The Delphi school board, based on a parental complaint and after months of debate and appeals, voted 5-1 to NOT remove three books from the 11th-grade advanced English curriculum because of sex and language and yada, yada. The vote came after a public hearing attended by about 150 people, during which 44 of them spoke either for or against the books. And here's the amazing part: Everybody had their say and listened respectfully to other people having their say. Nobody called anybody names.
Billy Graham defines cults. If this is the working definition, it seems to apply also to, well, Baptists and Catholics and Muslims and . . .
One characteristic of cults is that they strongly believe they alone are right in their beliefs and everyone else is wrong.
Liberals and conservatives, too, come to think of it. Not libertarians, though. We do not believe we alone are right. We know it.
A dispatch from the shovel-ready front: On its list of possible projects for President Obama's stimulus bill, Gary (them again!) included plans for a 350-slip marina that would cost $19 million and result in the creation of 35 jobs. Some of the local money the project, which has been untapped for 16 years, is controlled by a group called the Lake Michigan Marina Development Commission, which the state stopped funding years ago. Opines the Gary Post-Tribune:
You know, sometimes you decide to help out a relative. But then things go bad, and you're stuck with the troublemaking freeloader forever:
An Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board official is urging the city to take over the cost of operating Conseco Fieldhouse, saying the Indiana Pacers can no longer afford it.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, so a lower court's dismissal of it stands, and New York City's attempt to hold gun manufacturers liable for gun violence is over, and that might have an affect on Gary's efforts to do the same:
Can someone explain this mindset to me?
President Obama said Monday that he will ensure the government never "opens the door" for human cloning, before signing an order to lift restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Some critics say the stem cell research can lead to human cloning, but Obama said his administration would develop "strict guidelines" to avoid such experimentation.
Now go to the corner for your time out and don't move till we say so:
Sure, we're a nation of restless nomads, but isn't this interesting?
Among all respondents to the Pew Research Center survey, 57% say they have not lived in the U.S. outside their current state: 37% have never left their hometown and 20% have left their hometown (or native country) but not lived outside their current state.
We've had an interesting debate on whether to nationalize health care going on in our guest columns the past few weeks. Today, Leonard Goldstein takes up the affirmative with what seems to me to be some very revealing remarks about his side of the political spectrum:
Philadelphians live in one of the most highly taxes cities in the nation, but even they have managed to escape a "fee" that Fort Wayne residents must pay:
Mayor Nutter yesterday trashed the controversial sanitation fee that his administration had been considering to help close a massive budget shortfall.
[. . .]
Forgive me a little gloating. It looks as if The Indianapolis Star agrees with me on our "have it both ways" Hoosier politicians:
Despite his protests against pork-barrel projects, Bayh is something of a latecomer to the fight. He's seeking almost $10 million in earmarks in the omnibus legislation. Yet, that figure is only about a third of what Republican Sen. Richard Lugar packed into the bill.
Hey, have you been looking for a reason to give an evening newspaper a chance?
A Southland woman has to undergo months of uncertainty about her health after she was pricked by a needle or syringe she found wrapped inside her morning newspaper.
The woman from Bluff has told the Southland Times she was an "emotional wreck" after collecting her paper on Tuesday morning - only to feel a sharp prick in her finger.
Sometimes, we spend too much time waching Washington for the big losses of freedom, the big intrusions by government, the big abuses of power. Then a little thing sneaks up on us:
Barbie could get an unwelcome present for her 50th birthday: outlawed in West Virginia.
A state lawmaker proposed a bill Tuesday to ban sales of the iconic Mattel doll and others like her.
The headline on this story said "Portage takes stand on crime," which really made me want to read it. Perhaps here was a city that was going to be brave and be for crime, perhaps as a justifiable way to stimulate the economy. Alas, the "stand" was just the same old, safe, anti-crime posturing:
Let's celebrate Family Values Day in Indiana! First up -- "Son, go to your room. On second thought, go to jail":
A Carmel teenager was arrested after forging checks from his father's checking account, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said today.
Evan Bayh has been getting a lot of positive ink for his Wall Street Journal piece in which he "says no to the huge federal spending bill." Imagine that, a fiscally responsible Democrat!
Another list. This time, some people have picked the "100 Greatest Singer-Songwriter Albums of All Time." I have favorites that aren't on the list, like Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" and Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush." And it includes some I wouldn't, such as Springsteen's "Nebraska" and Donovan's "Sunshine Superman." But it's scary how many of these I've heard, and even scarier how many I bought over the years. Guess that says a lot about what kind of music I like.
Economic downturns are good for some businesses -- pawn shops, for example, and auto-repair shops. And, of course, this group:
INDIANAPOLIS -- In the midst of massive economic turmoil, more Hoosiers are turning to psychics in hopes of finding what their futures may hold.
Tough economic times bring out some people's creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. And we can't have that, especially if it results in something "unsightly" that might offend delicate sensibilities. So city officials have no choice but to crack down:
“You've got dozens of people bringing their cars to shopping mall parking lots, sticking
"No bad surprises" is a pretty good rule to live by; that is, don't pretend something bad will just go away and not surprise someone you could have warned, like your spouse or boss or co-worker. Looks like the Indiana Department of Education forgot that rule:
As Indiana children take the ISTEP this week -- the first time in years it has been given in the spring -- they're finding the new test is a doozy.
