I know that with Sen. McCain's candidacy, there has been a lot of worry about choosing someone too old to be an effective leader. But do we really want to start turning important institutions over to the kids?
I know that with Sen. McCain's candidacy, there has been a lot of worry about choosing someone too old to be an effective leader. But do we really want to start turning important institutions over to the kids?
A death photo has been discovered of Ernie Pyle, one of the best and most famous writers ever to come out of Indiana. It was taken just after a Japanese machine-gun bullet went through his left temple:
Each side of the presidential race is now down to one nice candidate and one mean one. All political considerations aside, does it mean anything that the Democrats seem to be moving to the nice candidate and the Republicans to the mean one? With Hillary Clinton or John McCain, we'd have four years of a grating voice screeching, "Eat your peas!" and "Sit up straight!" and "Because I said so!" Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are at least pleasantly optimistic in demeanor.
Sounds good to me:
Since 1913, Indiana has endorsed some form of death transfer taxation, and it is time to repeal this outdated tax. I adamantly believe this is an unfair tax, and that Hoosiers should be able to leave their heirs an inheritance without the government imposing taxes. I have proposed legislation to repeal all three forms of the death tax, but, unfortunately, it never received a committee hearing.
A couple of thoughts prompted by the passing of Earl Butz:
1. Could his forced resignation have been a factor in Jimmy Carter's defeat of Gerald Ford?
The ensuing political firestorm created a dilemma for Ford. Butz's popularity in Midwestern farm states was a crucial asset to the president, who was in the middle of a tight election campaign against his Democratic challenger, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.
It's not just American schools:
Most Norwegian high school students (65 percent) don't know who Pol Pot was or what the Gulag means (64 percent). A new survey shows Norwegian 15-20-year-olds are sorely lacking in their knowledge of 20th-century history.
That cool "six degress of separation thing" that shows how interconnected we all are? Just ain't so:
My brother lives just outside Wimberley, Texas, and I've visited him there several times, so this story caught my eye:
Protests from this small school district nestled in the Texas Hill Country are reverberating across the state's school finance landscape.
Everyone else has been focusing on Bill Clinton's foray into race-baiting on the campaign trail. I think his display of economic ignorance is far more interesting:
Former President Bill Clinton was in Denver, Colorado, stumping for his wife yesterday.
OK, I'm not the greatest sports fan in the world, but does anybody disagree that this was the biggest upset in Super Bowl history? Granted, Eli did not go on "The Tonight Show" and correctly predict the victory the way Joe Namath did. But the Giants prevented the Patriots from having only the second perfect record in NFL history. The 1972 record is still good, Mr. Shula.
And it was back-to-back Manning victories -- that's the real story. Gonna be a heck of a Thanksgiving dinner at Archie's house.
For a change, the game was more interesting than the commercials.
When Britain enacted a smoking ban, pubs spent millions of pounds on patio heaters so smokers could go outside without freezing. But now:
Britain's growing café culture and taste for alfresco drinking and dining may be under threat from MEPs who want to ban the patio heater.
For the "live by the sword, die by the sword" files, a backer of Sen. John Edwards has a complaint:
Lord knows I have no particular love for Hillary Clinton, and she would be a divisive president, but I can't quite understand this complaint by Barack Obama:
State Sen. Tom Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, is always on the lookout for ways to make sure Hoosier understand that there are rules that must be followed. Even in a short session dominated by property tax reform, he finds some proscriptions that can be fine-tuned:
A $200 fine would benefit local law enforcement, beautification projects
A fast-food wrapper here, a soft drink can there. Soon, says State Sen. Tom Wyss, you're talking about a major mess.
When is a caucus more than a caucus? When the party caucusing also has a majority of the legislative body in question. And this isn't much of a defense:
Earlier this month, then-Allen County Democratic Party Chair Kevin Knuth wrote Didier asking him about the caucus. At the council meeting Jan. 8, Didier said during his four years in office, the GOP has always caucused before the first meeting of the year to make recommendations for appointments.
Women's long fight for true equality has finally achieved the ultimate victory:
For years, the world of early spring harbingers has been an old boys' network dominated by Punxsutawney Phils and Buckeye Chucks. Massachusetts legislators want that to change.
The crack Muncie Police Department goes after a vicious criminal:
Whitney Stump didn't like watching drivers ignore the stop signs at the intersection outside his home, so he asked the city to paint crosswalks there.
When the city said no, he made one himself. And the city wasn't appreciative.
The Indianapolis Star's Matthew Tully says Jill Long Thompson's campaign for governor in the Democratic primary "has spirit," but the candidate has to start being specific on ideas:
"Support the troops" is not a universal sentiment in this country:
Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go.
That's the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 8-1 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station "is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders."
[. . .]
These murder-suicide sickos just can't seem to get the order of the shootings right:
A father shot to death his 8-year-old daughter before taking his own life this afternoon on the Eastside, police said.
