Politics and other nightmares

I've posted before that I've been all over the map on the death penalty. When I was in college, I was firmly against it, which is one reason I voted for Otis "Doc" Bowen for governor in the first election I was eligible to vote in here (and the second one ever -- I cast my first vote as a soldier in Texas). He opposed capital punishment because all of his training as a physician was aimed at saving lives. He had even voted in the General Assembly in 1965 to abolish the death penalty.

The millennials (those 29 or younger) are much more likely to embrace change than either Gen Xers (30-45) or baby boomers (46-64). That's sort of always been in the job description of the younger generation, and it's still true today.  They are more likely to have a tattoo (two-fifths, compared with a third among Gen Xers and 15 percent among boomers), have created a profile on a social networking site like Facebook (three-quarters, compared with half and 30 percent) and posted videos of themselves online (a fifth, 6 percent, 2 percent).

Gary's can't attract businesses, but it does have a clever plan to grow:

Mayor Rudy Clay wants his city to be able to count Gary residents incarcerated outside the Northwest Indiana city as residents on the 2010 census.

[. . .]

Now, that's funny:

Who can be against tax breaks for businesses if it means more jobs will be created? How about the businesses that don't get the breaks? How about the taxpayers, when the game of tax-break roulette goes the wrong way?

When the economy boomed, Indianapolis handed Navistar International $18 million in tax breaks for new machinery. But the recession has soured the tax deal for the city.

Lock and load, boys and girls:

Most Hoosiers could take a gun to work as long as the weapon is stored out of sight in a locked vehicle, under legislation enacted Thursday to the delight of gun-rights advocates and the alarm of Indiana businesses.

At least 12 other states, including Kentucky, have passed similar legislation.

Just hanging around, waiting for federal dollars. That'll be just what we need. Oops. Didn't get the high-speed rail money we were hoping for. It's pretty much a fool's dream anyway, some say:

Back in 2003, you may recall, our own Mark Souder got a lot of publicity in trying to get Ronald Reagan's likeness on the dime.

Sounds like a good plan to me:

"For us to start over now could simply lead to delays that could last for another decade or even more," President Obama said.

In fact, let's go for the "even more" part. After the Clinton health care plan crashed and burned, we managed to keep this massive growth in government at bay for a decade and a half.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the McDonald case yesterday challenging Chicago's handgun ban. Early indications are that the ruling will be good news for Second Amendment supporters: