Now that I'm rested and refreshed from vacation, let's class up the joint a little with some lighthearted political moments. First we have President "I am in charge" Obama:
Now that I'm rested and refreshed from vacation, let's class up the joint a little with some lighthearted political moments. First we have President "I am in charge" Obama:
Happy 235th birthday to the U.S. Army, still out there on the front lines defending Americans' freedom and way of life. You're welcome. No, really, don't mention it.
While my brother and I spent the week with our sister in Indianapolis, she started and nearly finished a long-planned project -- a long hallway wall filled with family pictures. There are three rows of them three or four frames deep, starting with a great-grandfather on our mother's side and ending at near-present time. There are several groups of three featuring my siblings and me at various stages of our life: barely out of infancy, grade school, high school graduation, adulthood.
I may do a post or two next week, but mostly I'll be on vacation. Back full-time on Monday the 14th.
If you had to guess which Indiana city would join the insane stampede to "boycott" Arizona, which one would it be? Right you are!
Fromer Bush administration official and Washington Post op-ed columnist Michael Gerson writes about the fall from grace of Mark Souder, for whom he once worked on Capitol Hill, and draws a dinstinction between sexual conduct and "less sensual vices":
Economic desperation is forcing public employers to make tough choices, e.g. Fort Wayne Community Schools' decision to outsource janitorial services. Some are getting creative, and at least one of the solutions is worth considering here -- the four-day school week:
FORT VALLEY, Ga. — During the school year, Mondays in this rural Georgia community are for video games, trips to grandma's house and hanging out at the neighborhood community center.
Don't bother showing up for school. The doors are locked and the lights are off.
Kentucky is saying “no” to Rand Paul.
The Kentucky Senate has adopted a resolution declaring any form of discrimination to be inconsistent with American values. The move is in reaction to remarks made by Kentucky U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul.
As the national debt tops $13 trillion for the first time (a grim milestone, indeed), a reminder of the GWB and BHO contributions to the mess:
Since the beginning of the 2000?s, the national debt has increased by $7,274,735,146,661.64, more in a period of ten years than in the previous 211 year history of the Republic.
There are different ways to respond to financial stresses. There is the outsourcing approach:
In an effort to cut $2 million from FWCS' budget, the board voted in March to look at outsourcing custodial work. Of 10 proposals, a committee chose Sodexo, an international company with U.S. headquarters in Maryland that serves 6,000 clients in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.
[. . .]
Many small towns near metropolitan areas have identity crises. It's unusual for a town to want to create one:
The mayor of Indianapolis is urging that city's yoots to just say no to sloth:
"I will be active 60 minutes a day and eat healthy foods"
Those words are on the pledge card that Indianapolis youths can sign as part of a new, citywide Get Fit Indy! wellness initiative, launched Wednesday by Mayor Greg Ballard and 17 community partners.
Speaking with Meredith Vieira on TODAY Wednesday, People magazine's Washington correspondent Sandra Sobieraj Westfall said she interviewed a dozen Gore family friends in the wake of Tuesday's announcement. And those friends told her they might have seen the writing on the wall if they had looked closely enough.
Thomas Carr is a convicted sex offender who registered as such in Alabama on his release from prison in 2004. In December of that year, he moved to Indiana but did not register with authorities here. He was arrested in 2007 and charged with violating SONRA, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. The problem is that SONRA wasn't passed until 2006, two years after his move.
But it's probably still OK to fill up the saddlebags with victuals when you ride the mule into town:
California would be the first state to ban plastic and most paper bags from grocery, convenience and other stores under a proposal that appears headed for a major legislative victory this week.
They came for the banks, and you said nothing. The came for the car companies, and you said nothing. They came for health care, and you said nothing. Ready to talk now, Obama toadies of the Fourth Estate?
Two different views from two sets of experts. The National Academy of Sciences:
Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for — and in many cases is already affecting — a broad range of human and natural systems."
But from the Royal Society:
Google News kicked out this story based on my "Indiana" word search because it's from Evansville, but it turns out to be Evansville, Wisc. I almost passed on it, but it's perversely fascinating and raises an interesting question:
A Wisconsin man is accused of secretly videotaping young children at a Florida nude beach.
[. . .]
If the gubmint keeps pushing to get the salt out, who knows what damage will be done to our cherished American diet?
At the company's laboratories in Battle Creek, Mich., a Kellogg vice president and food scientist, John Kepplinger, ticked off the ways salt makes its little square cracker work.
Gary has a ban, and South Bend, too. Now, Valparaiso may have one: