The Historic 85th

IPR | Wisdom From a Distant Indiana Legislature
(From an email)...

January 19947(sic) — "Indiana needs no guardian and intends to have none. We Hoosiers — like the people of our sister states — were fooled for quite a spell with the magician’s trick that a dollar taxed out of our pockets and sent to Washington will be bigger when it comes back to us. We have taken a good look at said dollar. We find that it lost weight in its journey to Washington and back. The political brokerage of the bureaucrats has been deducted. We have decided that there is no such thing as ‘federal’ aid. We know that there is no wealth to tax that is not already within the boundaries of the 48 states. So we propose henceforward to tax ourselves and take care of ourselves. We are fed up with subsidies, doles and paternalism. We are no one’s stepchild. We have grown up. We serve notice that we will resist Washington, D.C. adopting us."

Juncture of Events: Apology for Eugenics, Defending Abortion

At first I thought that I'd merely learned something new about my Indiana home state's past. We apparently were the medical community's cutting edge at the beginning of the last century, and made what we now acknowledge were huge mistakes.
There were several pages of Yahoo! search results for the AP-Ken Kusmer article, almost all of which were titled "Indiana Apologizes For Role In Eugenics." The Fort Wayne (Indiana) News-Sentinel thought this was catchier..." Indiana apologizes for its sterilization of ‘imbeciles.’ "
Whilst looking around for names and places mentioned, I somehow came across a NARAL letter protesting "Bush's Abortion Ban." I'd never heard of it, surprise, because there is no such thing.

I care a lot about what the Supreme Court has to say about President Bush's Federal Abortion Ban. The same day I decided to terminate my pregnancy, lawmakers gathered in Washington, DC to discuss the ban, which could outlaw abortion as early as 12 weeks and has no exception for a woman's health.

The South Dakota legislature passed a law in 2005 requiring abortionists to advise their patients that the "procedure" will end the life of a human being. Planned (un)Parenthood won an injunction to delay enforcement until a court decides whether or not to allow the law. PP's objection is not that the statement is untrue, but that it infringes on the "free speech" of the doctor. That's the scary "Bush Abortion Ban."

(A) lower court said the legislation infringes doctors' First Amendment rights by requiring them to promote the state's ideology on an "unsettled medical, philosophical, theological, and scientific issue, that is, whether a fetus is a human being."
It is this injunction that the law's supporters are seeking to have overturned. Earlier, a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit upheld the lower court's injunction, but now the full 11-judge panel will rehear the case.

Humanity has shown over and again that it will run into trouble every time it tries to differentiate between "human beings" and "persons." The United States had its issue with slaves and Germany with Jews (and others with a "life not worth living"). Eugenics tried to eliminate our responsibility to "imbeciles and paupers," as does abortion with the unborn. Instead of regarding our less fortunate brethren as guilt-inspiring, party-ending burdens, scripture reveals them to be God given opportunities for doing good deeds. Then Governor Hanly, devout Methodist by all accounts (in 1905 that meant something), should have seen that.
The lower court mentioned above does the same thing that Roe did in '73. We are, of course, only interested in what science and medicine have to say about the facts as they are known regarding any surgery, including abortion. The subject is obfuscated by the insertion and elevation of irrelevant opinions from the fields of "philosophy" and "theology" as if any other law on our books depended on pastor jimbo's acquiescence. The question in Law isn't whether the baby is a human being, it's whether the human being in the womb is a "person" and worthy of rights under the constitution. The '73 SCOTUS disingenuously asserted that since theologians and philosophers and scientists and doctors couldn't agree on when life begins then all we can do throw up our hands leave it to the doctor and the patient. Never mind that by the time we know something is in there, it's a human being, and it is definately alive.
Few of us can escape the charge of being offensive or burdensome to someone else. If an unborn child can be separated from personhood, if an "imbecile" can be likewise separated, if also a Jew or a Gypsy or a pauper, black skinned or Chinese or homosexual, then who can't?
Which brings us full circle back to eugenics. The unfortunate thing for its promoters was that the patient survived, and can as a "person" press charges.

