The state's overreaction to the phony RFRA outrage has officially hit rock bottom:
Indiana's economic development and tourism agencies announced Monday they have hired global PR firm Porter Novelli to help rebuild the state's image in the wake of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act debacle.
It's not a "red state vs. blue state" fight going on out there. It's city vs. country:
It's difficult enough to find good, thoughtful articles about the great RFRA freakout that try to look at both the discrimination and refligious aspects, let alone one that tries to put the whole issue in historical and constitutional perspective.
On March 20, DelRea Good was driving olone on a dark country road in Porter County when a police officer, who had clocked her at 54 mph in a 35 mph zone, tried to pull her over. She waved to the officer, slowed down, put on her hazard lights and proceeded to a well-lit Kohl's parking lot less than a mile down the road. A wise move, right? Woman driving alone at night, anything could happen. Wrong:
You have to get used to a certain amount of posturing in this business, just accept that a lot of the people you're talking to are saying things just for effect. But honestly, the posturing in the last week over Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoraion Act has become insufferable.
The "religious freedom" act heading to the governor's desk provides a good case study of how polarized we've become.
Given the well-publicized abuse of veterans by the people who are supposed to help them, you'd think people dealing with them would start being a little more cautious in word and deed. Apparently a little slow on the uptake in Indianapolis:
A manager at the Roudebush Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Indianapolis appears to mock the mental health problems of returning combat veterans in an email to her employees.
Our editorial page has been hard on Gov. Mike Pence both for his Common Core efforts and his negotiating with the Obama administration on Medicaid expansion. Our general gripe has been the usual conservative one -- that he seems to be trying to have it both ways, speaking one way and actually acting another way. So in the interest of fairness, I feel I should call your attention to this George Will column in which he offers praise for Pence on both issues.
On Common Core:
Gov. Mike Pence has had a bad week, and this isn't going to make it any better. The conservative Hot Air blog just did a post-Freedom Summit survey asking its readers for their GOP presidential picks. Confirming that he is, as the digital kids say, trending, Scott Walker came in first of the 14 candidates listed, and Ted Cruz was second. So this readership is obviously from the conservative wing of the GOP. And what did they think of Pence?
