The minute I heard about Mark Souder's planned resignation and confessed adulterous affair, I knew I was quickly going to get tired of all the schadenfreude the left would start wallowing in: Tee hee, tee hee, another self-righteous, family-values-preaching, religious right moralizer gets caught with his pants down. Oh, the hypocrisy!
Donna Brazile is a "Democratic strategist" whose op-ed columns we run occasionally. One of the things that penetrated my Vicodin haze late last week was an observation she made that I inititially agreed with but since have had mixed feelings about:
Since it turned out OK -- i.e. I didn't die in the chair -- I can now report that my time off last week was for oral surgery. Yikes. I think perhaps we can use the photo to scare liberals and nervous children. It's not blurry, by the way -- that's the way I really look.
I'm taking a few days off for a little minor repair work on the battered old body. Back Monday.
As a public service, this blog is issuing a travel advisory: Stay away from Huntington if you value your life. This might seem surprising, since that city has just had its first homicide of the year. But Huntington's estimated population (as of 2008) is 16,151, so that's, well, one homicide for every 16,151residents.
Well, this is big if it's true. Fox News is reporting that Mark Souder will resign as 3rd District U.S. representative today "after it came to light that he was conducting an affair with a female staffer who worked in his district office."
Multiple senior House sources indicated that the extent of the affair would have landed Souder before the House Ethics Committee.
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Dr. John Crawford, escorted from public service by voters in the last city election, wants to come back, but he wants us to ask him first. In an open letter to Fort Wayne citizens published in both newspapers (see Page 4a of yesterday's JG or 5a of the N-S), he says his philosophy while serving on City Council was always "fiscal constraint and keeping government as small as possible," and he wants input on whether to run for an office in city government in 2011:
Turns out those of you who've said Indianapolis smells were right:
Indianapolis' signature smell is made of cinnamon and spice and everything nice -- or at least a lot of nice things, including jasmine, gardenia and patchouli.
It's official: Democrats chose Brad Ellsworth to run against Dan Coats for the Senate seat being vacated by Evan Bayh:
Off to a late start and an unorthodox selection as Indiana's Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Brad Ellsworth officially launched his campaign Saturday, calling himself a former county sheriff "increasing my patrol zone.''
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You can either credit state Sen. Mike Delph with being persistent and having the courage of his convictions, or condemn him as a stubborn jackass who won't give up on a lost cause. Spurred by Arizona's recent enactment of a tough state immigration law, he's considering his fourth try at legislation here:
If what you've been doing hasn't been working:
After 40 years, the United States' war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread.
Even U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske concedes the strategy hasn't worked.
Then by all means find a way to do it even more:
They're having a little county code contretemps in St. Joseph. The code had been on the fast track, but officials slowed things down over concerns that it had become too broad in scope. Concern has been raised especially about language "that would allow building department employees to enter people's homes to look for violations." Perhaps some people didn't see the controversy coming:
The language was lifted almost word for word from the city ordinance, he said.
Indiana lawmakers make a lot of trips on other people's dimes, and Sen. Lugar doesn't think it's such a big deal:
Indiana representatives and senators have taken trips to Mexico, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Palm Beach, Las Vegas, Rome and Paris in recent years, racking up $250,000 in expenses paid for by special interest groups, such as think tanks, nonprofit organizations, universities, medical groups and associations.
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Looks like our state is going to lose some revenue, if the Michigan Senate goes along with the House and the governor agrees:
It's no theory: The big bang may be coming to Michigan -- legally and possibly in time for July 4th.
In case you thought you'd heard of every crime in the book:
The owners of a Henryville funeral home are accused of selling a family phony ashes, telling them they were of their dead pet.
State police had been investigating Richard D. Pyke, 42, and his son, Richard "Bradley" Pyke, 19, in connection with suspected illegal activity at the R.D. Pyke Funeral Home, and had seized the bodies of several pets awaiting cremation on Tuesday.
I wouldn't have thought that "empathy" was something requiring a lot of academic study -- people either have it, or they don't, and the ones who do are generally better off (and more civilized) than the ones who don't. But Indiana University has snagged a $199,617 grant from the University of Chicago to correct the lack of study of an emotion "that is as widely valued as it is under-theorized." Damn those under-theorized emotions! This is intriguing:
Read his lips mind:
Remember President Obama's supposedly inviolable pledge—repeatedly uttered during the 2008 campaign and at countless town meetings since the inauguration—that he would never raise taxes on middle-class citizens who earn $250,000 a year or less?
Grammy's mad, and she's packin' heat:
A 66-year-old Greenfield woman was detained at Indianapolis International Airport for carrying a 9mm semiautomatic handgun at a security checkpoint.
Judy Muenster told airport police that she always carried the gun with her and "did not know what the problem was," according to a police report.
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Apparently, "meth trash" doesn't refer to the slimeballs who make the stuff:
But this Spring Indiana State Police want you to keep an extra eye on that bag of trash. There may be hidden dangers inside.
Smith says "Some of this stuff, like anhydrous that is used [in making Methamphetamine], if there was any of that left in the bottle or container and someone inhaled that, it could almost kill you instantly."
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