Never mind Jill Long Thompson's gas-sales-tax-holiday gimmick. Let's add another buck to the price of gas, and we'll get that record for sure:
Traffic fatalities in Indiana this year have dropped 24 percent compared with last year -- and experts say that's largely due to gas prices keeping more vehicles off the road and drivers slowing down to improve gas mileage.
Franklin College junior Kailee Fouch is a good little green, just like she was programmed to be in school. So when she took time off from her Brown County Democrat internship duties, she and a friend went only reluctantly to "the corruption known as Wal-Mart," feeling a little guilty because of how much that sinful enterprise contributes to Indiana's awful carbon footprint (49th-worst in the nation!
I've written here about the the oxymoron "mandatory volunteerism," and the concept unfortunately just keeps gaining momentum. There is a group called Service Nation with some heavyweights behind it, and, considering their stances on national service, both Obama and McCain would surely endorse its goals:
The Nanny State marches on:
A proposal that would place at least a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a broad swath of neighborhoods, mostly in South Los Angeles, won unanimous support from a Los Angeles City Council committee Tuesday.
I don't have any idea what this means, but I'm sure McCain and Obama will explain it all:
Over half of American voters (51%) now believe the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, the highest figure recorded in nearly four years by Rasmussen Reports in a nationwide survey.
I have dismissed the Olympics as anything but the noble competittion of amateurs they are claimed to be. But I've gotten caught up in the Dara Torres story. Who wouldn't? At first, everybody thought it would be a nice nostalgia story, 41-year-old mother, retired from swimming, comes back for one last shot at the Olympics, the old lady might even make the team for a record fifth time. But she started kicking teen swimmers' butts, and suddenly it's a very real story of perseverance and achievement.
The show that began as "Siskel & Ebert," then became "Ebert & Roeper" after Siskel died, is finally disappearing after limping along without the ailing Ebert for a couple of years:
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert says he's cutting ties with the television show that he and the late Gene Siskel made famous.
[. . .]
A "We're all going to die!" update on the BBC Web site, under the head "100 months to save the planet":
A "Green New Deal" is needed to solve current problems of climate change, energy and finance, a report argues.
A woman was walking on the beach when she came upon a lamp. She picked it up and rubbed it, and, of course, a genie popped out. "I will give you one wish," the genie said. "That's easy," the woman replied. "I want peace in the Mideast. Look at the countries I've got marked on this map, and make them stop fighting each other."
Here's a first. I find myself agreeing with part of a Dan Carpenter column:
Knowing there's little risk of ruining that going concern, mayors and other elected officials nevertheless join with business leaders, clergy, sports figures and such to declare war on crime once and for all, as if it might form itself into a single giant Satanic entity that could be driven out of town by combined moral force. Or perhaps a hill to be taken by the Marines.
Hope she didn't hear a voice saying, "You're welcome":
Police in Lebanon, Ind., said a woman performing a Wiccan ceremony in a city cemetery accidentally stabbed herself in the foot with a ceremonial sword.
Indianapolis - State officials say an improved credit rating will save money by reducing interest rates on public debt.
Gov. Mitch Daniels announced Monday that Indiana has for the first time received the highest credit rating from Standard & Poors.
This week's "Hoosier bringing embarrassment to the state" entry:
A pastor brought out a dirt bike during a church service to demonstrate the concept of unity. Now he's demonstrating the concept of healing.
A grand jury in San Fraqncisco is reporting that the city spends $186 million a year in city funds spent to finance homeless programs. As a result, 50 to 75 percent of the "street people" actually live in taxpayer-supported housing. Still, the pandhandling persists, and people seem baffled:
"We just warehouse addicts," said the grand jury's Stuart Smith. "Granted, it is a nicer place for them, but it doesn't address the problem."
I wrote about restaurants yesterday, mostly chain steakhouses. It shouldn't go unremarked that the patriarchs of two of Fort Wayne's most well-known restaurants (and, as it happens, a couple of my favorites) died last week within a couple of days of each other. On Monday, Hartley McLeod died at 81. On Wednesday, Evangelos"Von" Filippou died at 87.
If you spot Dustin Smith, 27, who escaped from the Edinburgh Correctional Facility, be sure to call authorities. You can't miss him, really:
The Model T turns 100 this week, and more than 900 of them are expected at the Wayne County Fairgrounds for the Model T Ford Centennial Party. This article explains some of the significance of the Tin Lizzie:
John Heitmann, a history professor at the University of Dayton who has taught classes on automobile history and its impact on American life, said the Model T is one of the most historically significant cars of the 20th century and maybe the single most important American car.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Interrupting Barack Obama.
Interrupting Bara ...
Change you can believe in!
Well, we'll all sleep better now, won't we?
A federal appeals court on Monday threw out a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction."
Barack Obama (and, to be fair, Democrats in general) keeps saying that those George Bush tax cuts benefited mostly those evil rich folks. And if he gets in, he's going to finance his host of new programs by increasing their share of the burden and decreasing everybody else's. But look at the numbers:
