I may be in the minority on this one. Sometimes I wonder about the real value of a gesture such as the one urged by the lieutenant governor:
Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman is urging Indiana residents to write letters and send cards to troops during the upcoming holiday season.
Skillman's office received about 20,000 cards for troops last year, and officials hope to top that this year.
A Baptist church gets crazy, and it's not even the Westboro "God hates fags" Baptist Church:
A Baptist Church near Asheville, N.C., is hosting a "Halloween book burning" to purge the area of "Satan's" works, which include all non-King James versions of the Bible, popular books by many religious authors and even country music.
The Tax Foundation has examined new Census data to explain where states get their revenue broken down by six sources ( helpful graph here). The U.S. averages are: property taxes, 30.1 percent; individual income taxes, 22.6 percent; general sales tax, 23.5 percent; selective sales taxes, 10.9 percent; licenses and other fees, 8.2. percent; and corporate income taxes, 4.7 percent.
Hey, good news, Hoosiers; we can still go to the poor house, as long as we're willing to move to Hendricks County:
Cypress Manor, one of the last county-owned homes to care for the poor in Indiana, won a reprieve today.
"Strange old world just keeps getting stranger" department:
Some schools across the country have banned alcohol-based sanitizers from
classrooms. These products can pose a serious poisoning risk to children if
consumed inappropriately. Not only do today`s most-common sanitizers consist of
up to 70 percent ethyl alcohol, a higher alcohol percentage than many hard
liquors, in 2006 The Association of Poison Control Centers reported 12,000 cases
Oh, for goodness sake:
GREENCASTLE -- Mysterious doings were happening in the East College building at DePauw University Tuesday evening as members of Hoosier State Paranormal investigated one of the oldest structures on the campus.
Located at the center of campus, East College is a symbol of the University's tradition of excellence and learning.
[. . .]
Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are making the news lately. Besides the Indianapolis guy in the police standoff, today we read about two more. First is this story from Winchester:
An eastern Indiana Iraq War veteran accused of shooting at sheriff's deputies is being held on $500,000 bond.
And this is from Muncie:
Never mind all that book-learnin', kids, wait'll you get a taste of the real world:
GREENCASTLE -- More than 550 eighth-grade students faced the reality of adulthood for a few hours Monday during the Reality Experience.
[. . .]
Happy 99th birthday to the Hoosier basketball legend who didn't routinely embarrass the state:
John Wooden will be honored today with highway signs that tie to Indiana history and the Martinsville legend's love of reading.
The signs are part of a celebration of the coach's 99th birthday today around the area where he grew up.
I went to a mini Germanfest with friends Saturday evening at the Knights of Columbus hall on Reed Road. Good food and good music, but there were a couple of hundred people (at least) in a small space, and I started getting phobic about the possibility of catching flu there. Then I spend a lot of Sunday beating myself up for being so irrational. I console myself now with the fact that I'm not the only one:
This week's sign that End Times are nigh*. Word is out that Rush Limbaugh might want to buy the St. Louis Rams, which has been as polarizing as everything else about him. And:
Keith Olbermann of MSNBC defended Limbaugh's right to buy the Rams. And Olbermann made the critics of Limbaugh on this point entry No. 3 on Olbermann's nightly "Worst Persons in the World" segment of Countdown.
Here's an interesting libertarian take on the work of Indiana University's Elinor Ostrom, announced yesterday as co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics.
Anytime you feel safe when hearing about a criminal getting a "life" sentence in Indiana, better listen for the qualifier "without chance of parole." If you don't hear that, you may not be getting what you think you are from the criminal justice system:
Hundreds of Indiana offenders sent to prison for life are serving much less, a newspaper investigation has found.
It's nice to have a clean, orderly ciy, but this seems to be going overboard:
KOKOMO, Ind. — Snow routes are no more in a central Indiana city as crews are removing the signs as part of a battle against clutter.
Gov. Daniels recently spoke against "rockheaded, misguided" climate change legislation, eliciting a strange response from The Journal Gazette. Daniels said such legislation would devastate the Hoosier economy. That attitude, the JG said, shows a lack of faith in Hoosiers:
Marcus Schrenker, the Indiana "businessman" who took more than $1 million from clients of his financial service, then tried to fake his own death in a plane crash, says he plans to write a book about his ordeal, which will explain that, really, it wasn't his fault at all:
Congratulations to Indiana University's Elinor Ostrom, one of the co-recipients of this year's Nobel Ptize in Economics, along with University of California professor Oliver Williamson:
Some in Detroit are worried that the "keep our money in Ohio" ad campaign in the Buckeye state will add another blow to the already reeling Michigan economy:
Detroit's three casinos pulled in 1.36 billion last year, paying $151.36 million in gaming taxes to the city and another $121.04 million to the state.
But revenues this year have been down at MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity, while Greektown is seeing gains even as it remains in bankruptcy.
Truer words were never spoken:
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she thinks President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because of "his attitude toward America's role in the world."
Of course, his attitude "toward America's role in the world" is not nearly
