Aww, the poor babies:
One night in Adams Morgan, the sons and daughters of lawyers and corporate executives padded into a friend’s rowhouse for a kind of group therapy session about their families’ wealth.
They are young people who have inherited or stand to inherit big money, and they are spending [...]
When we were young and the world was more moral, our games were more wholesome and entertaining. If we wanted to break the ice with members of the opposie sex, a simple straighforward game of strip poker was sufficient. We weren’t absolutely depraved, like these irresponsible young people today:
Allegations [...]
Those mean, stingy county officials just wouldn’t go along, and the mayor is sad, so unbearably sad:
“The dream of a joint solution to Fort Wayne’s and Allen County’s space needs through co-location just died,” a somber Mayor Tom Henry said in a hastily arranged news conference Thursday afternoon.
But who [...]
Got your “God in the Hoosier news” update here. A teenager in Terre Haute expressed dismay at what she perceived as an “intolerant” sign at a church:
Saagarika Coleman submitted a letter to the editor of the Tribune-Star (see page A8) stating that she was “hit with a wave of [...]
As noted earlier here, former Gov. Joe Kernan is returning to Vietnam for the first time since his release from a POW camp there. Guess old warriors can’t help the urge to revisit the battlegrounds of their youth:
It’s been 40 years since John Eckenrode was suspended from the [...]
It’s getting to the point where we should probably begin every story about what they’re doing in Washington with the disclaimer, “No this isn’t a joke. We’re not kidding. They really are considering this.”
Senate Democrats crafting a job creation bill are considering a proposal to give money to workers [...]
The Indiana Supreme Court’s invalidation of part of Zachary’s law seems pretty straightforward. The state constitution bans ex post facto laws in pretty plain language, and the portion of the law requiring even sex offenders convicted prior to the registration law to register is, by intent and effect, retroactive. But [...]
Kellogg Co. says there will be a nationwide shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffles until next summer because of interruptions in production at two of the four plants that make them.
It’s funny how your mind works. I haven’t had an Eggo in years, but the minute I heard [...]
This week’s evidence that End Times are near:
Someone needs to alert Bill Joy — IBM (NYSE:IBM) scientists, using an ultra-powerful supercomputer, have just replicated the cerebral cortex of your average house cat.
At the SC09 supercomputing conference in Portland, Ore., this week, Big Blue announced that it has [...]
We have an out-of-towner at Meijer’s today. Well, yeah, Gov. Sarah Palin, too, but I mean this woman:
Debbie Coning of Portage, Mich., hasn’t slept a wink. She arrived at the Meijer store at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon to claim the first spot in line. She had driven all [...]
Proof that Indiana is not out of the political mainstream — we have imaginary congressional districts, too!
The imaginary 00, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 18th Congressional Districts of Indiana have, according to recovery.gov, made a tax dollar windfall of about $5.3 million, and ‘created or saved’ 9 jobs - all [...]
Joe Kernan is still one of the classiest guys around. He had planned to go on a trade mission to Vietnam when he was lieutenant governor, but the trip fell through, and he says he’s always wanted to go back to the country where he fought and was held [...]
Former Fort Wayne educator Eugene White has had his ups and downs as superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools. This could probably be considered a down period, since parents at three high schools want his head on a platter:
Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Eugene White said Tuesday there is no [...]
Gee, do ya think?
The United States’ climbing national debt could drag the country into a “double-dip recession,” President Obama warned in an interview with Fox News Wednesday from China, though he said he’s still considering additional tax incentives for businesses to reverse the rising unemployment rate.
[. . .]
”I think [...]
RealClearPolitics puts Gov. Mitch Daniels second on its list of five most likely GOP dark horses for the 2012 presidential nomination, just behind South Dakota Sen. John Thune (”a political giant-killer, knocking off then Minority Leader Tom Dachle in 2004.”) and just ahead of Texas Gov. Rick Perry (”rock-solid [...]
