I don't think the "keep Christ in the closet where he belongs" folks need any help in their efforts to ruin Christmas, but it looks like they're getting it anyway:
Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus. And he's a public health menace.
Public health expert Nathan Grills of Monash University in Australia says the beloved Christmas icon should ditch his sleigh and start biking or walking to lose his jelly belly.
There they go again, being reckless with both our money and our national sovereignty:
COPENHAGEN — As hopes faded for a strong climate deal, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought to put new life into flagging U.N. talks today by announcing the U.S. would join others in raising $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations cope with global warming.
We've wasted a lot of time here talking about consolidated government that's probably never going to happen. The way things have been shaping up over the "shared space needs" fiasco, we'll be lucky if city and county officials don't start killing each other. In the meantime, Evansville and Vanderburgh County residents seem to have realized that current fiscal restraints might be a good reason to consider changing business as ususal:
On January 5, the public will get its chance to sound off on the issue.
A "self-proclaimed vampire leader" (can there be any other kind?), despite claiming to follow vampire law and therefore being "exempt from traditional laws," has been sentenced to more than two years in jail for threatening to impale and dismember a judge and decapitate the judge and his wife and children.
It's nice that Indiana House and Senate leaders finally seem to be serious about ethics reform, but House Speaker Pat Bauer has to go and spoil the moment with a statement so absurd that at first it seems like an attempt at surrealist humor:
Go for broke, I say:
Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts have been down this road before: unbeaten after 13 games, chasing perfection and wondering what to do next. . . .
Back off or keep pushing? . . .
A 12-year-old boy in Gary left home with a gun, and he was later found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Now, everybody is trying to figure out what happened to someone who "never showed any signs that he was troubled."
Dateless? Can't get to sleep? TV boring? Go to school, then:
Ivy Tech Community College says it will offer "moonlight madness" classes at its downtown Indianapolis campus this spring semester, which begins Jan. 11. Classes will run from 9 p.m. to midnight.
Oral Roberts died yesterday at 91, which just goes to show that God might be slow but eventually gets around to it:
At the time of his death, however, Mr. Roberts' ministry and celebrity had been in decline for years, a drop accelerated by a prophecy the preacher made 22 years ago that "God will call me home" unless $8 million was raised for scholarships to Oral Roberts University by March 31, 1987.
These are not good days for libertarians with delicate sensibilities:
The Founders viewed the criminal sanction as a last resort, reserved for serious offenses, clearly defined, so ordinary citizens would know whether they were violating the law.
I've written several times, the most recent being Saturday, that we can't ignore the death penalty:
One thing I do know for sure is that we should pay attention to every execution, to all the details mundane and profound, from the last meal to the last words. The death penalty is carried out in our name. The executions are done because we (a large majority, according to polls) want them done. We can't just let them pass unnoticed.
Some days, it just doesn't pay to leave the house:
A 27-year-old Bloomfield woman, Goldie L. Kieninger, was arrested late Saturday after police were called about a woman swaying back and forth while standing in a puddle and yelling at people who were minding their own business.
[. . .]
Kieninger was asked to give a breath sample. She complied and tested .24 BAC (Blood-Alcohol Content) on a portable breathalyzer.
President Obama might wish he had chosen his words more carefully:
President Obama, surrounded by Senate Democratic leaders, said today "we are on the precipice" of major health care changes, though "there are still some differences that have to be worked on."
This is interesting. Most people who follow gambling just accept it that casinos can and will ban those who "count cards" to increase their chances of winning at blackjack. But one gambler didn't, and so far he's winning in Indiana courts.
"Sillier and sillier all the time" department:
A push to spread the gospel about the 2010 Census this Christmas is stoking controversy with a campaign that links the government count to events surrounding the birth of Jesus.
I keep warning you and warning you, but no one pays attention. That new ball park is already a whole year old and aging fast. We'd better dump it and build a new one before the maintenance costs start eating us alive:
The city will likely spend nearly a third of this year's long-term maintenance revenue on improvements to Parkview Field less than a year after the downtown ballpark opened.
Indiana gets millions every year from the "master settlement" with tobacco companies reached in 1998 -- more than $600 million this year alone. In fact, it will have gotten billions over the 30-year course of the settlement. Yet it keeps cutting the paltry funding for tobacco cessation programs:
We've talked before here about our shrinking zone of privacy, or, rather, the diminishing number of places and circumstances where we have an "expectation of privacy." I keep hoping it will go the other way -- an expansion of privacy -- but it doesn't. Worse, we seem to keep lowering our own expectations. Cameras watching our every move once we leave the house? Hey, no big deal. Government wants an encryption device in every computer so it can peek in at will? Who cares? And younger generations seem not to know or care that everything they say or do in the digital world will be there forever.
Let's pretend Mom and Dad are saints. That'll sure get the kids off on a good start toward adulthood:
Dave Mason of Lafayette might enjoy a beer or a mixed drink when he's out on the town, but the father of two doesn't usually keep the alcoholic beverages in his house.
"I guess the less they are exposed to it, the better," he said.
(With apologies to the ghost of George Carlin for the headline)
Some Hoosier cities are citing budget difficulties for pulling the plug on streetlights:
Budget cuts and property tax caps are leaving many residents across Indiana in the dark.
