The state of the culture

Not in the running for Future Leaders of Indiana:

Three "bored" New Castle men face criminal charges over their alleged plan to bomb a homeless man's campsite in a wooded area behind a local church.

From the future history archives, Sept. 9, 2011 -- President Barack Obama is urging Congress for the 15th delay in the planned switch from analog to digital television broadcasting, arguing that too many Americans who rely on analog TV won't be ready.

Just in case you don't yet realize that cameras are everywhere:

The manager of an upmarket restaurant used CCTV footage to eavesdrop on a customer's lunch conversation and dispute the woman's complaints about poor service.

I love my cats Dutch and Maggie. I like my sister's cats. I like my friend's dog. I understand that pets become a part of our lives, and that we are sad, sometimes even despondent, when they die. But I think the idea of elaborate funerals, complete with approved grieving by invited mourners, is a bit much:

So long, public access:

But in Los Angeles and across California that forum began crumbling last week, a development that advocates say will strip ordinary citizens of a valuable 1st Amendment platform.

If you see a story indicating that the Supreme Court has once again added to the body of legal incoherence, you don't even have read it to know how the voting went: The usual 4-4 split, with Justice Anthony Kennedy jumping off the deep with the four liberals who wouldn't know a constituional principle if they tripped over it, which, come to think of it, they often do:

RIP Bettie Page, who helped kick off the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Her soft-core porn look seems almost chaste today, but she was considered hot stuff back then.

watch?v=A_bNDv0-ZrU

Remember that "Twilight Zone" episode in which nobody realizes until too late that "To Serve Man" is a cookbook? Well, when Keanu Reeves says he is "a friend of the Earth" in the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still," that doesn't mean what people think it does, either, and it shows just one of the two ways the re-makers have screwed up a classic movie.

I see the word thought police are out in force in Missouri:

Advocates for the disabled in Missouri want to strike the word "handicapped" from state laws about parking spaces.

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I don't believe this for a minute:

Almost half of college-aged individuals had a psychiatric disorder in the past year.