Coleman was 17, married and eager to have children when she learned the truth about her surgery.
"Oh gosh, I didn't want to live. I hated my mother. I hated everybody that did this to me," she said.
Coleman sued her mother, the doctor and the judge in a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court and resulted in a landmark 1978 decision granting judges immunity in official actions. Duh!!

A shock worthy of Imus! Lawyers, judges and politicians exempt themselves from the more fearful consequences of their playground activities! Amazing.

M'Lady Esperesso and I Are Wining Again!

The Indiana Wine Fair - April 28, 2007 has become something of a tradition for the two of us since our kids "ran" off to college. We've camped at Brown County State Park in the past, we'll probably do that again this time, but we are talking about a hotel, too.

FACT: Indiana wineries attract 800,000 visitors annually and generate some $33 million in revenue to the state every year. Wine acreage has increased 300% in the past fifteen years, and wine sales have increased 78% in just the last five years. It’s obvious that Hoosiers love their wineries!

We're so impressed with the local wineries, and it's nice that local grogers are stocking their stuff! Check out the links throughout the page, especially the bottom. Interesting info!

We Like Auctions

Lady Espresso (my spicy deep brewed wife) and I enjoy going to auctions. We especially enjoy estate auctions of personal property built up over years of collecting odds and ends. She has real patience, waiting for the most excellent purchases. The auction we used to like best was called "Superior Auctions," but they lost their lease and, so far, haven't re-opened elsewhere. But running a close second, and a very enjoyable experience for us, is "Christy's Auction" on Indy's south side. They run up to four separate auctions simultaneously, but the one we enjoy is the "box lots team." This is the venue where they sell some of their less expensive antiques, tools, knick-knacks, electronics, books, and all manner of stuff. It's in the same large building that they auction their more costly items, so we can go back and forth, or station one of us in one auction while the spouse is in the other.
Our greatest fun is in buying what they call "skid lots." Several boxes full of stuff packed on a skid, and it's all bought for one, usually low price ($2-$8 is all she'll spend on one lot). When we get these skids home, we are often astonished with what we find in the boxes that we had no idea was there!
She takes most of these items and puts them on ebay for a very fair price. Her store is called "The Rummage Place" and I keep a link at the top of my blogroll at left. The porcelain pitcher is an example of what you might find on her store. Of course, her inventory changes constantly.
Ebay is a strange place to try to understand. One time we came home with a skid lot that included a suitcase. When we got home, we discovered an extraordinary pair of blue suede boots in the luggage! They were a child's size, and looked like the sort of thing a country singer would wear. Heck, we thought we'd pick up some decent beans for the footwear!
Not. One. Nibble.
And that's the way it goes...the things that no one wants are the things we think are the coolest stuff, and the things that sell seem bizarre sometimes. Metal figures of army guys did real well! The buyer didn't want the metal army guys, though! He wanted to melt them down to make something else, and found that the old army guys worked best for his needs. Isn't that odd? I listed some high school band music that actually made some money. Even yearbooks! She has enough fun that even the slow months, though they make her "even more crazy" (as she puts it!) are worth it. The good months are not bad. She makes enough to get us out to a decent restaurant or to go on a winery jaunt. (Another whole post!)

I have no fondness for Child Protective Services agencies in general, especially in Indiana. Maybe it's like the death penalty for some who are against it. I find it very difficult to argue for abolishing CPS with parents like this out there.

Troy Crady figures guardian angels must have had something to do with sparing Damon Dyer.
The 3-year-old, wearing only a diaper and T-shirt, was found running in the middle of the slow lane of northbound I-465 Saturday morning -- and an unaware Crady, speeding by in his 1-ton flatbed, easily could have run into him.

...

The incident led to the arrest of the boy's mother on two charges of child neglect after Merritt found she wasn't aware that her son had slipped out of her apartment.
The second charge related to the discovery of a second child eating spaghetti off the floor, police said. Officers said they also found trash in the apartment and feces on the walls.

