Ah, leave to the bureaucrats. They finally decide to relieve our boredom while waiting at the license brances by putting in big-screen TVs. But do we get to watch soap operas or Judge Judy or even Oprah? Of course not:
Bureau of Motor Vehicle Commissioner Joel Silverman believes, "It could be a great opportunity of providing some great information for our customers, helping us to manage the branches better and a new and different way of talking to them."
Fireworks can be dangerous. Whether the state should protect us from them would make for a fascinating and unpredictable debate (we MUST wear seat belts, but never mind the motorcycle helmets). But legalizing them would at least give us a coherent law, whether you agree with it or not.
Anything that becomes valuable enough will eventually be stolen:
Thieves have made off with dozens of hefty manhole covers and sewer grates in the last few days, leaving gaping holes scattered in streets across the city.
City officials believe the high price of scrap metal is spurring the thefts and have been warning area scrap yards not to buy any manhole covers they might be offered.
Let's hear it for Marion County prosecutors -- they're keeping even Minnesota politics safe:
Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey, 41, of Princeton was arrested Monday night on two felony counts from Indiana, said Mike Smith, the Mille Lacs County jail administrator. One warrant was for escape, another for stalking.
We're so lucky having the state look after us, hitting a lottery scammer with a 50-year sentence (!!) so it can "deter inside jobs that threaten public confidence in the Hoosier Lottery." Heaven forbid we should lose faith in the lottery. We might start thinking it's a fool's game that can be won only by scammers.
It's startling that Indiana's Porter County, not exactly an urban hotbed, would have one of the worst heroin problems in the nation. None of the stories I've seen about the issue have tried to explain why that particular drug is so prevalent. Is it because of Porter County's proximity to Chicago or Lake County, I wonder? It wouldn't take many cases for Porter to have a high per-capita usage.
Why Mike Pence is becoming THE star of the conservative movement (what's left of it, that is, in the sense of "limited federal government") -- appearing on Fox News Sunday, he said:
Well, I believe President Bush has been an extraordinary commander in chief. I believe he's demonstrated what it is to practice honor in your personal life, in Congress. And in his heart, I believe he is a conservative man.
Show of hands: Anybody sorry that someone who "sympathizes with the resistance in Iraq" didn't get his tenured professorship at Notre Dame? Anybody planning to write a big, fat check to the ACLU to help enable this guy to lecture us on our imperialism?
So, the Colts commission a study that ends up showing that, surprise, surprise:
When it comes to identity, excitement and pride, the people of Indiana consider the Colts important. More than that, the Colts are a good value.
And this is called a groundbreaking, first-of-its-kind study, a group commissioning a survey that says exactly what it wants said? If you believe that, you'll believe the Colts can win a playoff game.
Speaking of high schools and the First Amendment (we were, weren't we?), remember the dust-up over the school paper's reports on oral sex down in Columbus? The story is starting to get play elsewere. Wonder why.
