The mayor proposes a 30 percent raise for his office and ends up with a 15 percent one. Boy, couldn't see that one coming, huh? I hope this means the mayor will do a 15 percent better job in watching out for MY money.
The mayor proposes a 30 percent raise for his office and ends up with a 15 percent one. Boy, couldn't see that one coming, huh? I hope this means the mayor will do a 15 percent better job in watching out for MY money.
Well, that's the problem, isn't it?
As he searches for a new strategy for Iraq, Bush has now adopted the formula advanced by his top military adviser to describe the situation. "We're not winning, we're not losing," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. The assessment was a striking reversal for a president who, days before the November elections, declared, "Absolutely, we're winning."
I've written before that space exploration is one government program I support -- the public sector has been subsidizing voyages of discovery at least since the time of Columbus. And the idea of a moon base appeals to me, probably as much for romantic reasons as practical ones. But Gregg Easterbrook, writing for Slate, makes a good case that returning to the moon would be an expensive folly:
The president, on his belief that he and Democrats in Congress can find common ground:
"I believe it's going to be possible here," Bush said. "... I'm going to sprint to the finish and we can get a lot done."
That's what many of us are afraid of. Between Bush, who has never been a small-government conservative, and Democrats, who are, well, Democrats, there is no limit to what this will cost us.
The worst thing about the state's fireworks law is that it overrode all local ordinances on things like nuisances and noise. Neighboroods let local officials know they werre upset with the disturbance of their peace and quiet, and local officials let the state know. But now that some corrective action might be taken, the author of the law isn't happy:
But Sen. Tom Weatherwax, R-Logansport, said he will work to kill the proposal.
Duh: Smaller cars perform poorly in crash tests. Some will, of course, increase their campaign to outlaw big cars. But then only outlaws would have big cars.
Even if we take into account that the person who did the report is for marijuana legalization, his conclusion that pot is now the nation's biggest cash crop is probably true, and I notice that the government official quoted doesn't dispute it. What is challenged by the government is this:
I was channel-surfing the other day and caught "Goodbye Mr. Chips," the 1939 movie (lord, what a year for film!) starring Robert Donat as a teacher looking back over his life. It gets a little treacly at times, but it's still a very watchable treatise on what people thought about education nearly 70 years ago. It's also a movie without a villain, unless you count time, which eventually takes everything away from all of us.
Excuse me for piling on -- er, metaphorically -- a fellow Kentuckian, but Miss USA Tra Conner is a silly twit:
In a tear-choked voice, Conner said, "In no way did I think it would be possible for a second chance to be given to me." Turning to Trump, she said, "You'll never know what this means to me, and I swear I will not let you down." Trump said Conner would be entering rehab. A pageant official said details would be worked out privately with Conner over the next weeks.
The intended sale of the Verizon (aka Deer Creek) Music Center is a much bigger story than the possible loss of one concert venue. It's part of a much bigger shift in music, which in turn is part of the digital revolution we're all going through. The Indianapolis Star explains:
When costs increase, demand falls. That's the law of demand, on which almost the whole study of economics is based, and until somebody figures a way to repeal it, it explains why the increasing the minimum wage is a disputable idea. Labor is the most expensive component of most businesses. If you force businesses to pay more for labor, they will figure out a way to use less of it, or to increase the prices of their goods and services to make up the difference.
This isn't terribly surprising:
Shoppers across America have millions of gift cards tucked away in envelopes, drawers and wallets. And some of the nation's largest retailers are profiting as a result.
[. . . ]
Last winter, Best Buy Co. reported a $43 million gain in fiscal 2006 from cards that hadn't been used in two or more years. Limited Brands Inc. recorded $30 million in 2005 revenue because of unredeemed cards.
I thought it would take a lot longer for Nancy Pelosi and Hary Reid to do something I would agree with:
Meetings in Washington last Thursday between rock star Bono and Democrats, including Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada, yielded a nice photo-op but not much else, according to Bono.
Further evidence that journalism by opinion poll has gotten completely out of hand:
A Newsweek poll finds 86 percent of registered voters say they would back a qualified woman nominated by their party. For a black person, 93 percent say they would be willing to back the candidate.
[. . .]
Clinton remains the front-runner, but Obama has vaulted to the second tier with 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards. Head to head, Clinton beats Obama 50 percent to 38 percent, Newsweek said.
Did anyone else have the same reaction I did to the Olive Garden story, namely, what in the world is a norovirus?
A contagious stomach virus is likely to blame for sickening about 370 people who ate at an Olive Garden restaurant in Indianapolis last week, a county health official said on Monday.
If you want a quick overview of what's going on in the Indiana blogosphere, this new site looks pretty thorough. Here's the announcement of the site's debut:
BlogNetNews doesn't have a political ax to grind and jumps a generation ahead of other aggregators out there that just reprint posts and tell you which ones get clicked on the most.
So Evan Bayh is out of the presidential race, barely two weeks after he officially almost got in it, to no one's great surprise. And he's getting a lot of credit for recognizing reality and dealing with it honestly. But before he got out, he offered fellow Democrats a reality check they'd do well to heed:
I was a little bit disappointed to learn that the Indiana Pacers lost the distinction of being one of the two teams involved in the worst brawl in NBA history:
If David Stern has the power to suspend people for sheer stupidity, now is the time to exercise it on the worst offenders of the Nuggets-Knicks brawl in Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
[. . .]
I'm sorry, but this is one set of victims I'm not able to work up a lot of sympathy for:
Death penalty foes have warned for years of the possibility that an inmate being executed by lethal injection could remain conscious, experiencing severe pain as he slowly dies.
That day may have arrived.
Gov. Mitch Daniels is a very smart person, but sometimes he's too clever for his own good, which can give him the insufferably arrogant demeanor of your average high school sophomore. The latest case in point is his reaction to critics of his plan to privatize the lottery as part of an effort to keep Indiana's best and brightest in the state:
