The law and the jungle

Sigh. The Indianapolis Star used to have such a nice little editorial page, reliably and clearly conservative. Today, that page is -- well, I don't know what it is; kinda all over the map, the way a good Gannett "on the other hand" editorial page should be, I guess. A recent editorial joined the knee-jerk "we can't quite make the connection between gun control and gun violence, but let's control guns anyway" crowd:

Seven-month old Jayden Noel was taken to a shelbyville emergency room with cuts and bruises. The emergerncy room doctor suspected abuse but bought the mother's story that her boyfriend had thrown a toy into Jayden's crib, not realizing the child was in it. The doctor did not report his initial suspicion, and six months later the boy was dead, another victim of child abuse who fell through the cracks:

Making the case for Indiana's sex and violent offender registry for the people who deserve to be on it is tough enough -- yes, it might contribute to public safety, but at the cost of hounding for life people who have already served their sentences. Trying to dodge responsibility for putting people on it who don't belong is just inexcusable:

One of the oddest crimes in recent history has now reached the trial stage:

Jury selection began today in the hate crimes trial of Samuel Mullet Sr. and 15 followers of his breakaway sect, who are accused of forcibly cutting the beards and hair of other Amish men and women.

For you traveling gun-toters, here's a map showing  castle doctrine, sstand-your-ground and duty-to-retreat states. A bigger map and lots more information at the link. Nohe that, A) Indiana is a true Red State and, B) there are only six -- count 'em, six -- "duty to retreat" states.

Bummer, man:

SELLERSBURG, Ind. — State police say cultivated marijuana plants growing outdoors in southern Indiana are easier to spot from the air because of this summer's drought.

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Quote of the day, from an Evansville 21-year-old with a BAC of .422:

I'm not really a bad guy, I've just been a drunken asshole tonight." These were the famous last words of Ty Alsop, who was arrested by police in Evansville, IN, after trying to escape from a hospital with his bare ass hanging out of a hospital gown.

This is one of those ideas that is so simple and addresses such an obvious need that when somebody comes up with it we wonder why it took so long:

 Indiana on Tuesday became the third state to allow domestic abuse victims to apply for wallet-sized cards intended to help police take action against abusers who violate court orders.

Fareed Zakaria, writing in Time magazine, says the case for gun control is so obvious that only willful blindness can ignore it:

The government as bully:

Gary Harrington, the Oregon man convicted of collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his rural property surrendered Wednesday morning to begin serving his 30-day, jail sentence in Medford, Ore.

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