The state of the culture

Looks like America's effort to pump self-esteem into its young people has, unfortunately, been all too successful:

Beggars are not rousted by police and run out of town in this country today. They don't go to the poorhouse. They don't go to jail. They go to court!

 A class-action lawsuit that alleged that Indianapolis police were violating the rights of panhandlers has been squashed.

[. . .]

A group of four men claimed police shouldn't be able to prohibit them from asking for money on the street.

When I first heard about "sexting," I thought, well, it's just a high-tech version of what we did in high school -- telling off-color jokes, passing around dirty pictures and all of that other racy stuff. But it's really another one of those oh-these-kids-today! extremes:

It primarily involves high school and even middle school students. "Basically what they're doing is distributing pornography," said Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards.

As usual, I haven't been watching "American Idol," so I'm not up to speed on this apparent outrage:

For the most part in the past, "Idol" hopefuls who make it to Hollywood are serious singers who really think they have a shot at winning, with the costume-wearing, prop-toting jokers mostly weeded out during the audition weeks or not given screen time on the big stage in Los Angeles.

I know all of you must be just like me, can't get enough of the Katie Stam story. Some people are now saying the new Miss America is not just another pretty face:

The controversy: Does she or does she not have man hands? Here are some of the comments from the site, then go take a look and judge for yourself.

An Indiana University study has spent good money to discover something any man over the age of 16 could have told them:

Don't take flirtatious women for granted. They may not be be interested in you at all but are just being friendly, says a new study.

People of both sexes looking for romance are quite good at reading the male's interest, but equally bad at misjudging the female's interest.

This year marks the 50th anniversary (Monday will be the actual day) of the event that inspired the most tediously long song in rock 'n' roll history (with the possible exception of "Stairway to Heaven"):

If a certain actor named Patrick kept changing where he sat in his living room until he found the perfect place to sit that brought the greatest harmony to the room and the greatest feeling of peace within himself, could that be called Feng Swayze?

We have an interesting column on today's page from Eleanor Marine, chair of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic board, about the ongoing search for a new music director for the orchestra. It's a lot bigger and more complicated process than you might imagine for a philharmonic in a city this size. They got more than 275 applications.

Today is the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in history. Why would even "right to choose" advocates celebrate such an abomination? But NOW apparently is. The headline on this AP story is a little misleading -- "U.S. abortion debate altered by Obama presidency" -- but the story itself gets it right: