Protesting can be an act of bravery. Taking to the streets in South Africa against apartheid when that position was frowned upon. Standing in front of a tank in Tienanmen Square. But it's little more than street theater when people come out to protest something 70 percent of the country is already against:
The story of how the city quietly acquired the property for Harrison Square:
It wasn't an easy task for Greg Leatherman and Bill Martin: track down 32 different owners of 50 properties and negotiate to buy their homes, businesses or empty lots.
They had little leverage
What a scary thought for Indiana: Have the Colts carried football past basketball for popularity? But the story is really about pro sports, so it's not really a fair question. If high school and college basketball ever fall victim to pro football in Indiana, we will know life as we know it has come to and end.
What's this? Felons are able to get around gun laws? Dang. Guess the gun-control folks are going to have to rethink things:
With Indianapolis in the Super Bowl, you knew there had to be the obligatory "Indiana is just a bunch of backward hicks" playground taunt. Here it is, from a Chicago Sun-Times columnist who apparently made someone laugh back in high school and has never gotten over it:
Dog with a bandage on its leg walks into a bar, goes up to the bartender and says, "I'm lookin' for the man who shot my paw."
A man walks into a bar and sits down next to a man with a dog at his feet. "Does your dog bite?" he asks. "No." A few minutes later the dog takes a huge chunk out of his leg."I thought you said your dog didn't bite!" the man says indignantly. "That's not my dog."
In the comments section of an earlier post, someboy mentioned Burger King commercials, which reminded me that a friend and I were talking about TV commercials that really creep us out. Four top the list.
1. The Burger King commercial where the guy wakes up next to the king. No homophobia here -- my friend is a gal, and it disturbs her even more than it does me. I bet it gives many women scary memories of guys they've woken up next to.
January is National Stalking Awarenes Month, about which no smart remarks or attempts at whimsy. I've watched a couple of friends go through it, and obsession is a scary thing when it has that manifestation. The worst thing is how the victims tend to make excuses for the stalkers when it's someone they've been involved with who just won't let go. Even when there's no suspicion that things might get violent, they end up allowing their lives to be made miserable.
It's clear from their reactions that some people do not think I was sincere in my apology to anyone who might have taken offense at remarks of mine that could have been construed as being insulting to those whose appearance is less than perfect. They seem to think I'm not sorry for what I said, merely that I made the remarks in a public way and got called out on it.
Who are they kidding?
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A leading restaurant association has called for the cancellation of a TV commercial featuring Britney Spears' estranged husband, Kevin Federline, as a failed rap star working in a fast-food eatery.
In a 30-second ad for Nationwide Insurance, Federline is shown dreaming he is a rap star but then snaps out of it to face reality -- he's working at a burger restaurant.
This is one of those reports with big numbers that sound impressive until you realize it's mostly fiction, the result of accountants just doing silly calculations to get attention:
Here's an idea. Since people hang around waiting to be executed for about 20 years, at great public expense, and we're getting so squeamish that even lethal injections are considered barbaric, why not change the method of execution to secondhand smoke? To hear some people tell it, that would clear them out of death row a lof quicker.
Nah. That really would be "cruel and unusual" punishment.
I am so, so sorry. Please forgive me. I don't know how I went so terribly wrong. In the middle of an otherwise lucid and insightful post on government and parenting yesterday, I let the urge to take a cheap shot get the better of me. "Look at the photo of the legislator in question, by the way," I wrote. "My first impression is that she would never have to spank a child. Just looking at her would make most 3-year-olds, not to mention many adults, run screaming in terror."
Re: State of the Union. What was the point? No domestic policy will go anywhere, because Democrats are deep into the "whatever Bush is for, we're against" mode. That is not leadership, but it's the way it is. Roughly 70 percent of the country is against the administration on the war in Iraq, and there won't be any coherent discussion of that because we seem headed for obvious defeat, and the implications are scary. Such a major address shouldn't be irrelevant, but it probably was.
John Mellencamp is quite the sour man:
In rock singer John Mellencamp's latest musical epistle from the heartland, Americans are vengeful, unforgiving, ignorant of other cultures and led by a president he describes as a "rodeo clown."
Has anyone else stopped reading the comics pages? I used to read them regularly. There were two or three each in the morning and evening papers that I followed. I don't know if says something about me or something about the comics, but It occurred to me this week that I haven't even looked at them in at least two or three years.
"Oh, look! I have metal fragments in my ground beef."
"Shut up, or everybody will want some!"
The reaction to this California proposal is breaking along predictable lines -- liberals supportive, conservatives generally scornful:
Anybody think they'll ever try this in Indiana?
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington state's experiment with Sunday liquor sales is a big hit, and lawmakers may expand it to more stores this year.
Twenty state-run stores and 38 contract stores run by private vendors have been keeping Sunday hours, noon to 5 p.m., for the past 16 months. And sales are expected to top $18.5 million by June 30th.
About the same time they have the Super Bowl in Fort Wayne, probably.
