Masson's Blog
House Bill 1378 Insurance coverage exclusion for intoxication. Rep. Van Haaften.
With respect to an insurance policy that provides coverage for hospital, medical, or surgical expenses, prohibits an insurance exclusion for losses contracted in consequence of the insured’s being intoxicated or under the influence of a narcotic.
Passed the House 90 to 5. (Voting nay were Reps Bell, Borror, Hinkle, Micon, and Turner.)
Technorati Tags: HB1378-2007, insurance
House Bill 1304 Academic standards tested on ISTEP. Rep. Cheatham.
Requires the department of education to provide each school that administers ISTEP tests with information concerning which state academic standards will be tested and the number of questions that will be asked concerning each standard. Requires the department to develop guidelines and the state board of education to adopt rules that describe the statistical analysis methods used to determine: (1) whether a school corporation or school fails to meet a target ISTEP score or improvement rate, and (2) whether the margin by which the school corporation or school failed to meet the target ISTEP scores or improvement rates falls outside normal random statistical variation from the target scores or improvement rates.
Why don’t we just give out the answers?
O.k., I’m being glib. I actually think we’re probably putting way too much importance on a test and not enough on the things that are purportedly being tested. At a previous job, I recall my boss telling me that the bureaucrats involved with our department were not very good at measuring productivity, rather they could merely measure the indicia of productivity.
This bill passed the House 63 to 32.
Technorati Tags: hb1304-2007, education
A new Indiana political blog has started up going by the name of Blue Indiana. I think the official start date is February 14. But, I’m sure that on that date, I’ll be frantically trying to slap together a romantic gesture of some sort.
Blue Indiana is designed to be a clearinghouse for the best work of the Indiana blogosphere, with a specific interest in political issues and electing left-leaning candidates who believe in the core-principles of true, responsible representation. It will be a community blog, which is a very important distinction, because that means its success or failure will be completely dependent on you .
It is set up on the Soapblox platform which allows folks to create user accounts, post diaries, and the like. I’ve toyed with the idea of moving Masson’s blog to such a platform to better take advantage of the particularly high level of the commenters here. (No, I’m not above pandering — but, it also happens to be true). As with so many things, I have not gotten around to it yet.
Anyway, keep an eye on Blue Indiana if you are interested in left-leaning Indiana politics.
Technorati Tags: Indiana politics, soapblox blog
stAllio!speaks the truth about the Aqua Teen Hunger Force brouhaha. He mentions the news that Turner Broadcasting agreed to pay $2 million to make amends for the bomb scare in Boston, then notes that $2 million is chump change compared to the marketing exposure ATHF got a mere two months before a movie release.
Technorati Tags: Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Turner Broadcasting
Mmmm… Chocolate!
Originally uploaded by amasson.
Just messing around with Flickr and a gratuitous picture of my daughter in a state of extreme happiness.
Mary Beth Schneider, writing for the Indianapolis Star, has an article entitled “Business tax load could rise in new bill”.
It’s a Democratic property tax relief plan that would, in turn, give local governments the power to impose higher personal income taxes and to impose corporate income taxes. There is initially a sense of bipartisanship with respect to the bill. Both Sen. Kenley and Gov. Daniels think there are positive aspects to the bill, not least of which is the political courage to provide for a revenue mechanism to replace lost property taxes. But, that’s outside of the House. House Republicans and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce are apparently opposed to the bill.
The Indianapolis Star has an editorial excoriating Congressman Dan Burton (the candidate they endorsed for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District). The editorial is a follow up to a Maureen Groppe story on how Burton has been playing hookie from his job as a Congressman, missing votes to go play golf.
The editorial concludes:
So here’s the score: Burton would rather play golf than attend a hearing on Iraq. He shows up for work less often than a 20-year-old slacker who refuses to move out of his parents’ basement. He has little shame when it comes to accepting expensive gifts. And he feels immune from voters’ wrath because he’s been handed a heavily gerrymandered district that might as well hang up “Democrats need not apply” signs.
Sweet gig, Dan.
For some reason this Mooninite in Boston scare has really captured my imagination. It is a cautionary tale about how we are spending our security dollars. If, after all this time and all this money, we have a security apparatus in place that needs to shut down Boston to determine that a Lite Brite magnet of a cartoon character flipping the bird is not dangerous, we have real problems and our money probably hasn’t been well spent.
But, that’s sort of the lesser of my concerns. More disturbing, I think, is the media terror porn industry. I’m reminded of Kent Brockman asking a scientist, “Should we panic?” Response: “Yes, yes we should.” A commenter on Boing Boing had a comment on the insistence of media types and government officials using the term “hoax” to describe what happened here:
Next, let’s all get out our dictionary and look up “hoaxâ€, shall we? Because while “War of the Worlds†was a hoax, this was not. There was no subterfuge involved, and no effort made to convince people that these devices were bombs. If I see a scary looking tree out my bedroom window, think it’s a monster, and then discover upon closer inspection that it isn’t, it doesn’t mean the tree has perpetrated a hoax against me. What it means is that for a moment I took leave of my senses. And just because I’m embarrassed about it doesn’t give me the right to go cut down the tree.
While there are legitimate security threats out there, we have to be concerned that there is a massive security industry out there that has to justify its existence, there are media companies that can sell more ads if they have you scared and watching, and we have a population that demands perfect safety. Sort of a toxic, expensive mix that probably doesn’t use our resources in the most efficient way.
Update Wonkette has an update on the prosecution of the two unfortunate punks who apparently hung the Mooninite lights:
The harmless cartoon Lite Brite thingies might just be harmless cartoon Lite Brite thingies, but the prosecutor still has to be very tough and extra-crazy in such a terroristic situation: “Assistant Attorney General John Grossman called the light boards ‘bomblike’ devices and said that if they had been explosive they could have damaged infrastructure and transportation in the city.â€
Yes, and if prosecutors were actually barrels of shit wrapped in dynamite, courthouses around the country could be severely damaged and extremely unhygienic.
Holy overreaction, Batman! Cartoon promo causes panic. Electronic displays (magnets with lights) of one of the Mooninites from Aqua Teen Hunger Force giving the finger caused Boston officials to panic and shutdown highways, bridges, and a section of the Charles River. Nine other cities managed to notice similar displays without freaking out.
Reading a news report trying to describe Aqua Teen Hunger Force is kind of amusing:
Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of Cartoon Network, later said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,†a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball.
I also like how the words chosen by the story give a fig-leaf of credibility to the Boston reaction. Instead of magnets, they’re “devices.” And, they were “planted” throughout the city. Planting devices sounds so sinister.
Ari Fleischer, former White House Press Secretary, took the stand in the Scooter Libby trial. Libby, as you may recall, is on trial for lying to federal investigators as they looked into the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, in retaliation for Wilson’s debunking of the President’s State of the Union claim that Iraq sought uranium from Niger.
The federal prosecutor declined to press charges against anybody else in the matter because, he said, he was being told too many lies to make a case.
The Los Angeles Times has a story on Fleischer’s testimony. I always thought Fleischer was a stonewalling, disingenuous s.o.b. when he was serving the White House. But, he was so, very, very good at what he did, I had a grudging respect for his competence. The White House Press Secretaries who followed have not been nearly as good at their jobs. Part of that probably had to do with the fact that Fleischer got out while the getting was good. Before Iraq had turned irrevocably to crap. The L.A. times story focuses on how his demeanor was much different on the stand than it was when he was Press Secretary. Much more affable, apparently, when testifying than when representing the White House.