Random Blogging – Page 372

Another Reason to Retire Ballard

My husband and I ate dinner last night at the Left Bank, a nice bistro at water’s level on the Indianapolis canal, then walked a couple of blocks along the canal to a program at the Center for Inquiry.While I often walk or bike along the water in nice weather, it was the first time I’d been on the canal this spring, and I was shocked and dismayed by the deterioration of the concrete walks and the pedestrian bridges, and the peeling paint beneath those bridges. The concrete at the edge of the water is crumbling into the water at several places. The concrete in the steps down from street to canal level was so eaten away that the rebar showed.

This is absolutely inexcusable.

The canal not only represents a huge investment by prior administrations, it is an extremely important amenity in a city without mountains, oceans or other natural draws. It has triggered significant private investment, and it is very heavily used. Whenever I am there, I see large numbers of people walking, biking, paddle-boating and enjoying themselves. It is a beautiful urban space, a huge asset to Indianapolis and it absolutely must be maintained. Its current condition is criminal.

I’ve been watching the slapdash way in which the much-touted street and sidewalk “infrastructure improvements” are being made with some dismay. I’ve yet to see an inspector, and to my (admittedly non-expert) eyes, it looks as if the administration is doing superficial paving that will look good through the Superbowl (assuming that happens), but falls far short of what would be involved in genuine long-term repairs. I hope I’m wrong about that. But Ballard and his administration haven’t even made that minimal level of effort at the canal–and we are at risk of losing one of the rare jewels of this city.

Eric Hoffer once wrote that the measure of a civilization is its ability to maintain what it has built.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that an administration unable to manage its own parking meters is too inept to maintain its own infrastructure, but Indianapolis really cannot afford four more years of this.

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Sometimes, All You Can Do is Laugh

Yesterday, I got an email from the Obama campaign. The campaign has obviously decided to have some fun with the “birthers”–in return for a contribution, I can get a mug or a tee-shirt with “Made in the USA” on one side, and Obama’s long-form birth certificate on the other.

Today, my sister sent me a link to a video message from George Takei to the Tennessee legislature, which is considering legislation called the “Don’t say gay” bill. It would ban the use of the word “gay” in Tennessee schools.George has offered “Takei” as an alternative, and explains how that will work.

And of course, in my post yesterday, I noted some of the more creative reactions to tomorrow’s anticipated Rapture. (My favorite remains the “After-Rapture Looting Party.”)

I think all of these responses are perfect. Clearly, the crazies among us don’t respond well to facts, evidence, science, logic or common sense.

I’m having a good laugh and then I’m going out to saddle up my dinosaur.

Rapture Me Up, Scotty

Well, I see that Saturday is the big day–all the saved” Christians will evidently be leaving the rest of us (aka me and all of my friends) as they are Raptured. I know this because my email is filled with messages about “Rapture cocktails” and post-Rapture looting parties, and because a Facebook friend posted helpful information about a site that–for a relatively modest fee–will take care of your pet after you leave.

News accounts have taken note of the true believers who have given away all of their worldly goods in anticipation of their imminent departure.

Not being a biblical literalist, I have some lingering questions: for example, will self-identified “bible-believing” Christians like Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Michelle Bachmann be leaving us? If not, can we send them to the Afterlife anyway? What should we do with all the tacky lawn ornaments True Believers will leave behind? And most important of all, what kind of dreadful world will the rest of us create? How will we know who to despise?

What will we do without the elect to tell us how to live and who to love? How will we know who Jesus doesn’t want us to tax?

Come to think of it, I am sure I’m one of the damned, because a post-Rapture world sounds heavenly to me.

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Voting for Indiana

I see that John Gregg is throwing the proverbial hat in the ring, and running for Governor against Pious Mike Pence.

I know relatively little about Gregg. What I do know is that he was once Speaker of the Indiana House, that he is more socially conservative than I am, and that he’s a folksy public speaker. But I really don’t need to know much more, because I do know Mike Pence. And I also know that the last thing Indiana needs is a preacher-in-chief–a Governor with an extreme religious agenda and a very limited grasp of Constitutional history and principles. (Whether that “limited grasp” is a matter of political convenience or genuine ignorance is irrelevant in this context.)

We have seen the harm that can be done when a crop of zealots is elected to the legislature only to be enabled by a Governor who really does know better, but who sacrifices sound policy (not to mention human compassion) to political expediency. The last thing Indiana needs is a Governor who would be a cheerleader for the intolerant, “Christian Nation” elements of that legislature.

I’ve heard very good things about John Gregg, and I hope they are true. But he has my vote because he isn’t Mike Pence.

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The Age of Disinformation

The news over the weekend brought more evidence of the danger posed by the combination of civic ignorance and propaganda.

The Huffington Post ran a story about a Tea Party affiliated “educational” organization that is offering to come in to high school classes on Constitution Day to teach students about (their version of) the Constitution. Given what we know about the state of civics education in this country, their version may well be the only one these students encounter.

Meanwhile, in his upcoming column, Morton Marcus takes aim at another–highly successful–bit of propaganda: the widely-repeated “fact” that large numbers of Americans pay no taxes at all. Marcus checked this out, and concurs–but his concurrence comes with a twist. As he says, it is absolutely true that “Most income tax filers do not pay any income tax ….. at the time of filing. The liars leave off those final five words. Are the politicians and pundits who make these pronouncements aware of the falsehood of their “facts”? Surely those who repeat such “facts” have not thought about them and certainly they do not challenge them because they come from “reliable” sources.”

How many times have we heard earnest pundits explain that the wealthy bear too much of the burden of taxation now, because “most Americans don’t even owe taxes”?

In this case, I have been among the ignorant. Unlike Morton Marcus, I did not bother to check the accuracy of the assertion. I just assumed that lower-income folks probably didn’t owe federal taxes, although they obviously pay local sales and property taxes. What I now realize is that I am one of the presumed free rider/deadbeats, because I take care to have my employer withhold the very substantial federal taxes I pay from my monthly paycheck. Like so many Americans, I want to avoid that nasty April surprise, so that at the time of filing, I don’t owe much more than has been withheld.

File under: what you don’t know can help the ideologues mislead you.

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