When I watched my aunt suffering with Alzheimer’s, I thought that must be the worst condition to be in while still alive. To still know what and who you once were but feeling your mind slipping away and realizing you can’t do a damn thing about it — could anything [...]
The good news is that there are apparently very few of us who hate everybody. Of the 7,783 hate crimes reported to the FBI in 2008, only 8 were for “multiple biases.” The bad news is that the overall number represents a 2 percent increase from 2007. Of course [...]
Yeah, that’s right, kick us when we’re down:
Jeffersonville City Councilman Mike Smith is hoping to reduce the number of newspaper and advertisement boxes lining downtown sidewalks.
The boxes — which belong to The Evening News, the Courier-Journal and a host of other publications advertising homes, cars and apartments — can [...]
A truly shocking discovery in Muncie:
MUNCIE — It seemed like a good idea at the time: City and county officials in 2007 split the $70,000 cost of a study that analyzed local consumers’ spending habits with a goal of attracting retailers and restaurants to the area.
Thanks to turnover in [...]
I rarely go to movies these days, being content to wait for the releases to go to DVD or cable TV. But disaster movies need to be seen on the big screen (and with a crowd) for the special effects to have maximum impact. So my friend K and I, [...]
It’s one thing to give prisoners so many benefits that incarceration hardly seems like punishment — things like premium cable TV channels and access to a college education many on the outside can’t afford. When I heard that some of the poor souls in the Monroe County Jail were having [...]
The president undoubtedly has an extensive wish list this Christmas. If you have the caption that will make this funny, send it in to "Caption This."
Just go to garyvarvel.com and post your caption on the "read comments" link above the cartoon. Keep it clean (this is a [...]
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and shoppers are making the best of their economic situation. Our winner this week is, Joyce Beckner, Rushville, IN - "It's a toss-up, either buy groceries and medicine, or go Christmas shopping."
Runners up: Mike Blane, League City, TX - [...]
We had headlines like, "Families finding food scarce," "Hunger rising, children and elderly losing ground." I thought this would be a good end of the week cartoon so I sketched up a regular cartoon family serving up a small turkey. Before I started the cartoon the next [...]
Aww, the poor babies:
One night in Adams Morgan, the sons and daughters of lawyers and corporate executives padded into a friend’s rowhouse for a kind of group therapy session about their families’ wealth.
They are young people who have inherited or stand to inherit big money, and they are spending [...]
When we were young and the world was more moral, our games were more wholesome and entertaining. If we wanted to break the ice with members of the opposie sex, a simple straighforward game of strip poker was sufficient. We weren’t absolutely depraved, like these irresponsible young people today:
Allegations [...]
Those mean, stingy county officials just wouldn’t go along, and the mayor is sad, so unbearably sad:
“The dream of a joint solution to Fort Wayne’s and Allen County’s space needs through co-location just died,” a somber Mayor Tom Henry said in a hastily arranged news conference Thursday afternoon.
But who [...]
Got your “God in the Hoosier news” update here. A teenager in Terre Haute expressed dismay at what she perceived as an “intolerant” sign at a church:
Saagarika Coleman submitted a letter to the editor of the Tribune-Star (see page A8) stating that she was “hit with a wave of [...]
As noted earlier here, former Gov. Joe Kernan is returning to Vietnam for the first time since his release from a POW camp there. Guess old warriors can’t help the urge to revisit the battlegrounds of their youth:
It’s been 40 years since John Eckenrode was suspended from the [...]
Sarah Palin is in Indianapolis this evening and this morning there were at least 1,000 people standing in the parking lot in the rain waiting for her. This cartoon is not endorsing her. It's merely depicting what others are thinking.
It’s getting to the point where we should probably begin every story about what they’re doing in Washington with the disclaimer, “No this isn’t a joke. We’re not kidding. They really are considering this.”
Senate Democrats crafting a job creation bill are considering a proposal to give money to workers [...]
The Indiana Supreme Court’s invalidation of part of Zachary’s law seems pretty straightforward. The state constitution bans ex post facto laws in pretty plain language, and the portion of the law requiring even sex offenders convicted prior to the registration law to register is, by intent and effect, retroactive. But [...]
Kellogg Co. says there will be a nationwide shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffles until next summer because of interruptions in production at two of the four plants that make them.
It’s funny how your mind works. I haven’t had an Eggo in years, but the minute I heard [...]
This week’s evidence that End Times are near:
Someone needs to alert Bill Joy — IBM (NYSE:IBM) scientists, using an ultra-powerful supercomputer, have just replicated the cerebral cortex of your average house cat.
