None of the stories I've seen about this guy go into too much detail about what he actually did, so it makes me curious. I mean, I want to know in a general way, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to know the specifics. You know?
An Indianapolis man will serve a 33-month sentence in federal prison for violating federal obscenity laws.
Another way we know times are tough:
We all have heard of eggs "fresh from the farm". How about fresh from the back yard?
It's legal to keep chickens in Chicago.
One East Garfield Park resident who keeps five hens in a coop outside her home tells the Chicago Tribune the birds are "like pets with eggs."
Slaughtering the birds is prohibited in the city.
Do we still get what we pay for? Price tag of the bailouts so far (maximum commitments): $8.5 trillion. Inflation-adjusted cost of the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, the race to the moon, the S&L crisis, the Korean War, the New Deal, the invasion of Iraq, the Vietnam War and all of NASA's efforts, combined: $3.92 trillion. Who can possibly defend this insanity?
I have mixed feelings about all the Lincoln Museum stuff staying in Indiana. On the one hand, it reflects the dedication and hard work of a lot of people, and it certainly will be good for the state and Fort Wayne. But part of the problem with the museum was that it didn't have enough visitors.
Does this fall in the "hard times justify extraordinary measures" category?
Mayor Tom Henry on Friday put out the welcome mat for more gambling in Fort Wayne - a prudent response, he said, to the “uncertain, unsettled economic times” that only an hour earlier had come to include the temporary closure of the local General Motors truck plant.
If you heard that a state legislator was offering a new provision on highway safety, how many guesses would you need to name him?
A state lawmaker is drafting legislation that would ban young motorists from sending text messages on their cell phones while they're driving because of the heightened risk of crashes involving distracted motorists.
For the "Let's pretend your vote counts" file (it's like those "Thank you for not smoking" signs -- you mean I have a choice?): Time invites readers to help select its Person of the Year. Here's how the Fark link describes it:
Time magazine invites people to vote for 25 choices for 2008's Person Of The Year before they pick Barack Obama regardless
Any bets against Obama?
RIP Bettie Page, who helped kick off the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Her soft-core porn look seems almost chaste today, but she was considered hot stuff back then.
After slicing up Kenau Reeves as well as it can be done ("He's the actor's equivalent of a black hole, a distant and mysterious cinematic negative space") , reviewer Peter Suderman zeroes in on the silliness of the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still":
Who wanted the auto bailout? The Deomcrats and George W. Bush.Who stopped it? Senate Republicans (or UAW members who drew a line on wage cuts, depending on how you see it). And now Bush will come to the rescue. In a statement by Press Secretary Dana Perino:
The line just keeps getting longer. Two Indiana congressmen want Washington to remember that cars aren't the only things on the road:
This former policeman got off way too easy:
A former policeman who admitted he shook down Hispanic motorists in Westfield received a sentence Thursday of one year on home detention.
Scott Fross, 38, had pleaded guilty to bribery. He could have received a sentence of up to eight years, according to the Hamilton County prosecutor's office.
Congratulations to state leaders, who seem able to recognize a crisis long enough to set aside partisan differences. Though a recent fit of fiscal responsibility has left Indiana better prepared than most, everybody seems to agree with Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels that even deeper spending cuts are needed. And there is this reassurance:
I understand what Gov. Daniels was trying to say about the government meddling in the automobile business. Stupid regulations are already part of the problem with American auto companies trying to compete in the marketplace, and it's a little frightening to think of all the new mischief Congress might come up with. But I think he went a little too far:
USA Today makes the current economic crisis personal and understandable by visiting a quaint little town where the simple folk are dazed by the goings on:
KOKOMO, Ind. — Ever since Elwood Haynes revved his horseless carriage up to 7 mph on the Pumpkinvine Pike in 1894, this has been a car town. It calls itself "City of Firsts," site of the first American gas-powered car, the first carburetor, the first pneumatic tire, the first push-button car radio.
Behind every great man . . .
In a complaint released Tuesday, prosecutors say the 52-year-old Blagojevich plotted to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. In the criminal complaint against him, his 43-year-old wife emerges in recorded phone conversations as a scheming woman who tried to punish those who got in her way.
Well, there's half an hour I won't get back again. Google's much-anticipated Street View has finally been unveiled in Fort Wayne, so naturally I had to try it out. I went to maps.google.com and typed in our address -- 600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne IN -- then clicked on Street View. I clicked on the arrow to scroll east on Main Street until I came to Broadway, then started clicking to go south and didn't stop till I got to my house on Oakdale.
I was looking around to see what others were saying about Fort Wayne's new anti-annoying-lights measure when I came across this, which I missed the first time around, from the My Hud House blog in August:
Representatives from the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, today announced their bold initiative to replace all city sidewalks with silly putty within the next two years. This is being touted as another huge step towards making Fort Wayne a truly unique city.
Nobody listened when I warned about their attacks on our cars. Nobody paid attention when I pointed out their suicide missions of jumping from overpasses. Now they're going after our children:
A fourth-grade class in Michigan learned firsthand about animal behavior when a deer crashed through a window and into its classroom.
