This week's evidence that End Times are near:
We have an out-of-towner at Meijer's today. Well, yeah, Gov. Sarah Palin, too, but I mean this woman:
Proof that Indiana is not out of the political mainstream -- we have imaginary congressional districts, too!
The imaginary 00, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 18th Congressional Districts of Indiana have, according to recovery.gov, made a tax dollar windfall of about $5.3 million, and 'created or saved' 9 jobs - all of which obviously can't exist in these fake districts.
Joe Kernan is still one of the classiest guys around. He had planned to go on a trade mission to Vietnam when he was lieutenant governor, but the trip fell through, and he says he's always wanted to go back to the country where he fought and was held as a prisoner of war for 11 months. Now a trip is on:
Tour stops will include the site where Kernan's plane was shot down and the preserved portion of the prison referred to by Americans held there, including Sen. John McCain, as the Hanoi Hilton.
Former Fort Wayne educator Eugene White has had his ups and downs as superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools. This could probably be considered a down period, since parents at three high schools want his head on a platter:
Gee, do ya think?
The United States' climbing national debt could drag the country into a "double-dip recession," President Obama warned in an interview with Fox News Wednesday from China, though he said he's still considering additional tax incentives for businesses to reverse the rising unemployment rate.
[. . .]
RealClearPolitics puts Gov. Mitch Daniels second on its list of five most likely GOP dark horses for the 2012 presidential nomination, just behind South Dakota Sen. John Thune ("a political giant-killer, knocking off then Minority Leader Tom Dachle in 2004.") and just ahead of Texas Gov. Rick Perry ("rock-solid conservative credentials and a long electoral track record in one of the nation's largest states"). Rounding out the list are Oklahoma Sen.
Well, if you can't be happy, you might as well have more sex:
A 'female Viagra' that works on the pleasure centre of a woman's brain to restore flagging libido could be on sale within two years.
Women who take flibanserin once a day have sex more often and enjoy it more, large-scale trials have shown.
[. . .]
The first sentence of this story makes you think, "Well, the poor guy obviously isn't comfortable with who he is -- no wonder he drinks."
The male principal of a local elementary school was arrested for suspicion of OWI while wearing a pink dress, wig and high heels, according to reports.
But then we read the second sentence:
Just what we need -- a General Assembly that starts early so it can create more mischief:
The Indiana House and Senate have planned rare December hearings on key legislation
If you're not worried yet about the implications of trying terror suspects in a civil criminal court, maybe this will help:
The greatest danger posed in the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) isn't that he will go free. The greatest danger is that he will be convicted and that during his appeals the courts will ratify all of the extraordinary measures used to capture and convict him. The great danger is that the courts will ratify the rough, inaccurate and ambiguous norms of martial law as applying to all civil criminal trials.
This sound a little Orwellian to anybody besides me?
INDIANAPOLIS - A felon's friends and hobbies could influence how much time he spends behind bars if the Indiana Supreme Court upholds a lower-court ruling.
I like some of the things mentioned by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett that have been done to help the state better compete for a share of the federal Department of Education's $4 billion "Race to the Top" education grant program -- not putting a cap on charter schools, for example, and removing a roadblock that prevented teachers from being judged on student achievement.
DePauw University professor Kevin Howley didn't think much of media coverage of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall -- a "myopic and narcissistic view of history" by a bunch of celebrity reporters "waxing nostalgic" about their own role in history:
The New Oxford American Dictionary has chosen its word of the year for 2009, and, strangely, "Obamessiah" wasn't even on the list:
"Birther " was in the running, so was "death panels," but in the end the New Oxford American Dictionary can only pick one word of the year. For 2009, it's "unfriend," says the Oxford University Press.
Dang -- I missed National Pickle Day. If you hunger for some real pickles -- sweet but spicy -- you have to try these, the sweet fire pickles from one of my favorite mail-order places, the New Braunfels Smokehouse. And their smoked brisket is -- well, let's just say the only place even close to it here I've found so far is at the Moosewood Smoke House.
A feature in yesterday's Washington Post on how to grow a political party from the ground up focused on Republicans in St. Joseph County, a group more distressed than Democrats in Allen County. When Chris Riley accepted the unpaid job as GOP chairman in 2006, he says it was "maybe the worst job in the world" -- he had a database containing 11 people.
"Binge drinking" is defined as "five or more drinks for a man and four for a woman," which are "consumed at one sitting and with the intention of getting drunk." The bad news is that 48 percent of Hoosier college students surveyed reported binge drinking in a two week period, compared to 40 percent nationally. The good news, sort of, is that drinking is leveling off a bit at Indiana University:
I've made some spectacularly bad decisions in my life, and I've worked for bosses who made some dumb moves the worker bees were expected to just keep quiet about. But now the pressure is off all of us; we no longer have to work so hard at apologizing or forgetting our bum calls, thanks to New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who should be named the Colts MVP for the help he gave them in their 35-34 comeback win last night.
Just way too cool for words:
It turns out there's lots of water on the moon — at least near the lunar south pole.
The discovery announced Friday comes from an analysis of data from a spacecraft NASA intentionally crashed into the moon last month.
