Every year at this time, Wisconsin's Beloit College releases its Mindset List to show the "cultural mindset" of incoming college freshman as a "reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references." Actually, it's an annual reminder that we're really getting ooooold.
Those of us who are either worried or ecstatic about the prospect of a one-term Obama presidency should calm down, says The Journal Gazette's Tracy Warner. Other presidents have looked bad halfway through their first terms and recovered quite nicely:
In August of his second year as president, his approval rating dipped to 39 percent, partly because he was so heavily criticized over his plan for health care reform.
Fort Wayne is one of several Indiana jurisdictions considering a ban on the synthetic marijuana know variously as K2, Spice and Mr. Smiley, and pressure is building for Indiana to join the eight other states that have banned it. But South Bend Prosecutor Michael Dvorak says the substance fits the description of an "analog drug" and is therefore already illegal under state law:
We do not need to wait for a legislative fix in Indianapolis," Dvorak said during a news conference in May.
Former Fort Wayne mayor and prominent gun-control advocate Paul Helmke thinks a "leaderless ATF" has chosen the wrong target:
As I've mentioned before, terrorists have ludicrously easy access to guns in this country.
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Well, here's a headline you don't see every day: "IMPD arrest 2 after post-baptism brawl." Freddy Hernandez and an accomplice, Adea Picasso, punched Jaun Rangel in the face after harassing his wife at the ceremony and chasing him and his children down with their car:
Police, responding to a call, pulled Picasso over in the 8500 of Madison. When he refused repeated warnings to show his hands police doused him with pepper spray.
At the height of the Iraq war, the Army routinely fired hundreds of soldiers for having a personality disorder when they were more likely to be suffering from the traumatic stresses of war, discharge data suggests.
Got an e-mail about Purdue University from CampusReform.org, which does profiles of university political leanings. Purdue, the group says, has 15 liberal student groups and eight conservative groups. It invited Bill Ayers to be a distinguished guest speaker. In the 2008 election, its professors gave 85 percent of their political donations to Democratic candidates and just 15 percent to Republicans.
I thought The Journal Gazette's editorial Sunday on traffic tickets was thoughtful and well-said, and I found myself largely in agreement with it right up until the unfortunate last sentence.
This is a historic milestone we probably should not let pass without note:
Is cornpone humor acceptable if we pretend it isn't cornpone humor? I ask having attended the "Red Green Wit & Wisdom Tour" show on Saturday night. We were in the $10 balcony cheap seats, but that was OK -- no seat in the Scottish Rite is that far away from the stage. It wasn't necessary to see Red that clearly anyway; if you've ever seen his PBS show, you can easily fill in the facial-expression blanks somewhere below the hunting hat and above the plaid shirt.
To my younger brother Larry and our younger sister Judy: Nyah, nyah, nyah.
Birth order within families has long sparked sibling rivalry, but it might also impact the child's personality and intelligence, a new study suggests. First-borns are typically smarter, while younger siblings get better grades and are more outgoing, the researchers say.
Larry, you're more outgoing than I am, right? Judy, you certainly got better grades. I rest my case.
Oh, for Pete's sake:
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Protesters have been rallying outside Target Corp. or its stores almost daily since the retailer angered gay rights supporters and progressives by giving money to help a conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota. Liberal groups are pushing to make an example of the company, hoping its woes will deter other businesses from putting their corporate funds into elections.
Twelve words you might not know you're mispronouncing, including this one that I most frequently hear mangled:
Chipotle
It's a pepper, it's a mayonnaise flavoring, it's a restaurant chain beloved by both soccer moms and MMORPG players alike. And it's NOT pronounced "chip-ole-tee." It's chee-POHT-lay.
This "symposium on superstition" is from last year, but it also seems fitting for the present Friday the 13th. It's amusing to read stolid conservatives such as Ward Connerly admit to bursts of irrationality:
But with all due respect, a majority of Americans are also saying "no" pretty loudly and clearly:
Golllleee, Ange, them Mormons ain't strange a'tall. Why, they're just as normal as us regular folks!
A Gary Post-Tribune columnist is a little testy overy Mitch Daniels' "I would never, ever in a million, zillion years run for president even if my life depended on it, unless I change my mind" mixed signals:
I tell you, Mitch, every time someone asks you whether you are going to run for president, you leave the door cracked just a little bit wider.
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I'm guessing there will be a mixed reaction from conservatives on this:
SOUTH BEND — Republican Sen. Richard Lugar said Wednesday that he plans on seeking a seventh term in 2012 in a bid that would extend his run as the longest-serving U.S. senator in Indiana history.
After speaking about world affairs and taking questions during a luncheon at The Summit Club, a private dining club in South Bend, the 78-year-old Lugar said he will run again, though he has not formally announced his candidacy.
It's August, which means its time for governments to try "to buy off voters with their own money."
It's an annual ritual known as the sales tax holiday, which lets consumers make certain government-approved purchases without remitting the usual levy to the Department of Revenue . . . The gimmick usually is deployed this time of year so that parents can save on school supplies and clothing.
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