There actually is something called the Journal of Animal Ethics, and the loons who publish it have penned an editorial declaring that our dogs, cats and hamsters should be rebranded as "companion animals" and owners should be known as "human carers." They say "pets" is a derogatory term and "owner," while technically correct, harks back to a time when animals were considered just property. Furthermore:
An intriguing and provocative theory about why American soldiers suffer Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at a higher rate than other soldiers:
American writer Ethan Watters's recent book, Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the Western Psyche, offers a highly subversive answer. It is that American society has been permeated by psychoanalytical beliefs about the fragility of the human mind.
Kathy Richardson is right -- the proposal would change the rules in the middle of the game:
The Indiana House is balking at a Senate plan to let Gov. Mitch Daniels appoint a replacement if Secretary of State Charlie White is found ineligible to be elected.
The Indianapolis Tea Party wanted the city to waive $450 in fees for bagging parking meters during an event. The Indianapolis Board of Public Works said no:
This is not a joke. Well, it is, but it wasn't meant to be:
The brutal crackdown by Syrian President Bashar Assad may finally be getting the attention of world leaders -- but apparently not enough to stop Syria from becoming the newest member of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Man, this is one determined rapist:
MUNCIE -- A man who forced his way into a woman's apartment near The Village raped the woman even after she stabbed him four times, according to police reports.
The victim told police that the man was using a T-shirt to soak up blood from his wounds as he continued to carry out the attack early Easter morning.
Bye, bye, birthers; don't let the door hit you on the way out. President Obama finally releases his "long form" birth certificate, and:
The law gone amok. In England, a pub singer was arrested for his choice of songs:
A PUB singer was arrested for alleged "racism" after belting out the chart hit Kung Fu Fighting as two Chinese people walked past.
One of them complained to cops, who later nicked stunned Simon Ledger - in a Chinese restaurant.
Simon, 34, often performs the song in Sandown, Isle of Wight. He said: "I hadn't even seen these two."
It's a completely defensible use of tax dollars to fund access to knowledge for all, regardless of income, which is the function libraries have traditionally served. But what about now, when their role has changed so drastically?
Michael Kinsley asks a very good question:
If the national debt doesn't matter, why do we have taxes at all? Why not just borrow the entire federal budget?
And if it does matter, start reducing it. If $1.6 trillion isn't the point at which deficits start to matter, he adds, where in the world is it?
Aww, man; now inflation is hitting me where I live:
That morning cup of coffee is going to cost you more.
Coffee prices are at a 34-year high — $3 a pound.
Yet coffee drinkers plan on grinding out the extra cash because they need that cup of Joe, CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports.
Me, too, I'm afraid. And I buy Dunkin' Donuts coffee, which is pricier than most anyway.
A poll of likely Republican voters by the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics confirms the consensus that had been reached by political observers: In the GOP primary, it's essentially a two-person race for mayor:
It's big enough news that Indiana is creating what will be the largest school voucher program in the country. The bigger news is that we're part of a nationwide trend representing the resurrection of school choice as one tool in efforts to improve education. In Washington, House Republicans managed to restore the school choice program in D.C. killed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. And voucher plans are being implemented or debated in a growing number of states:
When I lived in Michigan City, one of my favorite places to visit was Mt. Baldy, the magnificent giant sand dune at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Starting soon, there will be less opportunity for such visits. Lakeshore officials plan to restrict -- restrict, not eliminate -- access to the dune:
Guess I can stop feeling guilty about being a grouch when I first wake up, with an even lousier mood when having to cope with chirpy, cheerful "morning person" pests:
Does misery really love company?
An intriguing new study suggests that may be the case.
The Indiana General Assembly's support for home rule waxes and wanes. I've noticed the same thing this session observed by political commentator Brian Howey -- it's been a horrible year for local control:
It goes far beyond the plea of cities for local taxing options in this era of crimping property tax caps.
We believe in heaven, but are increasingly uninterested in hell, in part because of attempts by some pastors and theologians to make God seem more human. But "scoffing at eternal damnation" also makes human life less fully human:
Here from the Washington Post is the latest "will he or won't he" run story about Mitch Daniels:
For more than a year, Daniels has been on the fence about running for president. Now, with the legislative session in Indiana ending, he says he owes it to potential supporters to make a decision. “It's time to cut bait,” he said in an interview in his statehouse office.
One of the members of a one-hit-wonder band is gone:
Joe Pennell, a local musician who helped launch a local band to national fame in 1964, died Thursday at the age of 66.
Pennell was the lead guitarist for the Rivieras, a five-member South Bend garage band that struck music gold with their recording of “California Sun.”
I do like a woman in uniform:
