A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

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Notice of Tort Claim Insufficient to Pursue Claim of Personal Injury Where Notice Disclaimed Personal Injury

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The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court in the case of City of Indianapolis v. Bushman (pdf). This case centered around the proper application of IC 34-13-3-10 which, as a prerequisite to a lawsuit against a political subdivision based on a tort, requires the person to provide the political subdivision with a notice of the person’s intent to sue. The notice must:

describe in a short and plain statement the facts on which the claim is based. The statement must include the circumstances which brought about the loss, the extent of the loss, the time and place the loss occurred, the names of all persons involved if known, the amount of the damages sought, and the residence of the person making the claim at the time of the loss and at the time of filing the notice.

In particular, the court was concerned with the requirement that the statement include “the extent of the loss.” The plaintiff in this case had timely provided a notice, but unfortunately for her, the notice said:

Damage: Rear Bumper and side panels damaged, see estimate from Sam Swope. No injuries.

Claim: $960.99

The notice was, therefore, insufficient to allow the plaintiff to proceed with a lawsuit for personal injuries.

To my knowledge, there is no penalty for submitting notices of tort claim that that make wild claims of injury with no basis in fact. This demonstrates that a plaintiff can suffer if he or she is too conservative with assessments of injury. I expect future notices of tort claim to more often include kitchen-sink allegations of injury, regardless of the plaintiff’s honest assessment.

Colbert mocks Mourdock’s healthcare reform “pre-sponses”

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Stephen Colbert has some fun with Richard Mourdock, GOP Senate candidate and “dark lord of the withered heath” because of his “choose your own adventure” pre-sponses to the health care reform lawsuit.

He mocks the brick wall and poor sound quality and then takes him to task for not covering enough of the possibilities – Mourdock apparently only prepared for upheld, struck down, split decision, and no decision. He did not prepare for healthcare struck down, another recount, and George Bush is once again President. Nor did he prepare for Justice Scalia announcing that all along, he’s just been 4 racoons in a black garbage bag. And, nothing at all about Justice Alito announcing that he’s stepping down from the bench to become the bass player for Iron Maiden.

The Virtual Coffee House

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Sheila Kennedy has a post entitled, “Today’s Coffee House?” She mentions the contributions to the Enlightenment of the coffee house.

An interesting observation was that the Enlightenment was a product of the coffee house. According to the author, the practice of gathering in coffee houses and exchanging points of view–debating, discussing, considering alternatives–sparked the development of new philosophies, new ways of engaging reality. That diversity of perspective is also what makes cities important generators of new ideas, new inventions–as the author points out, the density of urban life also requires that we encounter people with different ideas, backgrounds and points of view, and it is that “bubbling cauldron” that incubates progress.

I got my sense of the 17th century coffee house from Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle where a fair amount of the Enlightenment activity in that story was taking place in London coffee houses. These were places where smart people, aided no doubt by a bit of a caffeine jolt, could go and spread news, discuss the events of the day, and debate new ideas.

Places on the Internet no doubt serve as modern day analogs to those Enlightenment-era coffee houses. But, they are perhaps diluted and, it’s likely that the quality of discussion in those coffee houses of old has grown in the telling. Still, I am on the lookout for quality Internet “coffee houses.” One that, in the early days of the Internet, pretty well fit the bill was The Well. That place was a fountainhead of Internet thinking and culture. I’m a participant there, and it still has as good of discussion as any place else I’ve found on the Internet, but to hear the old timers tell it (and there is some objective evidence as well) it is a shadow of its former glory.

I’ve tried, with very limited success, to make this blog a third place for the discussion of current events and new ideas (with a heavy emphasis on Indiana politics.) I just noted a discussion the other day on my Facebook wall that involved some acquaintances of mine who are a) very smart; and b) had differences of opinion on a particular issue. So, that’s another “place” that sort of qualifies. In order to have quality debate, it’s counterproductive to have the debate consist of creative ways of saying “me too.” (“Megadittos Rush!”) Though, I think those old time coffee houses were, themselves, given to factionalism. Loyalists of one political party, for example, preferring one coffee house to another.

Even beyond the coffee houses, I find it interesting that great historical and cultural advances came out of population centers that we would consider too small to make much of a cultural impact today. Golden Age Athens had only a couple hundred thousand people, I think. So, I wonder what it was about those places, times, and people that led to a cultural flowering with resources we’d consider fairly limited today.

But, on a more practical level, if anyone knows of “virtual coffee houses” that are interesting and valuable, I’d love to know about them.

#MarioMarathon – Donate! (Includes My Mario Success Story)

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The fine folks at Mario Marathon are at it again; setting themselves a grueling task of playing video games to raise money for the kids. They got started on Friday, June 22 at 11 and, I believe, will take it through Monday the 25th. They are raising donations for the Child’s Play charity which, generally speaking, supplies games to hospitals for use by kids who have to be there.

In the spirit of the occasion, I will share my Mario story. It was the fall of 1990, a chilly night in November, if memory serves. I was dating a nice Pentecostal girl; and, after dating for several months, apparently the fact that I did not share her faith had become an issue. She was crying because she cared for me and I was going to hell because I didn’t believe what she had been told to believe. Strong words were exchanged, and I went back to my place. Super Mario Brothers for the NES was the obvious path back to emotional equilibrium. That and beer. A lot of beer. In fact, I got it into my head to drink an Old Milwaukee as I played each of Mario’s 8 worlds. Eight beers in eight worlds. A challenge for the ages!

This might have been an unachievable goal if it weren’t for the turtle tipping glitch on Level 3-1; that allows you to get 99 lives. So, I had plenty of Mario cannon fodder as the levels, the beers, and the difficulty mounted. Ultimately, I achieved my goal, calmed my emotions, and found a girl who was much more suitable for me. My point is that Mario works! So, please wander on over to Mario Marathon and donate.

Richard Mourdock: I heartily endorse this event or product

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Talking Points Memo has a story about a gaffe by the Richard Mourdock Senate campaign entitled “Mourdock Accidentally Releases Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Reaction To ‘Obamacare”. Mourdock was taped responding to a variety of potential decisions by the Supreme Court on the healthcare reform law. His campaign accidentally released them all before the decision has been handed down. Apparently all possible outcomes are indictments of Joe Donnelly and great reasons for people to vote for and give money to Richard Mourdock.

Reminds me of Krusty the Clown, “I heartily endorse this event or product.”

“Joe” the “Plumber”: Too Dumb to Breathe

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Kragar at Little Green Footballs brings us the latest in the Wingnut War To Say Dumb Stuff; from “Joe” the “Plumber” (*Caution: Neither Joe nor Plumber).

He says that the Bible beats Science. That’s not the dumb part. Even I, no believer, agree that Jesus and the Bible can give us wisdom in areas where science simply has nothing to offer. No, the dumb part is his explanation: the Bible has no revisions.

Wurzelbacher explained how his pastor, who seems to believe that faith and science are incompatible, noted that while science textbooks have several new editions, the Bible has never been revised. ”Revision Seven.’ He said, ‘now look at the Bible, what does it say’? I said, ‘Holy Bible.’ He said, ‘see any revisions on it Joe’? I said, ‘no.’ He said, ‘the reason why is because this is God’s word…man’s always looking for an answer, that’s why it’s revised.”

Apparently his pastor wasn’t using the New Revised Standard version of the Bible. Or, if he was, maybe Joe was just too embarrassed to admit that he can’t read. And, never mind the 92 complete English language versions of the Bible listed in Wikipedia.

The more important point is that the ability and the inclination to revise science books speaks to its strength, not its weakness. Done properly, science always admits of doubt, permits testing, and demands revision where the testing demonstrates error.

The Center Cannot Hold; but, then, It Never Did

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One theme I keep coming back to in this blog is an annoyance at the notion that there was some perfect yesterday from which we are in decline. I notice it probably most often in those seemingly evergreen pieces that bemoan the state of “kids these days.”

Doghouse Riley takes down Maureen Dowd who apparently wrote one of those “things fall apart” columns in relation to the Jerry Sandusky matter. She suggests that our “formerly hallowed institutions” are sinking into a moral dystopia; leaving our sense of right and wrong more malleable. To which Doghouse responds:

Listen, I dunno about you, but I was filled to dyspepsia with mid-range Boomers like Dowd pretending there were such things as hallowed institutions and icons in their (my) youth, which have mysteriously sunk into anything in the interim, around two decades ago. Pius the Fucking Twelfth for the win, MoDo. These institutions were hallowed-out by the end of the 19th century. Did two World Wars escape your notice growing up? Maybe they weren’t routinely ignoring boy-buggering football coaches at Penn State in the 1950s. Would you care to guarantee it?

(Internal link added). This notion that humans have been in a state of decline since being ousted from Eden drives me nuts. It’s a kind of fatalism that’s frequently used to blame other (presumably lesser) people for things you don’t like. It allows you to sit on your ass, do nothing to change yourself or those around you, and bask in your moral superiority.

Humanity is not entirely good or entirely evil. We have a stunning array of coalitions of the two, both within ourselves and among others. Those coalitions are constantly regrouping, preserving, destroying and building. And if you think that, at one time, there was a center holding it together, that’s because you weren’t stepping back far enough to have much perspective. Like thinking the earth is the center because you have no notion of the sun or that the sun is the center because you have no notion of the galaxy, and on and on.

The kids are all right.

Gov. Daniels to Become Purdue President

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Reports are that Governor Daniels is going to replace outgoing Purdue President France Córdova. I have a general policy against talking much about local politics. While I haven’t decided if Purdue’s administrative decisions qualify, I don’t think I’m too far out of line repeating something I posted on Twitter: “I think Gov. Daniels role will be to raise piles of money like Jischke. And, with his connections, he’ll likely be good at it.”

Anyway, based on some comments in another thread, there seems to be some appetite to talk about this; so, have at it.

And as we walk on down the road; our shadows taller than our soul

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Not sure if there was any real need to bring Zeppelin into this, but Nikki Kelly has an article in the Journal Gazette entitled “Road Work Funds Low on Fuel.”

Receipts from the state gas tax are lower than they’ve been since 2000, costs to maintain roads and bridges have not gone down, and things are falling apart. Meanwhile, there is talk in Indianapolis about a “surplus.” I could probably generate a surplus in my household too if I just stopped paying for stuff; never mind the roof falling in.

Apparently this has been an issue for quite a while but cities and towns have mainly kept quiet in the face of ugly budgetary constraints at the state level. But, now that there’s talk of refunding the “surplus” without taking a close look at maintenance needs, there might be a bit of a dust up.

One problem seems to be that the gas tax used to maintain roads has stayed flat at 18 cents per gallon while vehicles have become more fuel efficient — in other words, drivers have been taxed less per mile driven. It’s good to encourage fuel efficiency, but at the same time, you have to pay for this stuff.

There is also apparently an issue with a state agency having budgetary increases that have been relatively small but which have been paid for out of a fund traditionally reserved for actual road expenditures. But revenues for that fund have been flat as well, leading to a net loss in money available for roads.

There is some squabbling between state and local officials about whose taxes ought to be raised to pay for the roads — local roads, local taxes say the state officials. The state gas tax is paid by locals, why shouldn’t it all be spent on local needs respond the local officials. No one wants to be seen as raising taxes.

This particularly caught my interest because I’m about 80% through a book by Earl Swift called Big Roads: The untold story of the engineers, visionaries, and trailblazers who created the American Superhighways. First of all, the condition of the roads in the early 20th century were horrible. The invisible hand of the free market had done nothing to create good roads. They were mostly impassable sludge when it rained, for example. Ultimately, it took government and a lot of it to create our road system. According to Swift, motorists of the time welcomed the gasoline tax. It undoubtedly helped that the advent of the gas tax coincided with a drop in the price of gasoline; but the “gas taxes seemed puny next to the progress they bankrolled.” People of the time were aware of the condition of the roads in the absence of those gas taxes.

People today just have no concept of truly miserable roads. And, to make matters worse, even while motorists are paying somewhat less per mile in taxes, the cost of gasoline itself has been rising quickly; meaning any sense of saving is simply wiped out. Makes me wonder what we could have accomplished if, back when gas was a dollar or two, if we had taxed it up to $2.50 or $3 – which we’re paying now – whether we could have built up our road funds or our public transportation infrastructure. Now we’re paying that much, but it’s mostly going to gas companies for their product.

Father’s Day 2012

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So, being a Dad has become pretty much the most important thing in my life. Funny, that. Before kids, I’ll be honest, I had little to no use for them. And, I knew it would be different for my kids – and I knew that I wanted kids; but there is no way I ever would have understood on a visceral level until I got my own.

I know that, from time to time, I’ll have occasion to eat my words; but, so far, I seem pretty good at it. My kids are generally well adjusted and well behaved. They even seem to like me. Of course, they’re 6 and 8 — that might be the easiest level there is. Liking you is just what they do. And the ways you screwed them up are often like seeds that take a bunch of years to really sprout. But, as the saying goes, you can only play the games on your schedule. And, so far, there seem to be more wins than losses.

Half (or probably a lot more than half) of the battle, of course, is having a spouse that makes you look good. Since I’m using sports analogies, and since it’s father’s day, I get to be the quarterback in this one. When your spouse is an unbeatable offensive line, you’re going to complete a lot of passes. I’m fairly sure that’s what is going on in my case.

There are guys who don’t seem to take these things seriously, and now *that’s* what I can’t seem to understand on a visceral level. I can understand, day-to-day that this or that might seem more fun or rewarding than whatever you should be doing with your family. And, frankly, if you don’t throw in some fun from time-to-time, you’ll end up not being a terribly good dad. But, as a life strategy, the more rewarding of life’s undertakings are slow, subtle, and hard. But, ultimately, worthwhile.

Happy father’s day to all you good dads out there!