Hoosier lore

The Tax Foundation has a new State Business Climate Tax Index showing that Wyoming has the most business-friendly tax climate and, surprise, surprise, New York has the worst. If you go to the bottom and click on the attached pdf file, you'll learn that Indiana is ranked No. 11, which ain't bad. The better news (for us, at least) is that nearby Ohio and Kentucky are both in the bottom 10.

Say I have myself a little vegetable garden, and I want to make a little money from it. I can't compete with the mega-farms, so I decide to specialize, getting really good at, oh, tomatoes and cucumbers. I set up a stand at the farmer's market, developing a mailing list of my best customers. I start shipping to some of them directly. Then the Supreme Court comes along. Some tomato- and cucumber-growers in Ohio, forbidden to ship to customers in Indiana, have cried discrimination. You're right, the court says.

My first inclination was to call this another piece of evidence on state-sanctioned gambling's weakening of our morality:

EAST CHICAGO — The father of her children was inside the casino and Keisha Clark worried he was going to gamble their money away.

That was why Clark parked her car at the Resorts Casino garage and left her three children in it, the 24-year-old mother told police later.

She believed she was away from them for only 20 minutes.

State Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, after killing the wine-shipment bill because it is a matter of litigation: “We just try to avoid creating winning and losers,” he said. “We are not the judicial branch of government.” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ho, ho, ho, ho, heh, heh, heh, oh, please, stop it, you're killing me. Cheese and rice, what a comedian.

Has anyone else noticed all the Bariatric-surgery ads on TV? It's apparently big business, with central Indiana hospitals in the forefront:

The number of obese in the United States continues to rise and so does the popularity of surgical weight loss options. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that in 1998 surgeons performed 13,365 Bariatric procedures. By 2010 it's predicted that surgeons will perform 218,000 Bariatric surgeries.

This seems like a no-brainer to me:

Police investigating a credible report may legally enter outdoor private property and seize evidence of a crime if it is within public view, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled.

The ruling Tuesday stemmed from an animal neglect case but could have wider implications.

If you're going to start altering works of art based on people objecting to certain things, here's a tip: Better act on everybody's complaints, or you've got some explaining to do:

There is actually a nugget of truth in House Speaker Brian Bosma's comment that Indiana is 2 percent Jewish and at least 80 percent Christian. If what prayer is said to open House sessions is not a constitutional issue -- and that is in legal play right now -- then it's a matter of whether what's said is offensive or not. And who better to offend, since there is no constitutional right not to be offended -- 2 percent or 80 percent?

This case is a very big deal:

I don't know who the next basketball coach at Indiana University will be, but I predict a long and healthy relationship. I base this not on sports knowledge but on my understanding of the rules of breakups. The No. 1 rule is: The first relationship you have after your heart is broken is never a permanent one; it is the interum affair, the placeholding fling that you enter into lightly while you mend. Mike Davis was the post-breakup beau; he was never destined to be the next true love.