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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

The ticking bomb

I think I've said before here that national security is such an important issue that it will be the deciding factor for me in the presidential election. It won't be my sole concern, but I'll overlook a lot of positions I disagree with if the candidate gets that one right. Hillary Clinton, as much as I can tell so far, is the only Democrat I would trust with America's interests on the world stage. This, then, is not comforting:

Find your candidate

Answer the questions at the "candidate calculator" site, and it will supposedly tell you which presidential candidate most mirrors your own beliefs. I took it, and it said my candidate is Republican businessman John Cox, (with a 77 percent match), who is such a darkhorse candidate that the Republicans won't even let him into their debates. Be honest -- did you even know he was running? Have you ever heard of him?

Smokescreen

Fort Wayne smokers, you need to change your tactics. Stop fighting City Council and trying to get exceptions to the smoking ban for bars or restaurants that spent thousands of dollars trying to comply with the earlier version of the ban. You need to: 1. Become a Muslim. 2. Organize all the other smoking Muslims you are able to meet or convert. 3. March on City Hall to demand your rights:

Mad dogs

I don't understand this:

RICHMOND, Va. -- Michael Vick is now likely one misstep from jail.

My life, THEN the planet, OK?

Boy, it's good to know that if I end up in the emergency room with a heart attack or a head wound from a car wreck, I won't be contributing the destruction of the planet:

Indianapolis, IN---Community Hospital South's new emergency department is, first and foremost, there to care for patients experiencing a medical crisis. Though it may not be obvious to those in the midst of an emergency, the ER also is caring for the planet.

Posted in: Hoosier lore

Setting the record straight

Everybody makes mistakes, including journalists. I've made my share, but nothing quite like this doozy in Indiana University's student newspaper:

Like everyone, we here at the Indiana Daily Student make mistakes from time to time. Unfortunately, because we relied on assumptions, the one we made in Tuesday's paper caused unneeded concern from a number of our readers.

Hovering

Boy, Indianapolis is sure on a roll. First a second Dunkin' Donuts and now this:

INDIANAPOLIS - When you hear a siren, you know what to look for; a police car, a fire truck, or an ambulance. 24-Hour News 8 has exclusively learned that Indianapolis is about to take charge of something completely different.

While it is not something you'd expect in Indianapolis. In the next week or so, Marion County expects to take delivery of a hovercraft.

Posted in: Hoosier lore

Assimilation

Legal immigrants are already required to know about American principles and history than native-born Americans can bother themselves to learn. Now, they will be even further ahead of us:

Cooling off

This seems like a good idea:

New legislation authored by State Senator Jim Arnold (D-LaPorte) would provide a cooling off period for individuals arrested for domestic violence in Indiana. Members of the LaPorte County Domestic Violence Task Force, a local group that helped develop the legislation, joined Arnold at a press conference today to announce details of the bill.

[. . .]

GI bill

Most guys who lie about being in the military do it to pick up women. This Hoosier had a different idea:

Christopher Lee Proe came to Pufferbellies nightclub in Barnstable with a taste for expensive champagne and no shortage of stories: He was an Army lieutenant fresh from a tour in Iraq who survived being shot by a .22-caliber gun. He was a Detroit police officer on leave from the National Guard.

The big time

When I lived in Wabash, it was big news when the town finally Got a McDonald's, and when K-Mart showed up, you would have thought Jesus Christ had come back. I guess that's a Hoosier thing that not even our biggest city is immune to:

Dunkin' Donuts lovers in Marion County: Circle your calendar.

Posted in: Hoosier lore

Press on

President Ahmadinejad sends out invitations to journalists and academics, and 50 respond to have dinner with him. That results in good press, such as this article in Time:

The other China syndrome

Freedom has been on the march in the world the past few years, but every good journey has a few bumps in the road:

Democracy and good governance are on the retreat in a number of countries around the world, a wide-ranging report says on Tuesday.

The current record will stand

Drat. Another vacation plan down the tubes:

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- Attention climbers: Please keep your clothes on while climbing Mount Everest.

Nepal's mountaineering authorities are calling for a ban on nudity and attempts to set obscene records on the world's highest mountain, officials said Wednesday.

Under the influence

Forbes magazine has come up with one of the most absurd lists in recently memory. It ranked the "top 10 most influential pundits," and made some very strange choices:

CHICAGO -- Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert is the nation's most influential pundit, according to a new ranking by Forbes magazine.

Our own kind

This sounds about right:

CHICAGO, 25 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers found just 7 percent of respondents do not have the usual human tendency to favor one's own group and not form racial prejudices.

Posted in: Current Affairs

Twinkie Nation

Do you know what's in your Twinkie?

Dr. Phillips says there are 39 ingredients packed into the dessert, and all but one are processed.

The ingredients cellulose gum, calcium sulfate, and polysorbate 60 are also used in sheetrock, shampoo, laundry detergent, and even rocket fuel. Author Steve Ettlinger spent five years tracking down the source of every ingredient found in a Twinkie.

Posted in: Food and Drink

Dead is dead

We knew it was coming, and here it is:

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections in a case that could affect the way inmates are executed around the country.

[. . .]

Air Native

Those silly, big-footed Indians. Hey, don't blame me, that's Nike talking:

BEAVERTON, Ore. - Nike on Tuesday unveiled what it said is the first shoe designed specifically for American Indians, an effort aiming at promoting physical fitness in a population with high obesity rates.

Posted in: Current Affairs

Conventional wisdom

For the "cure is worse than the disease" file:

Indiana government should be rebuilt from the base. It's not merely broken — it's shattered. The Indiana Constitution was written when bison literally roamed the state's prairies. Clauses in the constitution are as rare as those bison; it's time to shred the document and write one for the 21st Century.

[. . .]

Posted in: Hoosier lore
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