The very saddest part, I'm thinking mom really is giving the best she has to offer. Whether this is a result of her own flat-out rebellion, or her own parents' abusive treatment toward her, or she's mentally handi-capped or ill, babies on the highway is probably the best she can do.

The Cliff Hanger Continues

Wow...I'm actually mentioning a story I wrote on last month.

A political newcomer’s seven-vote upset of a veteran Indiana state lawmaker last month goes before the Indiana Recount Commission on Tuesday.
The hearings, expected to last up to three days, will address findings of the State Board of Accounts in the Nov. 7 race between Elrod, a Republican, and Ed Mahern, the defeated Democratic incumbent.

espresso beans to taking down words

Saudi Connections and U.S. Funded?

I've been looking for an article on the ISNA, located in Plainfield, IN, that gives some credible information on the connections between the Muslim organization and their Saudi benefactors, and some of their more nefarious alumni. I was beginning to think that all I would find was inflammatory panic-driven speech. But I have read other articles and heard some of the folks mentioned in this FrontPage expose, including comments from Steven Emerson and Sherrie Gossett, both of whom I find quite believable.

But while Mattson’s smiling image may come to dominate the mainstream media in years to come, it is Gossett who caught perhaps the true face of ISNA. In her interview with the Islamic organization’s spokesman, who called AIM’s coverage of Islamic radicalism “scandalous” and “criminal”, she was harshly told: “You will be hurt, you will be pained by this if you continue to write such things.” Which is really nothing to smile about.

I kept looking around and found this from Daniel Pipes blog:

Mohamed El-sanousi, director of community outreach and communications for ISNA, told Gossett his organization received grants in 2003 and 2004 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services. The money did not save anyone from substance abuse or improve mental health, however. Instead, it went to teach other members of the Wahhabi lobby how to milk the government: "We used the grants to train Muslim community leaders in how to apply for grants to do social services," El-sanousi explained.

rcb

Cliffhanger In My District! Elrod - Mahern

From today's Star; Democrat Ed Mahern of Indianapolis today filed for a recount and a contest of his 7-vote loss in his bid for re-election to the Indiana House. I voted for Elrod so I like the direction this "trend" is taking!

Problems included electronic voting machines that weren't working when voters first arrived at the polls and paper ballots left unsecured because they couldn't immediately be counted, he said.

We heard about this the morning of the elections. I didn't think they were talking about our (Indianapolis) booths. I saw nothing of any problems at my location. The next paragraph really caught my eye.

"In several precincts in the district, poll workers took the unprecedented step of recreating some ballots -- actually filling in ballots without the voters present -- after (the original ballots) were rejected by the electronic scanning machine," Mahern said. "In virtually every case, this happened hours after the voter had left the polling place."

The machine "rejected" some ballots, and in the effort to make every vote count, the poll volunteers "recreated" the voter's ballot in such a way that the votes will be accepted. In their editorials, the Star encourages counting even the ballots that are ineligible for one reason or another, but Mr Mahern seems to criticize counting these ballots (which could arguably be considered invalid). If there were rules then the volunteers would have had guides to follow. Without any guides, I think they just did what had to be done to get the votes counted.
I am a partisan Republican, I have the conviction and passion to have been a precinct committeeman in the past. The same qualities of strength of opinion could definitely have been said of my Democrat counter-part. But every issue we encountered (there weren't many) was handled between the two of us in a way that was agreed on by both of us. I think it's disturbing that Mr Mahern would cast doubt on the integrity of the workers at the polls. Have your recount, you deserve it. But leave your excuses to your own inability to convince your district, in a year of a Democrat wave, to vote for you.

The organizational meetings will be held today, the first day of the new session. Elrod says he's just going to show up and see how events shake out!

Elrod said he didn't know what to expect.
"I'm going to show up and find out what happens," he said.
If the victories by Republicans Harris and Elrod hold up, Democrats still will have a 51-49 majority in the 100-member House.