Over the past couple of months, I have come across a few stories in newspapers about the plight of debtors and the heartless tactics of debt collectors. Now, I’m not going to get too caught up in pretending that I collect debts in selfless pursuit of the greater good. I extract money from debtors on behalf of creditor clients and make a profit for myself.

Having said that, it was refreshing to read an article by Robert Markoff, President of the National Association of Retail Collection Attorneys who pointed out some of the societal benefits provided by debt collectors.

If there were no consequences for non-payment of one’s obligations, the temptation would be for no one to pay their bills when due. Credit is granted with the expectation that it will be repaid. Sophisticated credit grantors do understand and plan for the fact that a portion of the credit they give will not be repaid. However, by using collection professionals, billions of dollars are returned to our economy each year. This allows for lower interest rates and lower overall cost of goods and services. . . . All consumers would be penalized if businesses were unable to recoup losses resulting from bad debt.

He also has some recommendations for debtors who find themselves in the debt collection system: 1) Respond to letters or phone calls; 2) Keep financial records; 3) Be honest about what you can afford; 4) Speak up if the debt is not yours; 5) Never ignore a summons from court; and 6) Be involved.

Any of you have recommendations as to your favorite state newspapers? I’d have to say that mine is the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, all things considered. I’m able to get a lot of news on their RSS feed and Niki Kelly is an excellent state journalist.

The Indy Star site has, in my opinion, gotten harder to use. The RSS feed doesn’t provide as much information about the story, and the site is full of clutter and difficult for me to navigate. (For those who don’t use such things, an RSS feed allows you to read a site via a news reader with mostly text.) My local paper, the Lafayette Journal and Courier, has gone through a redesign that adds to the clutter, limits or eliminates the RSS feed usefulness, and makes it tough to access content. Maybe this is a Gannett wide phenomenon. The Evansville Courier Press provides fairly good RSS information and the site isn’t horrible. Same goes for the Indiana section of the Louisville Courier Journal. I haven’t tried in a while, but have never really gotten good RSS feeds out of the South Bend Tribune and the Northwest Indiana Times. Opinions?

West and south central Indiana is getting hit hard with flooding. News reports have I-70 west of Cloverdale and I-65 near mile marker 80 closed. Dams are close to failing in the Prince’s Lake area near Nineveh, about 30 miles south of Indianapolis. The Lake Lemon area is also reportedly in bad shape. Good luck out there.

Update Tom Murphy, for the Associated Press, has a fairly comprehensive update on the flooding. The governor has declared a state of emergency in Brown, Clay, Greene, Johnson, Monroe, Morgan, Owen, Shelby, Vermillion and Vigo counties. No injuries or deaths have been reported, fortunately, but the property damage is likely to be extensive.

The Associated Press is reporting that sportscaster, Jim McCay, has died at the age of 86 years old. McCay is a vague part of my childhood. I remember watching the Wide World of Sports quite a bit. Seems like they’d have a lot of downhill skiing, ski jumps, bob sleds, and various oddball stuff that caught my attention. If nothing else, I always enjoyed tuning in to the introduction to watch the “agony of defeat” guy wipe out at the end of the ski jump.

Wikipedia is awesome. I typed in “Agony of Defeat,” and learned that Vinko Bogataj is the Agony of Defeat guy.

Bogataj was competing as a Yugoslavian entrant at the Ski-flying World Championships in Oberstdorf, West Germany (now Germany) on March 21, 1970. A light snow had begun falling at the start of the event, and by the time Bogataj was ready for his third jump, the snow had become quite heavy. Midway down the ramp for that jump, Bogataj realized that the conditions had made the ramp too fast. He attempted to lower his center of gravity and stop his jump, but instead lost his balance completely and rocketed out of control off the end of the ramp, tumbling and flipping wildly, and crashing through a light retaining fence near a crowd of stunned spectators before coming to a halt. Despite the ferocity of the crash, Bogataj suffered only a mild concussion.

Apparently, the image with “the thrill of victory” was interchangeable, but the agony remained the same.

My blogging is definitely in summer mode. I have little interest in substantive stories, especially this morning. So, feel free to comment as you like. A couple of things: Mitch Daniels has some ads up that play fast and loose with the facts; Linda Pence is gearing up her Attorney General campaign; Jill Long Thompson has a Lt. Governor candidate picked out but isn’t telling who it is right now; the Evansville Courier Press says that we need to make more of an effort on full-day kindergarten so we don’t pay more in remedial costs down the line.

Also, coffee makes me re-think my lack of religion since it’s clear that if there was a God, coffee would be evidence of his affection. Jack Black is awesome and is on TV promoting his panda movie. And the morning news shows are vultures, today in the form of looking for an excuse to air video of a car hitting a pedestrian.

This has been stream-of-consciousness theater.

The Indy Star published a Gannett News Service column by Chuck Raasch purporting to give 7 reasons why Clinton lost. I would lead with the fact that Obama is a formidable candidate with solid policy ideas. Raasch focused more on Clinton’s failures. More interesting, however, was his selection of analysis by Fox News regular Dick Morris and arch-conservative Gary Bauer.

The AP has a horrifying/fascinating picture up.

A drunk driver fell asleep and plowed into a bike race.

Well this is disappointing. Blues guitarist, Bo Diddley, born Ellas Otha Bates, died at age 79 from heart failure. I guess it’s something for a bluesman to live that long, but still, he was really, really good and rock and roll owes him a deep debt of gratitude. RIP Mr. Diddley.