ManFromMiddletown has an extensive and well done entry on property taxes at Blue Indiana. Much better than the drive by stuff I tend to do. And, it has graphs!

(Via MyDD) It’s a good thing for the GOP that young people don’t tend to vote. In a poll by Democracy Corps (PDF) , young people (age 18-31), when asked to choose between Republicans and Democrats on a variety of issues chose Democrats by a fairly large margin.

(Image shamelessly stolen from MyDD and will be taken down upon request. More insights at the MyDD post.)

If things go according to plan, I’m about 3 weeks out from doing a little mountaineering. I’m going to take a Colorado vacation that will be half family, half goofing off in the mountains with a buddy. With respect to the second half, we don’t have too many firm plans, but it looks like we’re going to start with a climb of La Plata peak in the Sawatch range near Leadville. It has an elevation of 14,336, making it the 5th highest peak in Colorado.

It’s been awhile since I got some mountain time — last climbing I did was in Yosemite in 2003 — so I’m really looking forward to this.

The Department of Local Government Finance gets a new commissioner and, about 10 days later, 71 counties get letters demanding assessment data. According to an article by Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, the letters threatened to “withhold tax-relief payments, block construction projects and take other action” if the data is not received. First of all, if it’s 71 counties, it sounds like it’s a state problem and not particularly a local problem. Secondly, according to the article, many of the counties appear to think they’re either in compliance or had worked out new deadlines with the State due to having to cope with big changes in the assessment system. County officials appear to be expressing some frustration with the State. But, as they say, it all runs down hill. The Governor gets it from the public. The Governor kicks it down to the DLGF. The DLGF kicks it down to the Counties. Now we’ll just have to see if the Counties can keep it moving. Sooner or later, it’ll probably get back to the public like a big old property tax assessment ouroboros.

Hunter: Please, Bill O’Reilly, Have Mercy

Governor Daniels appointed Dave Certo to replace Judge Cale Bradford as a Judge of the Marion Superior Court. Looks like it’s been a big month for Dave — unless it’s another Dave Certo that showed up on the Google search, he and his wife had a baby boy on July 9. Congratulations Dave!

Taking Down Words does not have kind words for him, but I can’t start slagging him because we played together some as kids. I think our Dads were friends. I don’t think I’ve had much to do with him since we were 5 years old or so, but I seem to recall he had a toy gun with plunger tipped darts of which I was envious.

We can hope that, unlike Judge Bradford, he won’t go after the Wiccans without cause. We Richmondites are usually pretty level headed folks. . . uh, Jim Jones notwithstanding.

More name narcissism from yours truly. Actually, my wife was kind enough to make this for me. It’s nice and big to hold copious amounts of coffee, my caffeine delivery system of choice.

Just had to pass along this comment.

Over at our Family Blog, my wife Amy was describing someone’s blank stare as being like her looking at me when I jabber on about history. In response, my former legal assistant said, “Doug’s mind is a scary place. I use to just pretend to know what he was talking about…I think he knew I was pretending.”

They don’t know the half of it.

The Hoosier Pundit has posted a political cartoon on immigration (and, ostensibly, on the Fairness Doctrine). It’s a cartoon and mostly for laughs, so I won’t get too worked up about it, but the cartoon turns such a blind eye to the historical context of the time, I felt like commenting.

It has Paul Revere and his Fairness Doctrine mandated counterpart (FDMC) on a horse –

Revere: THE BRITISH ARE COMING!
FDMC: “No they’re not”
Revere: THE BRITISH ARE COMING!
FDMC: “To do jobs we colonists won’t.”
Revere: THE BRITISH ARE COMING!
FDMC: “Paul Revere is a bigot.”

————–
The irony* of the cartoon is that one of the charges against King George by the colonists in the Declaration of Independence was that he was too tough on immigration:

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

*(I’m not an English major so I’m not sure if that’s real irony or just Alanis Morissette irony.)

According to an AP report:

A federal investigation of farm aid payments found an Indiana farmer continued to receive money nearly a decade after his death.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture made more than $200,000 in payments from 1999 to 2002 to a farm based on the ownership of a farmer who died in 1993, according to a recently released report from the Government Accountability Office.

It’s not fair to base any judgments on one incident, but this fed my feeling that I’d much rather be paying state and local taxes than federal taxes. I just feel like I get more bang for my buck with more local forms of taxation. It seems like the huge hunks of federal taxes that disappear from my paycheck go toward financing the federal debt run up in the Reagan administration, into the bottomless pit of Iraq, toward subsidizing the elimination of federal estate taxes, disaster relief for people who live in more scenic (and more volatile) regions of the U.S., and for any number of other purposes that don’t do me a lot of good.