Politics and other nightmares

My sterling record of political predictions continues. It was barely more than a month ago when I speculated that Gov. Mitch Daniels would look at the two men and one woman who were finalists for the Indiana Supreme Court vacancy and choose the woman. If all three were equally qualified, I said, there "would be no particular reason not to" and it would remove Indiana from the very short list (along with Idaho) of states with no woman on its highest court.

Best idea of the week month year:

Clearly, this story is too good to pass up, but I'm not quite sure whether to be serious or take the frivolous route:

A girl accused of exposing her breasts on an Indianapolis street cannot argue that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution gives her the freedom to do it, the state's appeals court ruled today.

Today's lesson in interpersonal relationships. Good hoax:

Casey Affleck wants to come clean.

I think I've said here once or twice, regarding the possibility of gridlock in Congress, that doing nothing is far preferable to doing the wrong thing. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is being told the same thing and seems to agree:

Happy Constitution Day! Our national blueprint is 223 years old today. Here are some interesting facts about the document, including:

John Adams referred to the Constitution as “the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen” and George Washington wrote to the Marquis de Lafayette that “It (the Constitution) appears to me, then, little short of a miracle.”

Amen.

So Fort Wayne may soon have an 1,883-acre "park and boulevard" district added to the National Register of Historic places. Fine. It might get us recognition and some funding. Dandy. But this is the part I was looking for:

Most of the affected property is publicly owned but, unlike local historic districts, the designation would not affect private owners' ability to use their property as they choose.

Yesterday, I posted about the Marion County Public Library in Indianapolis cutting back its hours at all branches so it could keep them open. That's the kind of move most big cities have had to make during the recession. In Los Angeles, they decided to be a little more drastic:

South Bend police have been conducting raids of drinking parties and arresting underage drinkers and taking them to jail, which has many in the Notre Dame community wondering if police are being unfair:

The discussions have been productive, but questions remain about whether police are being tougher on students than in the past and taking them to jail rather than giving them written citations.

Would you people in Washington please stop helping me while I still have a shred of control left over my own life?