The first sentence of this story makes you think, “Well, the poor guy obviously isn’t comfortable with who he is – no wonder he drinks.”
The male principal of a local elementary school was arrested for suspicion of OWI while wearing a pink dress, wig and high heels, according to reports.
But then we [...]
Just what we need — a General Assembly that starts early so it can create more mischief:
The Indiana House and Senate have planned rare December hearings on key legislation – including a proposed constitutional amendment to limit property tax bills – in hopes that lawmakers can get more done [...]
If you’re not worried yet about the implications of trying terror suspects in a civil criminal court, maybe this will help:
The greatest danger posed in the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) isn’t that he will go free. The greatest danger is that he will be convicted and that [...]
This sound a little Orwellian to anybody besides me?
INDIANAPOLIS - A felon’s friends and hobbies could influence how much time he spends behind bars if the Indiana Supreme Court upholds a lower-court ruling.
At issue is a type of psychological test commonly used by probation officers to assess whether an [...]
I like some of the things mentioned by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett that have been done to help the state better compete for a share of the federal Department of Education’s $4 billion “Race to the Top” education grant program — not putting a cap on charter schools, for [...]
DePauw University professor Kevin Howley didn’t think much of media coverage of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall — a “myopic and narcissistic view of history” by a bunch of celebrity reporters “waxing nostalgic” about their own role in history:
What’s more, it re-inscribes a particular interpretation of [...]
The New Oxford American Dictionary has chosen its word of the year for 2009, and, strangely, “Obamessiah” wasn’t even on the list:
“Birther ” was in the running, so was “death panels,” but in the end the New Oxford American Dictionary can only pick one word of the year. For [...]
Dang — I missed National Pickle Day. If you hunger for some real pickles — sweet but spicy — you have to try these, the sweet fire pickles from one of my favorite mail-order places, the New Braunfels Smokehouse. And their smoked brisket is — well, let’s just [...]
A feature in yesterday’s Washington Post on how to grow a political party from the ground up focused on Republicans in St. Joseph County, a group more distressed than Democrats in Allen County. When Chris Riley accepted the unpaid job as GOP chairman in 2006, he says it was “maybe the [...]
“Binge drinking” is defined as “five or more drinks for a man and four for a woman,” which are ”consumed at one sitting and with the intention of getting drunk.” The bad news is that 48 percent of Hoosier college students surveyed reported binge drinking in a two week period, [...]
I’ve made some spectacularly bad decisions in my life, and I’ve worked for bosses who made some dumb moves the worker bees were expected to just keep quiet about. But now the pressure is off all of us; we no longer have to work so hard at apologizing or forgetting our bum calls, [...]
President George W. Bush seems to regert the $700 billion Wall Street bailout:
I went against my free-market instincts and approved a temporary government intervention to unfreeze the credit markets so that we could avoid a major global depression.
Damage done, apology too little and too late. And without mentioning Barack [...]
I’m going to stick my fingers in my ears and go na-na-na-na until you’re done talking, ’cause I just don’t want to hear it. That seems to be the attitude of some at Purdue University about library prof. Bert Chapman’s provocative blog post on “the economic arguments against homosexuality.”
But [...]
Shame on the residents of Fishers for voting to spend more money on education, complicating things for everbody else in the state. So says the Richmond Palladium-Item:
Officials in Fishers say the referendum approval will spare them having to cut at least 60 teachers in the faces of property tax [...]
People are freaking out over revelations that the Lucas Oil Stadium’s food service has been cited 42 times and fined $3,900 for, among other things, the presence of mice and mice feces. The vice president of the Capital Improvement Board wants to assure fans, though, that those responsible for [...]
The disaster film “2012,” based on all the hype about Mayan calendars and doomsday predictions, prompted this, 10 end-of-the-world predictions that, well, didn’t turn out. I call your attention to this one, since Pat is still around and apparently not even a little bit embarrassed at having been so [...]
