A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

Feds impose time zone moratorium on Indiana until November 2008

by 4 Comments

After the Southwestern Counties petitioned to move from Central to Eastern time, the USDOT said they were imposing a moratorium on Indiana time zone petitions from November 2007 to November 2008. The folks in St. Joseph County wanted some flexibility to submit a petition to go from Eastern to Central. (Readers may recall that St. Joseph County had been preliminarily slated to go to Central, neighboring Elkhart County raised a fuss, Gov. Daniels violated the DST statute by going on record as opposing the St. Joseph County petition, and the USDOT kept St. Joe in eastern.)

The USDOT decided it doesn’t want to hear from St. Joseph County until November 2008 — so at least Gov. Daniels doesn’t have that to worry about during his upcoming campaign. The South Bend Tribune article is here.

Bayh, Clinton, and Lieberman pander on video game ratings

by 3 Comments

A woman, a Jew, and a politician’s son walk into a video game store — stop me if you’ve heard this one before. . .

Sylvia Smith has an article entitled Video game ratings draw senators’ ire. Evan Bayh is apparently disgruntled because a video game entitled Manhunt 2 was given a “mature” rating when apparently the Senators think it deserves an “adults only” rating.

“We have consistently urged parents to pay attention to the (board’s) rating system. We must ensure that parents can rely on the consistency and accuracy of those ratings,” they wrote to the president of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.

“They” in this case refers to Senators Bayh, Clinton, Lieberman, and Brownback. Umm, hello? What part of “Manhunt” is confusing to parents?

If they wanted to be nannies, maybe they shouldn’t have run for the Senate.

SJR – 2: Free Ride for Churches

by 10 Comments

Senate Joint Resolution 2 – Senator Miller. Proposes an amendment to the state constitution to exempt buildings and personal property regularly used for religious worship from property taxation.

What’s the justification for this, again? Exempting do-good, non-profit organizations from taxation is plausible to me. Many churches fall into that category. But that’s not what this proposal does. It exempts property from taxation for the sole reason that the property is being used to do obeisance to a perceived higher power of some sort.

The Once and Future Media Narrative

by 7 Comments

An acquaintance of mine, a Texan by the name of John Morris, offered the following gem on the subject of the major media’s Presidential campaign narrative. Sounds about right to me.

When W ran for President, the Texas AFL/CIO sent out a bus load of teachers, union people, business people and ordinary citizens traveling the country trying to warn y’all what you were getting into. Additionally, Jim Hightower had a rock band and a dozen activists doing the same thing. None of it made the News. Rudy’s reputation in NY will never be mentioned in a major media outlet. The pictures in a dress will disappear. The Times will forget how to spell Kerik, and Broder will opine that personal lives, except Bill Clinton’s, should play no part in politics. The script is set. Rudy’s a moderate Republican, Hillary is a castrating bitch, Obama is an inexperienced child, Edwards is a phony class warrior. If we’re lucky we’ll nominate Chris Dodd before they figure out a caricature for him.

HB 1010 – Legalizing the illegal

by 3 Comments

Niki Kelly has an article on the unusual action taken with respect to HB 1010 on Organization Day where the General Assembly suspended their rules to rush through a bill to legalize retroactively the actions taken by Governor Daniels with respect to property tax matters.

The bill legalized three major actions taken by the governor during the summer to help abate the property tax crisis in some areas. This includes extending the deadline for the homestead credit, extending the deadline for local governments to adopt a new local option income tax and clarifying that property appraisals are not needed to appeal a home’s assessed value.

The legislation also contains a provision that eliminates the requirement that rebate amounts first be applied to tax amounts owed by delinquent tax debtors. Apparently the process of checking tax delinquencies was going to hold up the rebate process. Local government is permitted, however, to adopt an ordinance requiring payment of delinquent taxes before the rebate check goes out.

I can’t get too riled up about the substantive changes made by this legislation, but generally I disapprove of this kind of slap-dash, after the fact legislating. The law loses its value if it’s unstable and subject to rapid change, even retroactive change.

Megachurch Scandal

by 10 Comments

Do megachurches have more scandals than usual churches or do we just notice them more?

The 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch is at the center of a sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother’s wife and fathered a child by her.

Members of Archbishop Earl Paulk’s family stood at the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church a few Sundays ago and revealed the secret exposed by a recent court-ordered paternity test.

In truth, this is not the first — or even the second — sex scandal to engulf Paulk and the independent, charismatic church. But this time, he could be in trouble with the law for lying under oath about the affair.

Ted Haggard and Warren Jeffs come immediately to mind as other leaders of large religious organizations that became embroiled in sex related scandals.

I wonder if there is a cause and effect there and, if so, which is which. Do these folks end up in trouble because they repress sexuality or do they repress sexuality because they were tormented by odd desires in the first place? Or, I suppose it’s possible that, per capita, leaders of large religious organizations have sex with their brother’s wives, homosexual meth dealers, and underage children at the same rate as the population at large.

Elizabeth S. Thompson – RIP

by 3 Comments

I was sad to read the obituary in the Palladium-Item for Liz Thompson, formerly of Richmond, Indiana. She was a friend of mine when she was a year behind me in high school. I don’t believe I have had contact with her since then, but it is always sad to see your peers die at a relatively young age. I recall her as a sweet person who was extremely smart. She died on November 16, 2007 after a two year battle with cancer. She was 35 years old and left behind a husband and two young daughters.

My thoughts also go out to her mother, Mary-Anne Thompson who was one of the most exceptional English teachers a high school student could have.

By and large, I have become numb to the random cruelties of the universe. But, occasionally, it still makes me want to rage.

Baruch dayan emet

Holy Melodrama, Batman!

by 19 Comments

The Hoosiers for Fair Taxation (so called) have announced a funeral march for the General Assembly’s “Organization Day.”

Per their press release, if a politician believes that property taxes are an acceptable part of the tax mix needed to fund government, that politician is not obeying the Rule of Law, is against cutting waste and inefficiency in government.

Citizen activists plan to send a clear message to the General Assembly on Organization Day that property tax repeal is the only acceptable fix to the tax crisis. Decades of legislator apathy, government waste, inefficiency, without regard for the welfare and security of Indiana’s citizens, are not acceptable employment terms for our politicians.

The funeral march symbolizes the political careers which shall come to an untimely end in 2008 should politicians not obey the Rule of Law, slash waste, eliminate inefficiency, and advance the process to permanently abolish property tax.

(Emphasis added) — Got that? Abolishing property taxes is the only legitimate solution. And, if you believe there is room to debate less radical approaches to funding government, you are against the Rule of Law, you are pro-government waste, you are pro-government inefficiency, and your legislative career deserves a funeral. Don’t you see? The logic is inescapable.

Frankly, I’d be a little skeptical of voting for any politician that aligns itself with such an addled, inflexible lobbying group.