Masson's Blog
Child molestation is almost never funny, but I had to laugh just a little when I read this one.
A 33-year-old Michigan man is accused of wearing a “World’s Greatest Dad” shirt to a meeting for sex with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
The article even had a picture of the guy in his shirt.
Someone on the forum where I read about this article put it aptly: That’s it, tell the Lamb to open that 7th seal… we’re pretty much done here.
Until I saw this article in the Indy Star, I had been unaware that there was a Brewers of Indiana Guild. They are encouraging you to “Drink Indiana,” and so will I. As I’ve mentioned before around here, some Indiana breweries make some surprisingly good beer.
I’ve personally had good experience with Three Floyds, Oaken Barrel Brewery, and Mad Anthony Brewing. I am a bit embarrassed to confess that I have not yet had any beer from the Lafayette Brewing Company. I’ve eaten lunch there on any number of occasions, and have meant to at least carry out a six pack since they started offering that option, but I just have not gotten around to it.
As always, Hoosier Beer Geek is a good resource for beer and brewpub reviews.
And, holy crap, I almost went through “Indiana Beer Week” without knowing it happened: July 10 – 19. (I like that their “week” is nine days — truly a beer drinker’s sense of time.) And here I’ve been drinking Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout, a Michigan beer, all week. I’ve let my state down.
If I were a true geek, I would have been aware of this long ago. Nevertheless, I am awfully excited to see that a movie is being made for Alan Moore’s “graphic novel” (they’re still comic books to me) “Watchmen.”
The trailer is available here.
Information about the movie adaptation here.
Indiana’s State Government is reporting a $1.4 billion surplus. For the year, revenues exceeded spending by $321 million. That’s good news as far as it goes, but how much of this comes from balancing the state budget on the backs of local government? It’s easier to balance your budget if you can make others pay the costs you incur. (See, e.g., juvenile detention.)
Anyone else experiencing gas station camaraderie; a sort of gallows humor that brings people together at the gas pump? In the past, I’ve sort of felt like commenting to others on the high price of gas; but not enough to actually break into conversation. Today, someone noticed me filling up a gas can for my lawn mower and joked, “it’ll cost you $20 to mow your lawn.” I responded, “Yeah, I’m thinking about just dumping the gas *on* the lawn as more of a long term solution.”
Just another gas station pet peeve while I’m at it — some pay-at-the-pump machines ask you if you want a receipt *before* you start pumping. I don’t really want the receipt, but I get a little suspicious if you ask me before we’ve established the price.
Ten great moments in Internet History.
1. 1969 – ARPANET is born.
2. 1978 – TCP/IP
3. June 23, 1983 – domain names.
4. December 25, 1990 – world wide web (web browser/web server)
5. March 15, 1993 – graphic browser (Mosaic).
6. 1990 – Search engines (Archie)
7. 1995 – 2001 Dot com boom.
8. 1998 – Blogs
9. 1996ish – Social media
10. 1995ish – E-commerce
(The “moments” get sort of vague after #6, in my opinion.)
Sylvia Smith, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, has an article entitled “Souder trailing campaign cash race.”
As the election season cranks up, [Michael] Montagano’s campaign has $28,000 more on hand than Souder, making him one of the few candidates in the country with a healthier campaign bank account than the incumbent.
Souder has held the seat for 7 terms, showing a loose commitment to his 5 term pledge. But, the District is Republican enough that he has gotten away with abandoning his term limit principle when it became inconvenient. Last cycle, Tom Hayhurst raised a fair amount of cash and gave Souder a solid challenge. This cycle, Montagano seems to be dishing up more of the same against Souder. Souder is in a solidly Republican district and, as such, should be expected to be free of real challenges to his seat. But, his performance has been so lackluster, that he presents an inviting target.
Charlie Cook, editor of the non-partisan Cook Political Report, recently downgraded Souder’s chances of re-election from “solid†to “likely.â€
In addition to their Democratic opponents, GOP congressional incumbents are fighting other political forces this year: an unpopular Republican president; polls that show Americans have a dim view of Congress; and a presidential campaign that will sap much of the financial resources of potential donors.
“Nothing is going to fix the Republican brand between now and November,†GOP strategist Glen Bolger said Wednesday.
He added that national Republican organizations that have helped GOP candidates with money in past years will “have to make coldhearted decisions this year†because the political landscape is so bleak and because national Republican committees have raised significantly less money than Democratic organizations.â€
The Associated Press has a story on flood buyouts along the Mississippi. The federal government will apparently provide around 75% of the money for owners of flood damaged properties to sell their property to their local municipality. The municipality that acquires the property is then obligated to demolish the property and not redevelop it, except for parks and the like.
My understanding is that this sort of buyout generally accompanies the flood insurance program. To be eligible for the federal flood insurance program, a municipality has to pass zoning laws prohibiting rebuilding when damage in a flood plain (or maybe a “floodway” – in any case, a designated area, likely to flood from time to time) exceeds 50% of the value of the structure. (I might be getting the particulars a little wrong here, but this is the general idea). The goal is to remove development from areas that are prone to flooding so that, in the long run, we don’t end up spending tons of money to rebuild again and again.
There has been some spirited discussion of third parties in another topic, so I thought I’d just give the subject its own post. Back in the day, I was a big fan of third parties — the Libertarian Party and Ross Perot’s Reform Party in particular.
Nowadays, at least on the federal level, the Bush Republicans have become so objectionable to me that I think third parties just tend to have perverse results – especially in Presidential politics. With the winner-take-all, state-by-state electoral vote method of choosing the President, we have a de facto two party system if not de jure. And so, the egotism of Ralph Nader ended up setting back the causes he purports to champion. It’s a case of the perfect being the enemy of the good.
Even in our two party system, however, third parties serve a necessary function in that they put pressure upon the two major parties to respond to issues they would otherwise ignore. I read somewhere recently that Eugene V. Debs and the Socialists never won more than a handful of offices, but most of their industrial platform was implemented under the New Deal anyway (limited work days, child labor laws, minimum wage laws, social security, etc.)
In my opinion, third parties would do best organizing at the grass roots level and challenging for local offices.
Ralph Pyle, a Richmond photographer, has made a DVD of 200 photographs he took of the Richmond explosion 40 years ago.