If I tried to rank the worst Supreme Court decisions in my lifefime, Kelo v. City of New London, which more or less put the last nail in the coffin of private property, would be right up there. And what came of it? Nothing:
The Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in [...]
Getting beyond the “political correctness” argument for what happened at Fort Hood:
The most-heard reason for the possible failure is political correctness. No doubt. But Sen. Lieberman’s committee should avoid making this its main line of inquiry, because that is a problem without a policy fix. It minimizes the real [...]
If I get the flu, I should stay home so I don’t infect my co-workers. But if I do that, I might make my cats sick:
EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - A cat in Iowa has the H1N1 flu, most likely caught from it’s owners. The cat is recovering, but as 14 News found, [...]
Hoosiers are just a bunch of anti-tax yahoos. We dare not give them the power of a referenum and actually let them vote on scool building projects or big tax increases — nothing would ever be approved again!
Voters in Indiana’s fastest-growing community have overwhelmingly approved a referendum giving its [...]
So, the government’s stimulus plan has created or saved how many jobs?
“Stimulus” is in the process of turning a nasty recession into a genuine depression. The evidence is in the “Employment Situation” report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on November 6th. The “headline” unemployment rate shot [...]
Some insightful Veterans Day thoughts:
My father came out of World War II with decidedly mixed feelings about war: that some times it was necessary and that most of the time it wasn’t. He was never particularly political, but he was outspoken that no child of his would ever serve in any [...]
From Rand Simberg, who says the problem isn’t that Obama doesn’t spend enough time on the economy, it’s that his philosophy isn’t capable of stimulating growth, this sounds about right:
But something he could have done — that would have cost nothing at all — would have been to not [...]
Congratulations to the City Council. It got this one right:
A gas station and mini-strip mall appear to be on their way to the south side of downtown Fort Wayne after City Council approved the rezoning of about two acres at 3230 Fairfield Avenue.
Council twice voted, 6-2 and 7-1, on [...]
So, next year, Mark Souder is going to face a primary challenge from somebody running to his right:
. . . to hear Phil Troyer tell it - it’s time to lower the curtain on a supposedly conservative politician who has forgotten his roots.
Is Mark Souder, who just this week [...]
Is Elkhart noisier than all other Indiana cities, or are they just obsessed about the issue?
Drivers in the northern Indiana city of Elkhart may want to think twice about pumping up the volume on their car stereos.
The city is aggressively enforcing its noise ordinance, which carries a fine of [...]
Hey, just in case you were worried about the old Memorial Stadium not having a useful future:
INDIANAPOLIS - Hundreds of vehicles destined for the scrap heap are filling what once was the outfield of the former minor league baseball stadium in Indianapolis.
A salvage company is leasing the Bush Stadium [...]
Ah, those crazy Californians, they just kind of make up the law as they go along:
Setting up a potential showdown with the mayor, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors reinstated an ordinance on Tuesday requiring that juvenile offenders who are illegal immigrants be convicted of a crime before they [...]
Oprah’s TV efforts have always seemed just a heartbeat away from being a freak show, and now she dives into the slime bucket head first:
WESTVILLE — A month from the day he is set to be executed at the Lakeside Correctional Facility, Matthew Eric Wrinkles will appear on national [...]
I suspect this is one of those cases in which the city feels it has to fight to the bitter end in fear of setting some kind of precedent. God knows what trouble in might get in if it got the reputation of being soft on back-pay issues. But it does [...]
19-year old Alison Lesch of Auburn faces a preliminary charge of attempted murder for putting her hours-old newborn daugher in a garbage bag and leaving her in a Dumpster. It is being suggested that she could have avoided the whole unpleasantness of being arrested if she had just been thinking [...]
Have I missed something?
Anti-abortion Democrats have reignited the national abortion wars with their victory Saturday on an amendment to House health care legislation that would prevent women from obtaining abortions through government-sponsored insurance or any plan that receives government subsidies.
