I hate being in my "It's a sick, twisted world" mood, but living in a sick, twisted world will do that to you:
A Colorado couple says they are the victims of a hate crime because someone stole a “VOTE SATAN” sign from their front porch, but police say the incident sounds more like simple theft.
Actor Andy Griffith, who won the hearts of 1960s TV viewers with his role as gentle Sheriff Andy Taylor in “The Andy Griffith Show,” then returned as a 1980s country lawyer in “Matlock,” died Tuesday at 86, according to WITN-TV.
Oh, come on, Rand. Don't you know what an utter waste of time this would be for the members of our rushed and overburdened ruling class?
After blasting the Senate last week for passing a 600-page bill no one had time to read, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced legislation that would force the Senate to give its members one day to read bills for every 20 pages they contain.
I'll let anyone else who cares to comment on the gender-identity basis of this story, but I couldn't help noting this observation by Argentine President Christina Fernandez:
Argentina is showing the world that equality is just as important as liberty, she said.
Fear-mongering crap from a supposedly responsible news organization:
WASHINGTON (AP) - If you want a glimpse of some of the worst of global warming, scientists suggest taking a look at U.S. weather in recent weeks.
Horrendous wildfires. Oppressive heat waves. Devastating droughts. Flooding from giant deluges. And a powerful freak wind storm called a derecho.
This may not be the stupidest idea for a TV series I've seen lately, but it comes darn close:
A&E has ordered a drama series inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Psycho.
[. . .]
I'm on City Councilman Mitch Harper's emailing list, and on Sunday, he sent out a storm-related message that included the following:
As many in Fort Wayne continue restoring power and assessing damages, let's plan for the future. The city council needs to contract an independent risk assessment of the viability of underground power lines. Like any good business, long-term planning for disasters is typically a good investment which uses dimes to save dollars.
Hooray -- power back at my house as of 2:15 p.m. The bad news is that the meat in the freezer was thawed, so I'll have to start over, empty out the fridge and the freezer -- and don't bring up home owners insurance; I have a $1,000 deductible.
You remember that change in Casttle Doctrine law the General Assembly passed last year, the one that has public safety officials trembling in fear that it's now open season on cops? Apparently, some cops aren't as trembly as others. A heavily armed SWAT team in Evansville kicked in the storm door of a home where 18-year-old Stephanie Mill was watching TV and threw a flash-bang stun grenade in on her. But -- whoops! -- turns out they were at the wrong door:
Hey, I've had my "Read my lips" moment with a president I thought could be trusted on taxes. Now you Democrats enjoy yours, hear?
Oh, one other blackout-related item. Naturally, the longer you go without electricity, the more you worry about the food in your fridge and freezer. I don't know why, but it was stuck in my head that, as long as you kept the doors closed, the food in your fridge was good for about 24 hours, and what was in the freezer would be OK for up to three days. Good thing I checked. Every site I looked at had the same thing:
Welcome to Mother Nature's Blackout. Have you find any oases of light and cool to get you through the last few days? Let us consider the Waffle House Index:
Its hurricane playbook explains how to reopen a restaurant and what to serve if there is gas but no electricity, or a generator but no ice. An important element is limiting the menu so the company's supply chain can focus on keeping certain items stocked and chilled or frozen.
Hey, want something interesting to read that's not about health care? Charles McGrath has a fascinating piece in The New York Times about bad people who create good art:
So, OK, it was a little hot yesterday. Quit yer whinin':
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Thursday will go down as the hottest day ever for many Indiana locales, and the steamy temperatures will stick around for at least another day.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Mike Pence, the Indiana congressman who is running for governor, is apologizing for a private reaction to the Supreme Court ruling. Fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill say he compared the ruling to the 9/11 tragedy.
It almost got lost in all the buzz over Obamacare, but the Supreme Court today also released its opinion in the Stolen Valor Act, a 6-3 voted to repeal:
I've been reading everything I can on the Supreme Court's Obamacare ruling, and it seems to amount mostly to cries of foul from conservatives and a great deal of gloating by liberals. About the best analysis I've seen so far is by Larry Slolum at the Legal Theory Blog, who says it represents a "gestalt shift" in constitutional law rather than the "tectonic shift" invalidating the mandate (instead of merely renaming it a tax) would have been:
I've seen a lot of misreporting this week of Monday's Supreme Court ruling on juvenile sentincing, especially in headlines, like this one on an Associated Press story -- "U.S. Supreme Court: No more life without parole for juveniles." The ruling wasn't quite that sweeping, as the story eventually makes a little clearer. What the 5-4 decision did was abolish mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles.
Boy, talk about a nice bump in pay:
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels will receive a big pay raise when he leaves office in January and takes over as president of Purdue University , possibly earning more than five times as much salary.
