Masson's Blog
The Indiana Attorney General has issued an advisory opinion to the effect that state law preempts local government’s ability to adopt and enforce red light camera ordinances. An attorney general’s opinion doesn’t bind the municipalities or the courts, but it tends to have persuasive force.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of camera enforcement. I think it too quickly will become more of a method of revenue generation than a true effort to preserve law, order, and the well-being of citizens.
It has come to my attention that the current generation of college students are drinking . . . to excess! I’m shocked, shocked. At my alma mater, Miami, they apparently went after beer pong. Back in my day, we didn’t play beer pong. At least I didn’t. I played Three Man, Asshole, Up & Down the River, and Quarters; but no Beer Pong. Mostly I didn’t have a lot of use for drinking games. I didn’t really need the assistance.
I’ve been hearing about and rolling my eyes at the steady reporting on the scourge of binge drinking on college campuses for the past 20 years. It makes me wonder how long it’s been since it a) wasn’t a scourge; and/or b) it wasn’t much reported upon.
Seems appropriate to mention that, for the last 100 years, the Olympian with the most gold medals was Hoosier and Lafayette native, Ray “The Human Frog” Ewry. Michael Phelps has a chance to match or beat Ewry this Olympics, but he’ll have to take 5 golds to do it.
He jumped not for glory or gold, but to keep the wheelchair away. — Eric Adelson
Ewry went from suffering from polio to being the greatest standing jumper of all time. (“Standing jump” meaning there was no run-up before the jump.) He excelled in the standing high jump, standing long jump, and standing triple jump. In the standing high jump — just standing and jumping up, Ewry cleared 5 feet 4 inches.
As Eric Adelson wrote in his 2004 article, Ewry wasn’t even supposed to walk.
Raymond Clarence Ewry (YOO-re) was born in Lafayette, Ind., in 1873. He was orphaned at the age of 5, and he seemed destined to spend his entire life in the tiny town. Before he was old enough to fully understand, a doctor told Ewry he would never walk again. Ray had polio. He was bound to a wheelchair. There was no cure. He was 7 years old.
One doctor suggested leg exercises. A century later, the workout would be known as plyometrics, but back then it was a last resort. So Ray tried. He dreamed of getting out of that chair, of taking just one step. The boy wanted only to walk.
There was Ray, doing his exercises from the moment he woke up in the morning until the moment he fell asleep at night. There was Ray on a path by the Wabash and Erie canal, near his home. There was Ray, pushing himself out of his chair and onto the ground, pushing the Earth away, teaching himself to stand. There was Ray, balancing himself on his two feet. There was Ray, leaving the ground, jumping. Imagine the look on the boy’s face as he jumped for the first time. Ray jumped over and over again. He jumped simply because he could. He jumped not for glory or gold, but to keep the wheelchair away.
The crippled boy had become the 6-foot-3 college kid with legs of steel.
Ewry won 3 medals in 1900 in Paris; 3 medals in 1904 in St. Louis; 2 medals in 1906 in Athens (Greece had a non-Olympic year Olympics); and 2 medals in London in 1908.
Ray retired with 10 golds. He won four straight championships in each of two events — a mark that might never fall. No other Olympian in history has won as many gold medals without losing a single competition. Even Carl Lewis silvered once. But not Ray Ewry.
Apparently a guy died on the mountain T & I climbed a year ago. I think he was doing a tougher route, but it’s still a reminder that, as my Dad stressed, those mountains will kill you if you don’t respect them. (By which I’m not implying that the hiker who died didn’t take the mountain seriously — I have no idea about the details.)
A Missouri man whose body was found Thursday on Quandary Peak was an acclaimed master chef visiting Breckenridge for his sister’s wedding.
Ryan Torpey, 31, had embarked on a short day hike from the Blue Lakes trailhead Wednesday morning but had not returned by 5:30 p.m., prompting his family to contact authorities.
“According to his family, this guy was an experienced hiker, and he had summited Quandary before,†said Summit County Search and Rescue spokeswoman Anna DeBatiste.
T & I on Quandary Peak last year:
The Christian Science Monitor has a very informative article on the situation between Georgia and Russia. Apparently a region known as South Ossetia is within the Soviet era borders of Georgia but has been attempting to break away from the modern nation of Georgia. Since the 90s, South Ossetia has been in a sort of legal limbo, not really governed by Georgia, but not recognized by other nations. The area is apparently pro-Russia and enjoys Russian support. Georgia invaded in what appeared to be a planned invasion. However, what wasn’t expected was responding invasion by Russian armored units.