Reignited the abortion wars? When did those flames go out, [...]
Events have pulled us into ultra seriousness lately, so let’s do one just for fun:
Boston (DbTechNo) - Results of a new study will be very interesting to men, as US scientists have been able to grow penile erectile tissue using stem cells and bunny rabbits.
I swear, I can’t leave you people alone for a second. I take one little week off, then come home to discover no one has killed cap and trade or health care reform yet. In fact, the march toward statism is so far along I wonder if the whole concept [...]
What is it they say, God takes care of drunks and fools? He must also keep an eye out occasionally for journalist bloggers, who often exhibit characteristics of both.
At my brother’s last week, we didn’t get around to our range session until Wednesday, but we had a good time shooting [...]
I’ve reached another milestone in my life by having breakfast with Wolfgang Puck. Well, not exactly with him, but with numerous photos of him staring at me from the walls of his franchised eatery at the Indianapolis airport. My sister and I got to the airport early and hungry on [...]
I’m taking next week off to visit my brother in Texas. I might post a few photos from Hill Country, though, if you feel like checking in occasionally.
[...]One of the cool things about become a regular at a restaurant is that you learn about the things only the regulars know — food items that aren’t on the menu but which you can get by knowing to ask for them. Apparently, fast-food places have secret items, too. Out [...]
It’s not absolute, but we have something called the “American bystander rule.” (pdf file) In the United States in general, we do not have have a legal duty to intervene if someone else is in danger (regardless of whatever moral duty we might or might not have). Would we [...]
Aw, shucks, don’t mention it. Glad to be of service:
MUNCIE — Carol Schafer has been looking for work since she and 10 other employees at Radiology Associates and Bethel Billing were laid off Nov. 8, 2008.
Now Schafer is considering expanding her job search to include nursing homes, an industry [...]
Isn’t ”branding” one of the biggest scams in the world? Consultants make millions convincing communities they can sell the sizzle instead of delivering the steak. The latest suckers in Indiana are in the northwest part of the state:
The Indiana Dunes in Porter County is perhaps the eighth wonder of the [...]
Baltimore Sun photo
It’s not enough for some people to lose their own dignity on Halloween, prancing around in silly costumes. They have to go into anthropomorphic overdrive and inflict the nonsense on their hapless pets, too:
A lot of kids will be wearing scary costumes [...]
Fishers has seen an increase in property crime in the last few years, and since “it is unclear why,” somebody has to explain it to befuddled residents:
Experts say changes in crime have little to do with the economy. Instead, they say Fishers’ growth likely is a factor in the [...]
They’re trying to scare the peasants in three Indiana school districts where there are spending referendums necessitated by the state’s evil property tax caps designed to, well, reduce spending:
If approved, the referendum changes would be in effect for seven years. If they fail, leaders say they would be forced [...]
When Indiana leased its toll road for $3.8 billion in 2006, a lot of critics accused the Daniels administration of giving away the state, but a lot of other state governments looked to follow that example and the one three years earlier involving Chicago Skyway lease. There were proposals on the [...]
Having solved all other problems, Indiana University now devotes some of those research dollars to . . . office gossip. Researchers observed meetings and even taped 13 of them and came to this startling conclusion:
”Be aware that what is going on is a form of politics and it’s a form [...]
Nothing is left to chance these days, not even how much of a haul a kid might make trick-or-treating:
The folks at Zillow.com have created their first Trick or Treat Housing Index, which draws on the site’s real estate data to determine the top-five neighborhoods in Seattle and [...]
Media alert! The Obama daughters have gotten their swine flu shots. But, wait, a potential controversy!
The vaccinations are bound to raise questions about whether the Obama girls were given special treatment.
Oh, please. And this just in: After the president gets bad press for the frat house atmosphere of [...]
The scammers never sleep:
As you protect your family from swine flu, be aware of scams promising relief from the virus.
