scouts
Sometimes, you may win by losing. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, strange and promising things are happening.
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