Would you have the time -- I know you're a busy person this year -- to show me the way to make my day go better? I know that's not the thing a man of the world wants to spend his life doing. But, come on, give me a hand.
Ha -- those were the top 10, in order. Anybody want to take the next 10?
If county government salaries are "too low compared with comparable local governments," the answer is easy, right? Just raise those salaries, and be quick about it. But not all county departments are equal -- some have higher-than-average salaries, some lower. It makes sense to target raises where there is a specific problem:
I usually just do my posts here and let the comments flow to whatever people are most interested in. But on this one, I seek your feedback. Let me know what you think about a baseball stadium downtown.
Boy, who would have guessed? If you want to win the game, you must try to score more points:
"We would always like to score more goals and we're going to need them for the Ghana game," US forward Brian McBride said. "We need to be smart, pick our chances to go forward. When the opportunity comes we have to go for it.
The global-warming alarmists have always confused weather with climate, and now they want to accumulate anecdotal evidence to help perpetuate their ignorance:
We want to hear and see your stories. Have you noticed changes in your own backyard or hometown? The differences can be large or small — altered blooming schedules, unusual animals that have arrived in your community, higher water levels encroaching on your property.
Some changes to beloved traditions of major institutions can be compared to improving the decor of a restaurant -- spiffier waitress uniforms, more soothing colors, better traffic flow -- just to get more customers in, who then find the same familiar food on the menu. I would put the Catholic Church's decision to do away with all the Latin and start using guitar-strumming singers into this category. Some changes are like keeping the restaurant but changing the menu.
Why did the chicken cross the road? How famous people might answer that famous joke question. Sample:
George Bush's Answer:
We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or it is against us. There is no middle ground here.
The racial-balance movement is taken to a bizarre new level:
Weeks after the birth of their first biological child, Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are planning to adopt another.
"Next we'll adopt," Jolie told CNN in an interview to be aired on Tuesday.
Lafayette is among the growing list of cities thinking about putting cameras in public places as a deterrent to crime and aid in crime solving. Those of us who worry about such things are increasingly seen as cranks. As even Fran Quigley of the Indiana ACLU notes:
. . . courts have consistently held that cameras taping acts in public places cannot be challenged because residents do not have an expectation of privacy in such settings.
We could all expound on our pets gripes on one side or the other of this, but it seems like a non-issue to me -- the library is restricting circulation among "the homeless," not eliminating it, and there are lots of arrangements the shelters and library could make:
We all know that gambling is, in effect, a regressive "voluntary" tax, since the poor spend a greater proportion of their income on games than propserous gamblers. But which form of gambling is the most regressive, i.e. adds the most to income equality? No, not casinos:
When I started college, I think my parents were disappointed I went to IPFW. "What, you're still going to live at home?" When I quit after a year and a half and joined the Army, I could almost read their minds. "Ah, a little peace and quite at last." How times change. Parents now have so much trouble letting go that universities such as Indiana and Purdue have to conduct orientation sessions on it.
Wow. Overeat, diet. Overeat, diet. Overeat, diet. All with the same company:
GENEVA, Switzerland - In a move that recognizes the modern world's twin obsessions — indulgence and guilt — chocolate maker Nestle said Monday it would purchase weight loss product maker Jenny Craig Inc. for $600 million.
Coverage of our daylight-saving time convulsions, especially, by out-of-staters, would have had you believe that Hoosiers were the last hopeless dolts in the country who didn't understand the simple "spring forward, fall back" formula. But now that we've actually gone and adopted DST, there are apparently others who can't keep things straight:
Drudge linked to this lame editorial, so it will probably get pretty well slammed across the conservative and libertarian blogosphere, but it's such a perfect example of all the rationalizations that accompany America's current Victim Nation status that I just have to throw in my two-cents worth.
I used to read all these stories about how George Jones, one of my favorite country singers, had gone on the wagon and was finally turning his life around. There would be a new story every year or so, always by a different reporter who hadn't read the other stories (no Internet back then to make research easy) and hadn't realized that George kept falling off the wagon told that turning-his-life-around story every time he got back on -- "for good this time!"
The Sixth Amendment guarantees, among other things, that an accused person "shall enjoy the right . . . to be confronted with witnesses against him." The Supreme Court in 2004, in an opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia, also applied that standard to "testimonial statements" in criminal trials, but it left unclear what would be considered "evidence," which does not require being able to cross-examine one's accuser, and what would be considered "testimony," which does. What about 911 calls?
Today's reality check. What Paul McCartney thought his life might be like at 64:
So, mornings are so intolerable, I have to make my Folgers stronger and stronger just to get through them. Lately, the coffee has been so strong it has been inducing flashbacks. The smell, that first biting, scalding taste, and it's 1968 again.
Have you ever paid the state's $2-a-year dog tax? Did you even know the state had a dog tax? Well, don't worry. It's going away. One of the state's most obscure (and possibly most ignored) provisions, the tax was instituted to create a pot of money to pay out to those whose livestock was killed by dogs, not exactly a big threat these days.