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller says some Internet retailers are selling products that claim to be H1N1 flu medicines, but they’re actually fake or unapproved.
But this is just [...]
This week’s sign that the End Times are near:
Legislative ethics reform won some important but unexpected backers Tuesday: leaders of the Indiana House and Senate.
House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, laid out a package of reforms for the legislative session that begins Jan. 4, [...]
The kind of story we don’t see every day (thank goodness):
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — State health officials say a person from southern Indiana’s Clark County has died of rabies.
The state Department of Health announced the death Tuesday, saying it was the first human death from rabies in Indiana since 2006 and [...]
Probably more honest than he intended to be:
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) says Democrats are “trying on every front to increase the role of government.”
And pretty much succeeding.
[...]Must be divine justice of some kind — The United Nations is investigating New York:
Everybody knows New York City is an expensive place to live. But the United Nations wants to know if affordable housing is so tough to come by that it actually violates human rights.
The United Nations [...]
Those of us who attended college in the bad old days of repression and guilt clearly missed out on all the fun:
Sexploration at IU, the second annual weeklong series of fun, interactive sex-positive events offering Indiana University students information about sexuality related issues, begins today (Oct. 26) on the [...]
I’m no fan of excessive regulation, but this doen’t seem unreasonable:
The Bloomington City Council approved a change the city’s animal code Monday night.
The new ordinance limits the number of cats and dogs a resident can own to 19.
Anbody who needs more than 19 dogs and/or cats has a problem. [...]
Is America in decline? Depends:
The question of whether America is in decline cannot be answered yes or no. There is no yes or no. Both answers are wrong, because the assumption that somehow there exists some predetermined inevitable trajectory, the result of uncontrollable external forces, is wrong. Nothing is [...]
We don’t need cap-and-trade legislation to wreck the economy. The EPA can do that all by itself:
While campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama said his cap-and-trade tax plans would “bankrupt” anyone building a coal-fired power plant. Although those taxes haven’t materialized, the Environmental Protection Agency has put [...]
Government fraud? Say it isn’t so:
The Department of Defense awarded nearly $30 million in stimulus contracts to six companies while they were under federal criminal investigation on suspicion of defrauding the government.
According to Air Force documents, the companies claimed to be small, minority-owned businesses, which allowed them to gain [...]
Officials in West Lafayette are missing a wonderful opportunity to improve the lives of city residents. Seems a landlord was informed that his rental property was “in need of aesthetic improvements.” In response to that helpful reminder, city inspectors contend, he went and painted the house pink. Some in the neighborhood [...]
A measly buck? Anybody wants to do a fundraiser like this here, I’d be in for at least $10:
A group of Purdue students who generally spend their time extolling the virtues of computers spent a good chunk of Friday smashing them.
For $1, the computer design and graphics students allowed [...]
So long, Giants. Goodbye, Vikings. It was fun yesterday to watch the Colts so handily stay, with the Saints and the Brocos, in the undefeated column. As the Times reminds, this is the first NFL season with three undefeated teams after Week 7. But also:
Is also seems to be [...]
Here’s a little refreshing honesty from a public official. Indiana has been receiving a lot more per capita doses of H1N1 vaccine than Kentucky, which means Indiana ordered its supplies much earlier and asked for more:
When asked about Kentucky’s slow rate of ordering and receiving the vaccine, Gwenda Bond, [...]
Never say the green goofs can’t possibly get any goofier:
THEY’RE faithful, friendly and furry - but under their harmless, fluffy exteriors, dogs and cats, the world’s most popular house pets, use up more energy resources in a year than driving a car, a new book says.
In their book Time to [...]
Most of the Soupy Sales obits concentrate on his national presence, but the Detroit Free Press has a good read on his early days as a local TV celebrity:
Sales was best known to Detroiters as the goofy yet cerebral host of “Lunch with Soupy,” a half-hour show that featured [...]
