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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

An editorial view*

Some editorial opinions can be agreed with, some disputed. This one, in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, is simply despicable in the way it talks about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas:

In losing a woman, the court with Alito would feature seven white men, one white woman and a black man, who deserves an asterisk because he arguably does not represent the views of mainstream black America.

Ready or not

Chertoff makes a valid point about personal disaster preparedness being a matter of civic duty. If I have the ability to take care of myself but don't, and the people who need to take care of the truly helpless have to slow down and save my bacon first, I've been a bad neighbor, bad citizen and all-around selfish lout. I was somewhat amused by the elementary-schools official who balked at the idea of using students to help spread the word:

Posted in: Current Affairs

A change in opinion

It shouldn't be too surprising if the poll numbers are true that Gov. Daniels' approval rating is among the 15 worst in the country:

In fact, more Hoosiers currently "disapprove" of the job Daniels is doing -- 50 percent -- than "approve," at 44 percent, according to a 600-person poll released by SurveyUSA Thursday. Six percent of respondents were "not sure."

Sleight of hand

I think this is the right take on the move by Senate Democrats to force a closed meeting: smart in the short-term but not much thinking ahead.

Gloom with a view

Government is nothing if not creative when comes to finding ways to separate us from our money. You get a good view in New Hampshire, you're gonna pay for it:

"A piece of land on a side of a hill that overlooks a 50-mile or 100- mile radius is going to be worth more than the same piece of land overlooking an industrial complex or a landfill," he said.

The quagmire continues

So we're still fighting the Vietnam War, even in our choice of movies. Military veterans pick Mel Gibson's "We Were Soldiers," which tends to emphasize the heroics and sacrifices of the armed forces, as the best Vietnam movie. The general public, on the other hand, choose "Apocalypse Now," which tends to emphasize -- well, the title sort of says it all.

Posted in: Current Affairs

The Mother Country

With Prince Charles visiting us here in The Colonies, perhaps its time for a roundup of news about the Mother Country:

Posted in: Current Affairs

Powerless trip

Indiana Anarchists are preparing for their fall gathering. If you'd like to know what's going to happen, in order to decide if it would be worthwhile to go, too bad. Creating a program would, you know, indicate that somebody might be in charge, which is a bad thing, so:

Posted in: Hoosier lore

Dionnegate

I love the headline the morning paper put on this E.J. Dionne column, "Court nominee a distraction from Libby probe" because It perfectly captures the columnist's complete inability to grasp reality (although that probably wasn't the intent). Choosing Supreme Court members is among the most important functions of the president, because it helps shape, for perhaps two generations, the institution that governs so much of our lives.

Marriage of ideas

Arnold and Maria, proof that bedfellows make strange politics:

After all, Shriver would be breaking family ranks no matter where she came down on the measures, Democratic and Republican activists say. As a Democrat and a Kennedy, they say, she would have to all but shape-shift to endorse proposals despised by the party that counts three of her uncles as icons.

The religious court

If Samuel Alito is confirmed, that will mean the Supreme Court has five Catholics and two Jews. Those too young to remember what a big deal JFK's Catholicism was won't quite appreciate the significance of this. For those still feeling the sting of one form of prejudice or another, it's a hopeful sign that we eventually move beyond such nonsense.

Down under the table

You can take away Aussies' public smoking, but don't touch their alcohol:

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Council study of 1,500 Australians found that some 58 percent of people agreed that sometimes having too much to drink was "simply part of the Australian way of life."

If I want to go somewhere to celebrate drinking, better there than Russia.

Posted in: Current Affairs

500 and counting

This is my 500th post since the beginning of the blog on July 11, which is, I suppose, milestone enough these days for a look back. The first thing I notice is that in the same three-and-a-half-month period, I've probably written fewer than 200 pieces for the editorial page. The pace required for blogging can be daunting sometimes. I'm generally pleased with the mix of posts -- long ones and short ones, frivolous ones and serious ones, on a good variety of personal, local, state and national issues.

Royal wisdom

Prince Charles, bless his heart, thinks we are too dependent on technology:

"If you make everything over efficient, you suck out, it seems to me, every last drop of what, up to now, has been known as culture," Charles said in the interview, which was recorded last month in Poundbury, England.

"We are not the technology. It should be our ... slave, the technology. But it's rapidly becoming our master in many areas, I think," he said.

Posted in: Current Affairs

An ear for moderation

Sen. Evan Bayh continues his visits to important Democratic presidential primary states. His recent speech was said to matter more than most:

In the zones

Masson's Blog continues to collect all the time-zone reaction from around the state (note especially the map in this post, which gives an easy-to-grasp picture of where we are right now). Except for the justifiable consternation over the possibility of St. Joseph and Elkhart counties being in different zones, most of the reaction seems to me to make too much of the issue, which has played about as well as a political process can.

Posted in: Hoosier lore

Disorderly application of the law

What the members of the Westboro Baptist Church do at military funerals is despicable; may they be consigned to the lowest circle of hell. But as a legal matter, should they be really be treated differently from other protestors who protest at other types of events? Yes, charge them with disorderly conduct if it applies. But making such conduct a felony at military funerals and keeping it a misdemeanor at other events doesn't seem very much like equal treatment under the law.

A case about itself

Regardless of the circumstances leading up to it, lying to a grand jury is serious and has to be dealt with seriously. I wrote that more than once during Bill Clinton's legal troubles, and it also has to be applied to Scooter Libby's problems. If the prosecutor's allegations are true, Libby's lies were especially stupid. He was contradicting his own notes, which he had handed over, and he was trying to cover up what apparently wasn't even a crime.

No intent, no crime

See if you agree that this is a case of overzealous prosecution. Two Marion County children engaged in sexual activity with each other other from the time the boy was 9 and the girl was 6 until the time the boy was 14 and the girl was 11. Now the boy, 17 and a high school student, is being charged with child molesting for that activity, even though state law says children that young can't legally consent, which should mean that they can't form the proper intent to commit a crime, either.

Categorically speaking

Kitkat You know the Jeff Foxworthy routine, "You just might be a redneck if . . ."? A friend who knows I have cats sent me a link to this site titled "You know you're a cat person when . . . " I noticed this one right away:

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