We're a little slow in Indiana. Lake Superior State University put the annoying "staycation" on its list of banished words last year, but we're just starting to savor its use here. Folks at the Indiana Dunes report that the phenomenon helped boost visitors to 1.1. million last year, a 64 percent increase over 2005.
We can't seem to get people interested in condos downtown. In Indianapolis, meanwhile:
A sprawling Mass Ave. condo with a vibrant skyline view has sold for $1.7 million, the highest price paid for a Downtown condo so far this year.
The one-level, 4,064-square-foot unit at 333 Massachusetts Ave. is one of only 10 condos in Central Indiana that have sold for more than $1 million in the past five years, but demand for higher-priced homes has increased from last year.
The Republican U.S. Senate primary is getting interesting. A new poll says former Sen. Dan Coats would beat Democrat Brad Ellsworth 54 to 33 percent, while former Rep. John Hostettler would beat him 50 to 30 percent, and state Sen. Marlin Stuzman would win just by a 41 to 36 percent margin. In a roundabout way, that makes Coats the front-runner, and none of it is good news for Ellsworth.
OK, Alanis, pay attention -- this is ironic:
Congress may be fined tens of millions of dollars a year under its own health-care law, in part because the bill dumps members of Congress and their staffs from their current health-care plans.
George Will says a VAT has possibilities, but only under one condition -- repeal of the 16 Amendment establishing the income tax:
Because the 16th Amendment will not be repealed, adoption of a VAT would proclaim the impossibility of serious spending reductions, and hence would be the obituary for the Founders' vision of limited government.
With all due respect to George, I think that corpse has been rotting in the ground for decades.
Saw in my Sunday New York Times this piece about the coming battle over the role of government that will emerge in battles between Barack Obama and John Roberts, "two of the smartest men of their generation":
Happy anniversary!
A little nuclear poker. President Obama opens
:President Obama is nothing if not ambitious -- which is why the new nuclear arms reduction treaty signed today is seen as a way station to his ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons.
Mahmoud Ahmadinijod raises:
What's wrong with this paragraph in The Journal Gazette's rather unremarkable lukewarm editorial endorsement of Dan Coats in the U.S. Senate GOP primary?
The question voters in the May 4 Republican primary should ask is not which candidate among the rather unremarkable field is the most conservative but which would be the best senator and has the best chance of winning in November.
Here's a way to get guns off the streets I suspect all sides in the debate can agree to:
Ernest R. Snow, 44, Indianapolis, was sentenced to 15 years in prison today by U.S. District Judge Larry J. McKinney following his guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
[. . .]
The Journal Gazette this morning ran a long op-ed piece by Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute think tank to the effect that attacks by Newt Gingrich and other "Republican presidential wannabes" on Barack Obama as "a secular, socialist machine" and "the most radical president in American history" are nonsense:
You just have to read a story with a headline as intriguing and hard-hitting as "Governor eats breakfast in Garrett." Alas, the story fails to deliver:
Penny Molargik got more than breakfast at the Railroad Inn Wednesday morning.
Having solved all other problems, the White House is now going help Americans reconnect to "the great outdoors," according to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and other administration officials:
"It's really about getting people to think about the great outdoors again, and recognize what a tremendous asset it is to our country," Vilsack said in an interview.
This judge's ruling seems to be based on a very narrow definition of the establishment clause:
A federal judge on Thursday struck down the federal statute that established the National Day of Prayer, ruling that it violates the constitutional ban on government-backed religion.
The three reasons Larry King attracts all those hot, young babes. He's famous, so has access to all the best parties. He's rich. And:
The stereotypical woman likes to talk and the stereotypical man doesn't listen. But to most viewers King, perhaps one of the best listeners in the talk-show business, seems to be the opposite of that stereotype.
Like all Hoosier cities, Indianapolis is suffering both from the economic downturn and changes in tax structure dictated by the state. It's sruggling to keep parks and libraries open, police and firefighters paid, infrastructure from crumbling. So the Indiana Pacers decide now would be a good time to extort some money out of the city.
That's me -- one of the few, the proud, the handful of people who actually pay for things . . .
Almost nobody likes tax day, but people may look back nostalgically on tax day 2010 and those of earlier years because, almost certainly, taxes are going up in the future, and they may go up a lot. With hindsight, tax day 2010 may seem almost dreamy.
No matter how often the Malthusians are wrong, they just keep talking:
Even revered former astronauts get caught up in the partisan divide:
When President Barack Obama finally details (and defends) his plan for the future of manned spaceflight in Florida this Thursday, he will face opposition from a slew of Apollo-era astronauts who are disappointed that the budget cuts near-term plans for a moonshot. But one lunar-walking astronaut will be in the president's corner—Buzz Aldrin.
Hey, kids, never say we didn't give you anything:
For more than an hour Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Mitch Daniels fielded questions from about 40 people