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Nutrition officials hope a new poverty demonstration will show Indiana community leaders and healthcare providers what it’s like to be poor.
In the “Reality of Poverty” simulation, participants assume the roles of families facing poverty. They are challenged to provide for basic needs such [...]
An article in Reason argues that the death of newspapers won’t mean the death of news:
News, on the other hand, is doing great on the Web. While newspaper loyalists are forever touting the original reporting that appears in your morning fish wrap as the factor that distinguishes it from [...]
Apparently the wild is calling us back. Fishing license sales are up 8.1 percent in Indiana this year and 7.7 percent in the nation. How come?
Officials said one reason fishing is becoming more popular could be because the slumping economy may give people more time to enjoy outdoor activities.
That’s [...]
There has been a sharp decline over the past year in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising. And fewer also see global warming as a very serious problem — 35% say that today, down from 44% in April 2008.
Still [...]
Ah, youth’s eternal optimism, here on display in the Indiana Statesman, student newspaper at Indiana State University:
The topic of marijuana legalization has been a growing trend, especially now that 13 states have legalized it for medicinal purposes. Since Illinois is currently reconsidering a medicinal bill, the subject is coming [...]
A little bit of fiscal sanity (and every little bit helps) from Indiana’s two senators:
Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh crossed party lines Wednesday in helping Republican senators block floor consideration of a bill increasing Medicare payments to doctors.
Bayh, who said the bill’s $247 billion cost was [...]
Dang. You would have thought this was for hot concert tickets or the newest electronic gaming device:
The line for the first public H1N1 flu vaccination this morning included anxious parents and children, pregnant women, elderly folks pushing walkers and a few people wearing surgical masks.
The [...]
There’s a lot of libertarian outrage out there today over the arrest of a Virginia man who was charged with indecent exposure for walking around naked in his own home. He says he was just making coffee at the time (early in the morning), but the complaining mother who [...]
I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that Bob Dylan has a Christmas album. I’m one of the world’s biggest Dylan fans, but this still has to rank as one of the oddest musical decisions of all time. The amazon.com site at [...]
Fort Wayne is trying to become more bike-friendly, doing things like putting bike lanes and bike racks downtown. That seems like a good idea even to an internal-combustion-loving dinosaur like me, a way to make the city seem more accessible and less threatening. But some see bikes as a menace, [...]
It’s funny what catches the national eye sometimes. I saw the story yesterday about the praying robber at an Indianapolis store and didn’t think anything about it. There was nothing to say about it, except maybe a snide remark about praying in public (surely a firing offense) or the [...]
Wow. Suddenly, Mark Sanford looks like the classy South Carolina Republican:
Two Republican county officials in South Carolina have apologized after they disparaged Jews in a newspaper op-ed in support of a fiscally conservative U.S. senator.
The chairmen, Edwin Merwin Jr. and Jim Ulmer, wrote the newspaper in backing Republican Sen. [...]
Guess it must be my turn to comment on Tax Foundation reports lately. Here’s the third one in five days touching on Indiana. This one is pretty good news, ranking states by buisness tax climate by considering business property tax rates, the sales tax, individual taxes, corporate taxes and unemployment insurance taxes:
Indiana’s [...]
I wonder which century Evansville Mayor Johnathan Weinzapfel has been living in. Talks between the city and the state and federal governments over sewage discharge broke down, and on Monday Evansville got sued. There is the possibility of heavy fines, and the mayor is outraged:
Weinzapfel said the city will [...]
Guess that old joke about watching a fight when a hockey game broke out isn’t so funny after all:
Because they know so many fans love fighting, the International Hockey League owners changed the rules this summer to add an extra game roster spot and encourage more of it.
[. . [...]
Anybody still think the state is going to hold the line on expansion of gambling? A legislative panel was told this week that if Kentucky and Ohio go ahead with casino proposals and if Michigan OKs an expansion of its gambling, Indiana could lose as much aqs $250 million [...]
