You think it's kind of scary that a lot of people get their "news" from the late-night comedians and "The Daily Show"? You don't know the half of it:
CBS) CHICAGO Gov. Rod Blagojevich said that he didn't realize it was all a big joke when Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" came to do a segment on him recently, a segment that, among other things, made fun of his last name and suggested he might be gay.
William Bennett and Alan Dershowitz, who probably don't agree on much else, join forces in a column calling the American press's reluctance to print the Muhammad cartoons an abdication of responsibility:
My first inclination was to call this another piece of evidence on state-sanctioned gambling's weakening of our morality:
EAST CHICAGO — The father of her children was inside the casino and Keisha Clark worried he was going to gamble their money away.
That was why Clark parked her car at the Resorts Casino garage and left her three children in it, the 24-year-old mother told police later.
She believed she was away from them for only 20 minutes.
State Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, after killing the wine-shipment bill because it is a matter of litigation: “We just try to avoid creating winning and losers,” he said. “We are not the judicial branch of government.” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ho, ho, ho, ho, heh, heh, heh, oh, please, stop it, you're killing me. Cheese and rice, what a comedian.
We celebrate beauty all the time, so it seems only fair to saulte 10 of the ugliest things ever created by human beings. I was especially struck by this one:
Though I'm still trying to make up my mind on the controversy over a United Arab Emirates company being allowed to manage six U.S. ports, I have to say I'm inclined to support the Bush administration. I've had a lot of problems with Bush, especially his decidedly unconservative approach to domestic policies, but his commitment to the security of the United States has always been and always will be his strong suit. We're now going to start listening to his critics on security issues? Please.
Some clear thinking on what we need to think about in the war on terrorism:
The premise of his book is that in this age of terror, there is a potential need for such devices as profiling, preventive detention, anticipatory mass inoculation, prior restraint of dangerous speech, targeted extrajudicial executions of terrorists and preemptive military action including full-scale preventive war.
Well, this doesn't bode well for our efforts to marginalize tyrants and encourage democratic movements, does it?
Nearly half of South Korean youths who will be old enough to vote in the country's next elections say Seoul should side with North Korea if the United States attacks the communist nation, according to a poll released Wednesday
I'd like to see a variation of that "first baby of the new year" feature newspapers are always running to honor the 6,500,000,000th person born on Earth Saturday. How many people can the Earth support? Short answer: As many as there are. Every since Malthus, various "experts," such as Paul Ehrlich, have been predicting that overpopulation would eventually exhaust the world's resources.
Has anyone else noticed all the Bariatric-surgery ads on TV? It's apparently big business, with central Indiana hospitals in the forefront:
The number of obese in the United States continues to rise and so does the popularity of surgical weight loss options. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that in 1998 surgeons performed 13,365 Bariatric procedures. By 2010 it's predicted that surgeons will perform 218,000 Bariatric surgeries.
This seems like a no-brainer to me:
Police investigating a credible report may legally enter outdoor private property and seize evidence of a crime if it is within public view, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled.The ruling Tuesday stemmed from an animal neglect case but could have wider implications.
How many stories did you read or see on TV about the 13 miners traped in West Virginia? How many have there been about the 65 in Mexico? Just asking.
There have been two categories of anti-smoking zealotry I think went too far:
1. Jails: Put a bunch of antisocial, mostly violent people together in close confinement, then tell them they can't smoke.
2. Mental institutions: Try to help people hanging onto reality by their fingernails by taking away their cigarettes.
I might now add this third category:
Some may think this is a pretty lame reason for killing your roommate:
A man has been arrested for fatally beating his roommate with a sledgehammer and a claw hammer because there was no toilet tissue in the home, authorities said.
But looking back on all the times I have lived with other people, toilet paper has always been in the top 10 of contentious issues. In addition to the (always unexpected and unwelcomed) sudden lack of TP at the most inconventient time, there are:
Indiana isn't the only state reacting to the infamous and outrageous Kelo decision by tightening rules of eminent domain. In fact, most are. This seems like a pretty lame attempt at providing "balance" and "perspective":
Why is "partial birth abortion" such a big controversy?
1. It is such a morally repugnant practice that even the strongest pro-choice advocates have to flinch at supporting it. The objects of such a procedure are not just a clump of undifferentiated cells.
If you're going to start altering works of art based on people objecting to certain things, here's a tip: Better act on everybody's complaints, or you've got some explaining to do:
The good news is that Americans are ready for a woman as president. The better news is that they even seem to be leaning toward the right woman.
The "I did not have sex with that woman" president has the unmitigated gall to fault the Bush administration for its "penchant for secrecy"?
There is actually a nugget of truth in House Speaker Brian Bosma's comment that Indiana is 2 percent Jewish and at least 80 percent Christian. If what prayer is said to open House sessions is not a constitutional issue -- and that is in legal play right now -- then it's a matter of whether what's said is offensive or not. And who better to offend, since there is no constitutional right not to be offended -- 2 percent or 80 percent?
