IndyStar.com: Commentary
Indiana's leading news source for all the top stories, local news, sports and weather.
Not worth killing health reform
Let’s dispense with three fallacies swirling about the question of abortion coverage in health care reform. Two are being peddled by anti-abortion forces. One, perhaps the most relevant, is being pushed by the pro-choice side. To be clear about...
GOP has tradition of picking fights
For Sarah Palin, with her personality and history, to tell Rush Limbaugh that Republicans should welcome primary fights within their own ranks is hardly surprising. As much as it may pain her many critics, she also has a lot of history on her side....
Tired of excuses
Fannie Lou Hamer’s famous lament has now become my refrain: I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. In this case I am speaking of the decline and near extinction of values conveyed by responsible parents to their children, particularly in...
The best of our faiths
The Fort Hood tragedy, where an Army psychiatrist went on a rampage killing 13 people, may be understood as the act of one deeply troubled individual that has nothing to do with religion. All our religious traditions — Judaism, Christianity and...
Coercion that limits choice
PHOENIX —In 2006, long before there was an Obama administration determined to impose a command-and-control federal health care system, a young orthopedic surgeon walked into the Goldwater Institute here with an idea. The institute,...
Lipstick on a rogue
You have to hand it to Sarah Palin. I don’t mean you have to hand her the 2012 nomination. Nor do you have to hand her the $24.64 I overpaid for “Going Rogue.” But let us give credit where credit card is due. Remember back in the...
A lesson from Ramallah
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Looking at this city, you can imagine what a Palestinian state could someday be like if folks got serious: The streets are clean, there’s new construction in every direction, and Palestinian soldiers line the roads....
Th mammogram factor
Calm. That’s not a word one hears much these days, but calm is what some are urging in the wake of a new federal report on breast cancer screening. Released Monday, the report has caused a stir with its recommendation that women in their 40s...
Adios to Dobbs
Many Latinos probably feel like salsa dancing in the streets now that CNN has finally cleared the air by purging itself of Lou Dobbs. Dobbs’ problem wasn’t that he opposed illegal immigration. That’s true of most Americans. Yet...
The hand Obama should play
The more President Barack Obama examines our options in Afghanistan, the less he likes the choices he sees. But, as the old saying goes, to govern is to choose — and he has stretched the internal debate to the breaking point. It is evident from...
We need a civilian ROTC
Imagine a time when government work was exciting, widely admired, and much sought after. It seems an outlandish thought at a moment when you cannot turn on your television without hearing government spoken of as almost an alien creature. It is cast...
Crane keeps eye out for our troops
Second of two parts Veterans Day and the horrific Fort Hood massacre have brought the fact that we are a nation at war back into the headlines. At the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane in Southern Indiana, protecting our troops and caring for our...
Time to bury the death tax
Kevin Hancock simply wants to harvest trees — sustainably — and create jobs in the process. The federal government may put a stop to all that. His business, Hancock Lumber, has been in the family for six generations. It owns 30,000 acres...
Being Sarah
No force on earth can stop Sarah Palin from becoming our very own “lite” version of Eva Peron — a glamorous and tragic legend, minus the tragedy. Eventually, some clever composer will write a blockbuster musical about her life and...
A long road to reform
The health-care reform debate has mainly focused on making health insurance more affordable and available for the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans. This worthy but controversial endeavor represents only the initial task in ultimately creating a...
Sarah Palin: a case study
I saw the other day that George W. Bush is raising money for his proposed policy institute at Southern Methodist University. I did some research and found out that there are something like 3,000 policy institutes, most of them hosting convocations...
Divergent interests test U.S.-India ties
Next week, President Barack Obama will welcome India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Washington for the first state dinner of his presidency. Many observers will focus on the glitz and glam, but the geopolitical implications are far more...
Don't let abortion break deal
For some years, Democrats have denounced parodies casting their party as utterly closed to the views of those who oppose abortion. Last weekend, Democrats proved conclusively that they are, indeed, a big tent — and many in the ranks are...
Kathleen Parker: Civil discussions
Growing concern about incivility is one of America’s more appealing trends. Increasingly, individuals and institutions are seeking ways to burnish the Golden Rule. The concern isn’t new, but recent events and trends — from rowdy...
Fed in the cross hairs
Among the cherished prerogatives of members of Congress is the right to second-guess. That ritual is now playing itself out with a vengeance as the solons of Capitol Hill attack the Federal Reserve for its role in last year’s financial...
Medicalizing mass murder
What a surprise — that someone who shouts “Allahu Akbar” (the “God is great” jihadist battle cry) as he is shooting up a room of American soldiers might have Islamist motives. It certainly was a surprise to the...
Bring them home, Mr. President
The most dreadful burden of the presidency — the power to send men and women to die for their country — seems to weigh heavily on Barack Obama these days. He went to Dover Air Force Base to salute the coffins of fallen troops. He gave a...
A picture can lie
The 20th century was 100 years of amplitude. It overflowed with barbarous fighting faiths, wars enveloping continents, and graphic journalism assaulting global audiences with scenes of shocking immediacy. The Spanish Civil War, although small in...
Bring them home, Mr. President
The most dreadful burden of the presidency — the power to send men and women to die for their country — seems to weigh heavily on Barack Obama these days. He went to Dover Air Force Base to salute the coffins of fallen troops. He gave a...
A bill that doesn't pay the bill
While the House Democrats spent the week congratulating themselves for squeezing out the midnight passage of their version of health-care reform, neutral observers were reminding them: You’ve left the job half done. Having watched Hillary and...
E-mails could shed light on tragedy, if we can see them
On Veterans Day, Army Sgt. Dale Griffin was honored in Terre Haute. His flag-draped coffin rode in the Veterans Day parade. His services were at South Vigo High School and he was buried with military honors at Highland Lawn Cemetery. This was the day...
The false choice
It was one of those small shocks that come unexpectedly in the wake of a death. Just days after the country had buried Ted Kennedy, Cardinal Sean O’Malley took to his blog to defend himself from critics attacking him for presiding over the...
In heart of Indiana, Crane pumps up U.S. military
Its slogan, “harnessing the power of technology for the war fighter,” sums up its broad and sophisticated missions. The Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Crane is one of the fastest growing federal research and development...
China's choice
One of the few incontrovertible assertions one can reasonably make is that no one supports forced abortion. Yet, coerced abortions, as well as involuntary sterilizations, are commonplace in China, Beijing’s protestations notwithstanding....
Relying on mistruths
I’m hoping, for your sake, that you didn’t spend your Saturday night as I did: watching the House debate health care reform on C-SPAN. Pathetic, I know. The outcome wasn’t in doubt, and the arguments were as familiar as an old pair...
