Hoosier lore

Happy Darwin Day! Not everyone feels like celebrating, of course, including this writer, who points to an Indiana connection with the "dark side" of Darwinism:

There is a proposal to move the date of Indiana's primary from May to March. Even if that happens, it won't make any difference, because of lot of other states are thinking about earlier elections, too:

A Richmond Palladium-Item editorial makes a valid criticism of a measure in the General Assembly mandating teaching of the Holocaust in Indiana public schools:

But someone needs to speak up for academic freedom and the potential ills of a politically chosen legislature micromanaging what gets taught in the classroom.

A young Indiana Daily Student essayist, somewhere in the middle of a piece that keeps confusing the functions of jails and prisons, concludes that the United States is just too darn punitive and doesn't spend enough time trying to redeem criminals:

Strangely enough, the crime rate in the country has steadily decreased. Yet, the incarceration rates have not decreased proportionately.

Rep. Dan Burton is at it again, or, rather, not at it again:

INDIANAPOLIS - U.S. Rep. Dan Burton missed 19 votes in the House last month, including a measure on financial aid for college students, because he was in California playing in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic - a charity event he's attended 17 times since 1988.

Getting a tattoo while drunk has always seemed the epitome of bad judgment -- temporary impulse, permanent results. But a Chicago Bears fan has upped the ante:

Enough already. It was fun to see two Midwestern teams compete in the Super Bowl, but can we please move on to something else? Stories like this, speculating on whether the Colts can repeat, are just a little too much. And though I am sure we would all be enlightened by stories on who the first one-legged albino coach to go to the Super Bowl might be, we have more immediate concersn. Like learning all the childhood secrets of the 43rd candidate to announce for the 2008 presidential race.

This Journal Gazette editorial has one of the greatest leaps of logic you'll ever see:

The report's author says the goal was not to shock Indiana residents but to give Hoosier policymakers useful information to help protect a segment of Indiana's citizens in excessive danger of being murdered. Shocked, though, is exactly what the policymakers

That silly, silly pastor. Doesn't he know the Super Bowl is as close to a national religion as we have?

The NFL has nixed a church's plans to use a wall projector to show the Colts-Bears Super Bowl game, saying it would violate copyright laws.

When I was at Ball State, about the most exciting thing that happened was when a group of anti-war students threatened to set a dog on fire to protest the Nixon administration's policies. They never intended to actually burn a dog, mind you; they just wanted the attention, which of course they got. Something like this would have really livened things up: