After a hiatus for the month of November, it looks like Indiana Barrister is back up and running. Glad to see you back on that page, Mr. Claybourn.

Just a pointer here. Representative Heim has a post discussing a World Bank Report (pdf) on the Wealth of Nations and an article on the report by Ronald Bailey. The U.S. is 4th in per capita wealth at $512,612 with countries listed 1 thru 3: Switzerland ($648,241), Denmark ($575,138) and Sweden ($513,424).

Just when you think you’re jaded and numb to news reports of various atrocities, one comes along that gets you in the gut again. This morning, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has the story of a Fort Wayne man named Simon Rios who:

hit his wife with a steel pipe and strangled her with an extension cord, before systematically strangling his three daughters, placing shoestrings around their necks and lining them up on his bed, according to court documents.

Allen County Coroner Dr. Jon Brandenberger confirmed Wednesday that Ana Casas, 28, died of blunt force trauma to the head and strangulation. The couple’s three daughters, Liliana K. Rios Casas, 10, Katherinne G. Rios, 4, and Thannya Karolinna Rios, 20 months, also died of strangulation, according to statements from the coroner.

I was immediately reminded of the Lafayette story of Aiyana Gauvin, the 4-year old girl who was apparently tortured to death by her step-mother, with her father and step-siblings being complicit. It’s just beyond my comprehension how people can do these things.

According to an AP report, Indiana ranks #4n the nation for the health risks its residents face from exposure to industrial air pollution. The article also goes on to discuss that minorities are more likely to live in environmentally troubled neighborhoods. (Though, I don’t think this has to do with their minority status, except indirectly. I think it’s just that environmentally troubled neighborhoods are cheaper because of their troubles and, therefore, those with less money will tend to live there for lack of better options.)

Nancy Turner, president and chief executive officer of the American Lung Association of Indiana, said pollutants released by the state’s manufacturing industry contributes to pollution-related health problems.

According to the American Lung Association, in 2002 Indiana had nearly 5,000 cases of lung cancer, nearly 500,000 cases of asthma and more than 200,000 cases of chronic bronchitis.

Indiana’s public health data shows chronic lower respiratory disease is the fourth-leading cause of death in the state, and the most frequent type of cancer in the state occurs in the respiratory system. Indiana ranks 16th in the nation for the prevalence of adult asthma.

“I’m not sure whether it’s racially driven or income driven, but without question, whoever is living there, their health is at risk,” Turner said.

A spokesman for the state’s manufacturing industry said the state’s ranking isn’t surprising given Indiana’s industrial past. Still, he cautioned that air data can be misinterpreted and can be affected by human reporting errors or unrelated medical conditions.

“We have had the benefit of being a leader in industrial production for many, many years,” said Patrick Bennett, vice president of environment, energy and infrastructure at the Indiana Manufacturers Association. “An industrial area that has emissions does not automatically equate to a problem area.”

This report brings me to an intellectual hobby horse of mine: the idea that the market will work better the more business costs are internalized into the business transaction. In this case, particularly, I’m thinking specifically of the tendency of pollution costs of producing products to be externalized to the population at large, rather than incorporated into the cost of producing the product and, therefore, into the price for purchasing the product. The market will work better the more costs are reflected in price.

So I’m out doing collections today. Had a woman in for about the 3rd or 4th time on a judgment on a medical bill of a few thousand dollars. I ask her whether she’s working. She says, “no.” I ask her how she’s getting by. She tells me, “I applied for welfare, but my skin is the wrong color.” To which I wanted to reply, “No, no, you misunderstood me, I didn’t ask you to tell me whether you were a racist piece of shit. I just wanted to know your financial situation.”

Instead, I merely advise that this speaks more to her plans for the future and doesn’t really tell me how she is getting by for the time being. She tells me that her boyfriend is supporting her. She goes on to tell me her divorce is still in limbo, and that she’s pregnant.

Now, in my line of work, I have become well aware that life just kind of gets away from folks and bills can quickly outstrip assets through no real fault of one’s own. But, in this case, I see some really poor choices being made.

(h/t to The Indiana Law Blog.) A fun story in the Indy Star entitled Millionaire Emmis CEO battles Honda over $1,945. Apparently some Repo Men working on behalf of Honda Finance entered onto the property of Jeffrey Smulyan, tycoon CEO of Emmis broadcasting, to repossess his girlfriend’s (now wife’s) Honda. He has an invasion of privacy/harassment/trespassing type lawsuit against Honda Finance in response to their efforts to repossess the vehicle at 2 a.m.

Emotionally, I think I was with Smulyan until I saw this quote:

Heather Smulyan said a Honda Finance company employee she spoke with was rude, and that she would have settled for an apology.
“They don’t even think they did anything wrong,” she said.

I do a lot of collections, so the fact that I was emotionally in Smulyan’s camp was a bit surprising to me. Must’ve been the fact that the activity was occurring at 2 a.m. But then the self-righteous indignation from Heather Smulyan pushed me back on the side of the creditor. I’ve been on the receiving end of too many debtors who somehow think I’m to blame for the fact that they haven’t paid their bills on time. Creditors have to pay me decent money to go after debtors. I assume it’s the case with Honda Finance. Furthermore, sales on repossessed vehicles are generally a money losing proposition. So, I just have to assume that Heather Smulyan wasn’t just a day late and a dollar short one time, leading to the Repo Ninjas and their 2 a.m. stealth action. I wonder if her conversations contained any of the ‘DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?’ indignation to them.

Who knows, maybe Honda Finance was out of line. It happens. There are creditors out there that go well beyond what even I, an advocate of creditor’s rights, feel comfortable with. Why, just today, I could have asked the Court to issue a writ to arrest a blind man who didn’t brave the drifting snows to show up in court today. But, instead, I asked the Court to reset the court date for next month to give him a second chance. The judge chuckled at me for showing some small evidence of having a heart.

But I digress. Solely from reading what appeared in that article, I just hope there is some way they can both lose.

My server host just notified me that it was migrating its servers to a different vendor starting on December 9. So, if masson.us is unavailable in the near future, that’s probably the reason.

Scott Hall, writing for Nuvo, has a review entitled Living Blue: DIY Rock. I offer this link, not because I know the first thing about Living Blue, but because the author of the review is my cousin-in-law. To me, nepotistic blogging seems less something undesirable and more of a sacred duty.

Anyway, check out the review, and if it looks interesting, check out the show. The Living Blue with Red Queen Hypothesis
Sunday, Dec. 11, 9 p.m. The Melody Inn $5.

Give a quick listen to the Living Blue’s fast, raucous, melodic songs, and you might dismiss the Champaign, Ill., quartet as a late entry in the neo-garage sweepstakes.

But given a fair hearing, the band’s new album, Fire, Blood, Water, proves a worthy contribution to the long tradition of do-it-yourself rock with catchy hooks and edgy attitudes.

A tip of the hat to The Right LEFT Story and Blogging For Bayh for adding Masson’s Blog to their blogrolls. Much appreciated and reciprocated.

This is the 64th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Navy. Wikipedia has a pretty good entry.

The Imperial Japanese Navy made its attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, was aimed at the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy and its defending Army Air Corps and Marine air forces. The attack damaged or destroyed twelve U.S. warships, destroyed 188 aircraft, and killed 2,403 American servicemen and 68 civilians. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto planned the raid as the start of the Pacific Campaign of World War II, and it was commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, who lost 64 servicemen. However, the Pacific Fleet’s three aircraft carriers were not in port and so were undamaged, as were oil tank farms and machine shops. Using these resources the United States was able to rebound within six months to a year. The U.S. public saw the attack as a treacherous act and rallied strongly against the Japanese Empire, resulting in its later defeat.