Hoosier lore

Former State Rep. Mitch Harper has started a blog, Indiana Parley, and he's joined the discussion we've been having about who is a "real" journalist.

Welcome to the Roberts Court, America. This is, of course, good news for the new chief justice's Hoosier friends. Not that every Hoosier is his friend.

Let's keep up the pressure on eminent-domain abuse, from all quarters. And here's the view from the lowly little bean company itself.

It's going to keep getting harder to get away from it all when it's much easier to take it all with us. This study from my alma mater shows that the communications revolution goes even deeper than we've realized. It turns out that everybody -- not just the young or the technically savvy -- multi-tasks. This is creating quite a buzz in the news business, as you might imagine.

Dan Carpenter is an Indianapolis Star columnist who might even be too liberal for The Journal Gazette's editorial page. In this offering, we learn that he will go to the mat for Evan Bayh, doesn't think much of John Roberts, has no appreciation for the Constitution and has utter contempt for any Hoosier to the right of, well, Dan Carpenter. This probably won't make him feel better.

You probably think you only have to put up with President Bush for three more years, then live with the effects of his Supreme Court appointments for a generation or so. But here's what a famous journalist thinks:

Woodward said he thought of Bush's plan as a 100-year agenda.

"Creation science" is an oxymoron, and "intelligent design" is just a different way to try to get religion into science classsrooms. That's not to say that religion shouldn't be explored in schools, but mixing faith and science will benefit neither. It would be nice if we could follow this debate from afar, but that's not to be.

Don't want to say I told you so, but . . . I told you so. The Star editorial is undoubtedly right that this move was probably designed to help get Bayh through the early appease-the-liberal-base primaries. But it will make it harder for him to rush back to the center, where he needs to be, if he does get through those.

And if you STILL believe the GOP is the fiscally conservative party, just consider the treatment Indiana Rep. Mike Pence got from Tom DeLay and other congressional Republican heavyweights for having the audacity to cut spending elsewhere to pay for hurricane relief.

New to the blogosphere: Ball State is trying an interesting experiment. Twelve students are chronicling their school year in blogs using technology provided by the school, which hopes the effort will help attract new students. The blogs are sanctioned by Ball State, but school officials insist the online documents are uncensored. Let's see if that holds up if the blogs turn profane or become overly critical of the university.