Moscow has long supported South Ossetia and another Georgian rebel statelet, Abkhazia, and maintains a contingent of peacekeeping troops in both. The two republics won de facto independence through bitter civil wars in the early 1990s, and have since lived in legal limbo, unrecognized by the world community, which supports Georgia’s claim of sovereignty over the whole territory of Soviet-era Georgia.
But two key developments have pushed these formerly “frozen conflicts” into the spotlight in recent months. The West’s backing for Kosovo’s independence from Serbia earlier this year, over Russian objections, created what Moscow calls a precedent for other breakaway territories. And the US-backed push to expand NATO into the former Soviet Union, taking in Ukraine and Georgia, has met ferocious resistance in Moscow. For Russia, the existence of breakaway territories in Georgia is a prime argument, frequently repeated by Mr. Medvedev to Western leaders, against Georgia’s admission to NATO.
Did I mention that a significant oil pipeline runs through the region? This has the potential to be a god-awful mess. Not as bad as an ex-Presidential candidate having an affair, judging from the relative amounts of news coverage, but a mess nonetheless.
Tart Juice pretty much captures my feelings on Edwards’ affair.
My first thought when seeing this on the news this morning was I’m so glad he didn’t get the nomination. He could have seriously, unintentionally, screwed things up for the country. I also feel bad for his kids, two of whom are under 10 years old, and for his wife, who now has a deceased child, breast cancer, and a cheating husband under her belt.
A little more disturbing, however, is that this story pushed the apparent Russian invasion of Georgia to the back burner of cable news.
Update Scott Lemieux has a good take on this as well.
But, of course, I’m forgetting the rules: Edwards’s adultery is bad news for Barack Obama, Bill Clinton’s adultery is bad news for Hillary Clinton, but John McCain’s adultery isn’t an issue for John McCain.
“You say it’s your birthday, it’s my birthday too – yeah.”
—The Beatles
Long ago, I was jealous of my step-brother when he had his 7th birthday on 7/7/77. He got seven silver dollars from the bank at the little town he lived in. Of course, I had my 17th birthday on 8/8/88. But in terms of numerological aesthetics, I think I like 08/08/08 better.
Not much of interest happened on 8/8/71, according to a Google search. France did a nuclear test at Muruora Island and Jane Blalock won an LPGA tournament.
Incidentally, it’s nice of China and the world to recognize my big day by kicking off an Olympics. As for myself, I’ll probably go to work and then grill up some steaks tonight. Amy & the kids picked out some nice presents. Cole’s excitement about my birthday is contagious. That’s one of the great thing about kids — they help you see the world through fresh eyes. A birthday through the eyes of a four year old is far superior to one through the eyes of a 37 year old.
Charlie Averill brings us a report that does not surprise me.
When it comes to processing and holding hearings on the denied claims of individuals for disability benefits, Indianapolis ranks dead last. And offices responsible for handling denied claims for individuals in Northwest Indiana rank among the most backlogged in the nation.
On average, it takes the Indianapolis office, handling cases south of Pulaski County, 896 days to process a disability claim. That’s about 2.5 years. A fair number of my collection cases involve people with unpaid medical bills who have applied for disability. Typically, in the absence of any alternate resources, I’ll put these cases on a long leash. Even so, these folks will usually have to come to court 2 or 3 times as I check up on them (making sure nothing has changed, they haven’t moved, etc.) before their disability case gets resolved.
I’m all for reviewing these claims — there are plenty of folks who apply who at least appear able bodied to me — but this looks like one of those justice delayed is justice denied type deals.
Remember, election season is also terror alert season.
The AP has a groundbreaking story revealing that “Marriage gets little respect on network TV shows that instead revel in the pleasures of extramarital and even kinky sex, according to a study released Tuesday.” I’m shocked that sex makes more interesting television than marriage.
But wait, there’s more. The AP also reports that there is a group who is disgruntled about sex on television.
The study by the Parents Television Council includes a strongly worded condemnation of prime-time TV, contending it “seems to be actively seeking to undermine marriage by consistently painting it in a negative light.”
Yes, there is a cabal of Hollywood moguls (and we all know that means “Jews”) who is plotting and scheming to undermine marriage. Idiots (the PTC, not the Jews). It couldn’t be that the shows are produced by capitalists who want to make money and have determined that catering to the demand in the marketplace is a good way to do that.
There is this annoying notion out there, of which this seems to be a manifestation, that humanity or its culture was at a state of perfection, either in Eden or possibly the 50s, and has been in constant decline ever since. It’s that damn jazz music or that damn rock & roll music or that damn sex on TV or that damn knowledge of good & evil & apples that is leading us all to ruin.