Just because the Indianapolis Colts have "clinched everything that needs to be clinched," that doesn't mean people have stopped having fun talking about them. The great philosophical debate right now is whether the Colts should rest their stars for the last three meaningless games of the season, with their eyes firmly on the Super Bowl, or try as hard as they can to win the last three games and make history.
Here's a holiday story I like much better than the stupid "12 Days of Christmas" update. Of the top toys of past decades, the only two I ever had were the Crayola Crayons and the View-Master 3-D Viewer, and I didn't get the viewer as a present when I was a child. I bought it for myself just a few years ago. With all the money I spend on cable, the Internet and all other forms of whizzy entertainment, I can still amuse myself for hours marveling at the depth and detail of a View-Master slide.
Mary Jacobus, publisher of The News-Sentinel and CEO of Fort Wayne Newspapers, is leaving for the Boston Globe. Details here.
The discussions a lot of us have been having about the future of newspapers were kicked into overdrive by the pressure to sell being felt by Knight Ridder (parent company of my newspaper). Jeff Jarvis has been blogging up a storm about the subject.
Wow! An incredible 70 percent of the people feel good about their own lives. How can that be, when everybody thinks the economy sucks even though its roaring, when a majority of the populace thinks going to war was a big mistake, when we all know the country is headed in the wrong direction? Oh, wait. I misread. It's in Iraq where people feel that way.
Prejudice as a mental illness? My first inclination is to call it just plain silly. But this person says it better:
"I think it's absurd," said Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and the author of "PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine." Satel said the diagnosis would allow hate-crime perpetrators to evade responsibility by claiming they suffered from a mental illness. "You could use it as a defense."
I mentioned in an earlier post that "The 12 Days of Christmas" was on my list of the five worst Christmas songs ever. One of the good reasons to detest the song is that it is responsible for one of the laziest, lamest piceces of journalistic sludge ever perpetuated against the American people.
If cursing is a problem in schools today -- anybody prepared to say it's not? -- there are two extremes we can approach in trying to deal with it:
Students in Hartford, Conn., now have to pay for what they say - literally.
Under a new plan, 2,800 students at two high schools in the district could be subject to $103 fines for uttering profanity on school premises.
Breaking news from Inside Indiana Business: Looks like Pat Miller is quitting as Indiana secretary of commerce to resume her post as president and CEO of Vera Bradley here in Fort Wayne.
Indiana State University is thinking about starting the state's fifth law school (we currently have two public ones, at Indiana University Bloomington and Indiana University Indianapolis, and two private ones -- Notre Dame and Valparaiso). This seems like a bad idea to some people, who argue that we already have more than enough lawers. Torpor Indiana, for example, thinks we should be worrying about real shortages, as of nurses and pharmacists.
I suspect I'm not alone in supporting the death penalty in some cases (the ultimate punishment for the ultimate crimes) but having many doubts about the way it is implemented. My concerns aren't liberal -- questioning the very legitimacy of capital punishment -- but rather libertarian. It's hard to question the government's competence to do something as simple as paving potholes or hauling garbage and then blithely give it the very power of life and death.
These poor San Francisco cops should have realized that a chief characteristic of becoming "sensitive" to others -- especially when you're determined to display it like a badge -- is a complete loss of a sense of humor. And who in the country is more sensitive than San Francisco residents? Here's the coverage of a San Francicso TV station, including some of the video in question. If you're easily offended, don't watch.
Amen to Thomas Mitchell's "melancholy celebration" of the anniversay of the Bill of Rights (coming Friday):
Sadly, most of those rights have been gradually eroded over the years by well-meaning elected officials, bureaucrats and even by the voters themselves.
Well, if this is what Christmas parties are going to be like,
Gone are the nights of photocopying one's bare buttocks, groping interns and hauling home a gift bag full of goodies,
then what's the point?
And just to completely get you in the holiday spirit, know that even Santa ticks some people off.
Consolidation efforts are moving forward in Evansville and Vanderburgh County, but with a plan not all supporters are in favor of. Instead of a single referendum, the area's legislative delegation favors introducing a bill in the General Assembly that would authorize two consecutive referendums. If the first referendum, approving of the consolidation in general, passes, there would be a second referendum to vote on a specific consolidation plan.
Isn't it curious that people pushing the "science" of global warming are mostly anti-technology?
I suppose the only way to have avoided getting ourselves into this whole climate change mess was for us to have never progressed as a civilization in the first place. We could still be hunters and gatherers. Children would probably die at an early age from disease or exposure, but at least the population would not be so burdensome to the Earth.
No stinkin' Merry Christmas here:
A Seattle-area school district recalled its December lunch menus for 23 elementary schools because they were printed with the greeting "Merry Christmas."
The Federal Way School District recycled 11,500 copies of the calendar-style menu and reprinted it with the greeting "Happy Holidays," The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., reported.
I am not going to say a single thing about this. Just read it and draw your own conclusions.
Don't want to get hooked by the phishers? DON'T ANSWER QUESTONS online unless you've verified the legitimacy of the company asking the questions.
Speeding at 128 miles an hour isn't reckless driving?! Good lord.
