"The whole U.S. is a free speech zone"? Not when the ACLU and government officials can't even figure out something as simple as creating a patch of lawn where people can express their holiday spirit.
"The whole U.S. is a free speech zone"? Not when the ACLU and government officials can't even figure out something as simple as creating a patch of lawn where people can express their holiday spirit.
This passing of an American icon seems sadder than most, for some reason:
The traditional Winchester rifles carried by pioneers, movie stars and Wild West lawmen will be discontinued in March, a Belgian manufacturer said Wednesday, confirming the end of an American icon that became known as "The Gun that Won the West."
One of the problems apparently is that the Winchester is just too good:
It's a great idea to spiffy up the Indianapolis airport terminal with works of art, and it's an idea we might consider here. But there's one part of it they might want to rethink:
The Indianapolis Airport Authority and Writers' Center of Indiana are asking poets to submit writing that could be incorporated into works created by Martin Donlin.
A young fuddy-duddy complains that Indiana's basketball tournament has too much class, and notes that Illinois is about to make the same mistake:
The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced its final plan for time zones in Indiana. Eight counties will be moved into the Central zone to join the 10 already there, leaving 74 counties in the Eastern zone. St. Joseph County's petition to switch from Eastern to Central, the most controversial aspect of the issue, was denied. That seems sensible, leaving Michiana a cohesive unit.
Could there be two books more different than James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" and Elie Wiesel's "Night"? One is a fabricated life story by an American brat meant to cash in on our morbid fascination with the therapeutic culture: I was bad, but I redeemed myself! The other is a gut-wrenching memoir of one family's experience in a Nazi death camp.
An Arizona lawmaker has another new way to deal with illegal immigrants:
A Paradise Valley Republican thinks she's found a way to let state and local police round up illegal entrants — make their presence in this state the crime of trespass.
I'd say the headline on this story -- "Assisted suicide law not likely to cross Indiana in near future" -- could be the understatement of the year so far. We're not likely to have such a law here in your childrens' lifetimes.
Changing some one-way streets back to two-way is good news for downtown-revitalization efforts. One-way streets are good for mostly one thing: moving traffic quickly. If you want people to slow down and see your downtown area, they suck. If you're trying to navigate through neighborhoods, or explain to out-of-town visitors how to get to your neighborhood, they suck more. The block of Oakdale I live on is one-way east. The next block east is one-way west.
When Allen County politicians wanted a restaurant tax to remodel the coliseum, I believed them that it would be a limited tax for a specific reason for a set amount of time. Of course, that was a long time ago, and the tax is still here -- they keep finding new uses for it that have nothing to do with the coliseum. I let their apparent sincerity overcome my skepticism, a healthy look at reality that realizes, "No tax ever dies."
If you need a good lawyer for your divorce case, this guy is back:
After five years of banishment from the legal profession, President Clinton will be eligible this week to reclaim the law license he gave up as a consequence of the inaccurate responses he gave under oath to questions about his relationship with a White House intern.
Inaccurate responses? Out here in Red State America, we call that "lying."
If Pat Robertson is a whack job, so is Ray Nagin:
Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that "God is mad at America" and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting.
Some men are probably going to have to toss a coin to make this tough call: Stop using Viagra or go blind. Have sex or vision. Maybe they could just use the drugs until they need glasses.
I guess not everyone is as excited as I am about having a Starbucks close by. I can appreciate the town of Nashville wanting to "keep the chains out of downtown" to preserve its small-town feel, but, really. Anyone who has been going to Nashville for 20 or 30 years has to have noticed the same thing I have -- it's getting increasingly harder to find authentic crafts by actual local artists, but just about every block has several stores full of cheap crap from Taiwan.
If you came across this news last year, now is a good time to remember it, just to have a week's heads-up, in case you want to stock up on Prozac or chocolate or something:
I've written before (in connection to the journalists' shield law sponsored by Indiana U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar and Rep. Mike Pence) about the reluctance of some to welcome the citizen journalists of the Internet into the press community. Now it's a state issue, too. House Bill 1067, introduced by Rep. Bob Cherry, R-Greenfield, would close birth and death records, which are open to the public under current state law.
Zack Wendling of In the Agora links to a story about British researchers who think Internet downloading and MP3 players are lessening our ability to appreciate songs or musical performances:
"The accessibility of music has meant that it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation," said music psychologist Adrian North on Tuesday.
[. . . ]
Indianapolis has picked "Catch Me If You Can" as its latest One Book-One City subject, which seems like a pretty lightweight choice. Here's the list of 25 finalists, which had a few that seem more likely to generate lively discussion.
What Walter Cronkite recalls as one of his proudest moments is actually one of the worst moments of modern journalistic history:
