Politics and other nightmares

On a strict, if temporary diet:

Interfaith and anti-hunger advocates across Indiana are feeding themselves on the average food stamp benefit of $31.50 for one week.

[. . .]

Ready for another party?

Favorable views of the Democratic Party have fallen to their lowest since the Reagan landslide of 1984. Even fewer Americans see the Republican Party positively, and Americans by 2-1 say they'd welcome an independent alternative for president.

Just how bad have the mayoral campaign attack ads and mailers been? So bad that News-Sentinel conservative columnist Kevin Leininger criticized Republicans for going over the top about Mayor Tom Henry:

And the loser is ... the Allen County Republican Party's claim that Democratic Mayor Tom Henry is “the father of the County Option Income Tax (COIT) ... (that) since 2001 has cost taxpayers over $128 million.”

My problem with the Herman Cain sexual harassment story is that even if it turns out to be a vile hit piece of the lowest sort designed to bring down a candidate with false accusations, I'm still bothered by his response to it. Jennifer Rubin gets it right:

The White House under President Obama has sent decidedly mixed signals on marijuana.

Glenn Beck asked Penn Gillette, one of my favorite libertarians, to come up with a list of moral dictates for non-believers. The result is this, 10 Commandments for Atheists. The whole list is pretty good. I especially like No. 5

5. Be there for your family. Love your parents, your partner, and your children. (Love is deeper than honor, and parents matter, but so do spouse and children.)

George Will on Mitt Romney, 2011:

Who expects difficult reforms from Romney, whose twists on ethanol make a policy pretzel?

A straddle is not a political philosophy; it is what you do when you do not have one.

[. . .]

Sometime today, the 7 billionth person will be born, so expect:

Via hit & run, this illustration from the Consumer Product Safety Commission does everything it can do take absolutely all the fun out of trick-or-treating.

A judge makes a common-sense ruling in a case that should never have been brought:

A judge found a Martinsville man not guilty of littering after he left a copy of a Ku Klux Klan newspaper at a local business.