Gary has discovered a new path to wealth. Encourage movie makers to come and film your urban decay, blight and rot:
Last year the action blockbuster “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” filmed at Gary's abandoned City Methodist Church, which is falling apart from the inside out. The year before, “A Nightmare On Elm Street” also shot scenes there.
Still haven't wiped out sexism in the workplace, I notice. Even mean women are losing out and falling behind:
Hey, kids, let's really go all John Galt on this nation of thieves and parasites and start our own country!
A lot of stories are moving now trying to glean lessons from the terrible stage accident that killed five and injured more than 40 at the State Fair. If there is one, perhaps it is in these remarks by Gov. Mitch Daniels:
Kind of a srange editorial about capital punishment in the Evansville Courier & Press. It is built on the recent news story that Daniel Ray Wilkes, who killed an Evansville woman and her two daughters, has had his sentence reduced from death to life without parole. Two points are then pressed. One is that death-penalty cases are much more expensive to prosecute -- about $450,000, compared with a $42,658 average for a life-without-parole trial.
Anyone who spends six hours a day in front of the box is at risk of dying five years sooner than those who enjoy more active pastimes, it is claimed.
Researchers say that watching too much TV is as dangerous as smoking or being overweight, and that the “ubiquitous sedentary behaviour” should be seen as a “public health problem”.
Starbucks Corp. Chief Executive Howard Schultz is winning support for his call to withhold political contributions from U.S. lawmakers until they strike a "fair, bipartisan" deal on the country's debt, revenue and spending.
A fellow Ball Stater washes out, probably for the last time:
MUNCIE -- Nate Davis' opportunity with the Indianapolis Colts abruptly ended two days after his chance to show the team he was capable of handling a backup position at quarterback.
People are submitting their favorite Gary Larson cartoons to Fark in honor of his 61st birthday. The two picture here are ones I had pinned up in my office for several years:
Gov. Mitch Daniels says there's a chance a statewide smoking ban will pass next year:
Daniels has said in the past that he would sign a statewide smoking ban bill if it passed Indiana's General Assembly. But he has stopped short of making it part of his agenda.
Still, the governor said Wednesday that he wants to see the percent of adult Hoosiers who smoke drop to 20 percent by the end of his term on Dec. 31, 2012.
The Klan is a detestable organization, but surely this isn't the way to go after them:
The Ku Klux Klan sued the prosecutor and sheriff of Rush County, Indiana to fight a littering citation. The Klan claims it was not littering, but distributing leaflets door to door to promote itself "as a fraternal and law abiding organization that works to uphold Christian values."
Juxtaposition of the day. Saw this piece in The New York Times about why there are no Big Ideas anymore:
We live in the much vaunted Age of Information. Courtesy of the Internet, we seem to have immediate access to anything that anyone could ever want to know. We are certainly the most informed generation in history, at least quantitatively. There are trillions upon trillions of bytes out there in the ether — so much to gather and to think about.
This is a big deal and good to hear on an otherwise bad-news Friday:
An appeals court ruled on Friday that President Barack Obama's healthcare law requiring Americans to buy healthcare insurance or face a penalty was unconstitutional, a blow to the White House.
Now this is depressing. I've written frequently about the Tax Foundation's calculation of Tax Freedom Day, which is arrived at by dividing total federal, state and local taxes by national income. This year we worked until April 12 to pay all taxes. But Grover Norquist's group has now calculated a Cost of Government Day by adding in the other costs of government overreach (think Obamacare and the EPA, for example):
How quickly things change. It seems like only yesterday when Jerry Falwell was claiming that Tinky Winky was the gay Teletubby. Now we've gone from right-fringe nuttiness to left-fringe nuttiness, with a petition being circulated online to let Bert and Ernie go ahead and get married since they're obvious a gay couple. The petition is getting so much attention that PBS felt compelled to respond:
The Journal Gazette editorial page has joined the chorus of liberal drones trying to sell the incredible crock that it was the Tea Party's stubbornness that led to the Standard & Poor's downgrade of our credit rating:
Clearly, compromise will be required to develop a workable deficit-reduction plan.
What does state treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock say about the need to reach agreement?
Oh, dear. The first NFL exhibition game or the GOP debate from Iowa. Whatever shall I watch tonight?
Hint: There's a good reason "ARE YOU READY FOR SOME SOUND-BITE POLITICS???!!!!" has never been used as a TV promo.
Sen. Lugar in the news:
For a change of pace, here's a university study that might actually find something useful. Purdue professor Daniel K. Mroczek has received a $2.1 million grant to continue research he's done for 10 years on the link between people's moods and self-discipline and their physical health and longevity:
Never, ever thought I'd be tempted to contribute to PETA. But this is such a darn good cause:
PETA, ever inventive in finding new ways to be outrageous, has hit upon an idea of making Mars a meat-free planet. Toward that end, it has sent a plea to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to make sure this happens, reports Mogulite. How Musk would have that power is an open question.
