Bipartisanship
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Random Blogging on May 17th, 2012
There’s a lot of talk these days about bipartisanship and the lack thereof. One the one hand, we have cartoon characters like Richard Mourdock and peevish pundits like George Will decrying the very idea. (In a recent column, Will attacks all the bad ideas that have become law as a result of the dreaded cooperation [...]
Indiana’s Choice
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Random Blogging on May 16th, 2012
Now that the primaries are over, and the outlines of the gubernatorial campaign are getting clearer, it is beginning to look as if Hoosiers will have a choice between a candidate with bad ideas and one with no ideas. The Star reports that Democrat John Gregg is advocating both a tax cut for businesses and the [...]
Church, State, Gay, Straight
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Religious Liberty on May 15th, 2012
Okay, it’s time for one of my broken-record rants. In the wake of President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage, we’ve had a predictable–and increasingly tiresome–outpouring of criticisms to the effect that government recognition of such unions violates the “religious liberty” of those who oppose them. No, it doesn’t. Government recognition of civil same-sex marriages is [...]
Looking Backward
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Random Blogging on May 14th, 2012
In 1980, I won the Republican primary for what was then Indiana’s Eleventh Congressional District, defeating three opponents. I was pro-choice and on record supporting equal rights for gays and lesbians (same-sex marriage was not yet an issue), positions that were consistent with the generally libertarian Republicanism of the day. Indeed, my loss to Andy [...]
The Scariest Thing About Mitt Romney
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Public Policy and Governance on May 13th, 2012
This morning’s New York Times asked an important question: is there a “Romney Doctrine”? The article detailed the multiple ways in which Romney has ignored the advice of seasoned members of his foreign policy team, and rejected the more nuanced positions that Bush junior came to embrace in his second term (after learning lessons the [...]
Only in Indiana
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Gay Rights on May 12th, 2012
Over at the Daily Beast, Andrew Sullivan has posted a memo he somehow obtained from a Republican pollster–the same guy who did polling for George W. Bush. The advice he gives GOP candidates–based upon his reading of recent poll results–is pretty astonishing; he bluntly warns that continuing its anti-gay positions and rhetoric will “marginalize the [...]
A Couple of Gloomy Observations
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Random Blogging on May 11th, 2012
Yesterday, I got a phone call from an old friend. Unlike most of my other Republican friends, who have been appalled by the Lugar-Mourdock results, he was euphoric. Why? Because Mourdock “is a bomb thrower! He’ll go to Washington and he won’t play the game!” Also yesterday, a commenter to one of my recent blogs [...]
The Marketplace of Ideas
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Public Policy and Governance on May 10th, 2012
The theory behind freedom of speech was pretty simple: a robust consideration and debate of all ideas will lead to adoption of the better ones. When all points of view can be examined, people will opt for those that are best for that society. The history of civil rights in the U.S. would seem to [...]
Indiana’s Hangover
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Random Blogging on May 9th, 2012
Well, we’ve had our “party”–yesterday was Primary Election day. Today, we have to live with the hangover. The most troubling result, of course, was the defeat of Dick Lugar by an embarrassing know-nothing unworthy to polish his shoes. I have posted several times about the pathetic campaign run by a once-towering statesman. Truth be told, [...]
I Guess I Pissed Him Off….
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Random Blogging on May 8th, 2012
A couple of years ago, after receiving a particularly nasty (unsigned) letter presumably triggered by one of my columns in the Indianapolis Star, I posted a rebuttal of sorts. In it, I noted my frustration with people who respond to ideas with which they disagree by calling names rather than specifying the nature of the disagreement. Today, [...]
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