At the SC09 supercomputing conference in Portland, Ore., this week, Big Blue announced that it has [...]
We have an out-of-towner at Meijer’s today. Well, yeah, Gov. Sarah Palin, too, but I mean this woman:
Debbie Coning of Portage, Mich., hasn’t slept a wink. She arrived at the Meijer store at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon to claim the first spot in line. She had driven all [...]
Proof that Indiana is not out of the political mainstream — we have imaginary congressional districts, too!
The imaginary 00, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 18th Congressional Districts of Indiana have, according to recovery.gov, made a tax dollar windfall of about $5.3 million, and ‘created or saved’ 9 jobs - all [...]
I will be speaking along with the Honorable Judge Julian L. Ridlen at the President Benjamin Harrison Home on Sunday, Nov. 22, at 3:00 p.m. This will officially open the "Campaigns & Cartoons" 2009 year-end exhibition of original sketches and published political cartoons from Pres. Ben's era. [...]
Joe Kernan is still one of the classiest guys around. He had planned to go on a trade mission to Vietnam when he was lieutenant governor, but the trip fell through, and he says he’s always wanted to go back to the country where he fought and was held [...]
Former Fort Wayne educator Eugene White has had his ups and downs as superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools. This could probably be considered a down period, since parents at three high schools want his head on a platter:
Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Eugene White said Tuesday there is no [...]
Gee, do ya think?
The United States’ climbing national debt could drag the country into a “double-dip recession,” President Obama warned in an interview with Fox News Wednesday from China, though he said he’s still considering additional tax incentives for businesses to reverse the rising unemployment rate.
[. . .]
”I think [...]
RealClearPolitics puts Gov. Mitch Daniels second on its list of five most likely GOP dark horses for the 2012 presidential nomination, just behind South Dakota Sen. John Thune (”a political giant-killer, knocking off then Minority Leader Tom Dachle in 2004.”) and just ahead of Texas Gov. Rick Perry (”rock-solid [...]
The first sentence of this story makes you think, “Well, the poor guy obviously isn’t comfortable with who he is – no wonder he drinks.”
The male principal of a local elementary school was arrested for suspicion of OWI while wearing a pink dress, wig and high heels, according to reports.
But then we [...]
Just what we need — a General Assembly that starts early so it can create more mischief:
The Indiana House and Senate have planned rare December hearings on key legislation – including a proposed constitutional amendment to limit property tax bills – in hopes that lawmakers can get more done [...]
If you’re not worried yet about the implications of trying terror suspects in a civil criminal court, maybe this will help:
The greatest danger posed in the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) isn’t that he will go free. The greatest danger is that he will be convicted and that [...]
This sound a little Orwellian to anybody besides me?
INDIANAPOLIS - A felon’s friends and hobbies could influence how much time he spends behind bars if the Indiana Supreme Court upholds a lower-court ruling.
At issue is a type of psychological test commonly used by probation officers to assess whether an [...]
I like some of the things mentioned by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett that have been done to help the state better compete for a share of the federal Department of Education’s $4 billion “Race to the Top” education grant program — not putting a cap on charter schools, for [...]
DePauw University professor Kevin Howley didn’t think much of media coverage of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall — a “myopic and narcissistic view of history” by a bunch of celebrity reporters “waxing nostalgic” about their own role in history:
What’s more, it re-inscribes a particular interpretation of [...]
The New Oxford American Dictionary has chosen its word of the year for 2009, and, strangely, “Obamessiah” wasn’t even on the list:
“Birther ” was in the running, so was “death panels,” but in the end the New Oxford American Dictionary can only pick one word of the year. For [...]
Dang — I missed National Pickle Day. If you hunger for some real pickles — sweet but spicy — you have to try these, the sweet fire pickles from one of my favorite mail-order places, the New Braunfels Smokehouse. And their smoked brisket is — well, let’s just [...]
A feature in yesterday’s Washington Post on how to grow a political party from the ground up focused on Republicans in St. Joseph County, a group more distressed than Democrats in Allen County. When Chris Riley accepted the unpaid job as GOP chairman in 2006, he says it was “maybe the [...]
“Binge drinking” is defined as “five or more drinks for a man and four for a woman,” which are ”consumed at one sitting and with the intention of getting drunk.” The bad news is that 48 percent of Hoosier college students surveyed reported binge drinking in a two week period, [...]
I’ve made some spectacularly bad decisions in my life, and I’ve worked for bosses who made some dumb moves the worker bees were expected to just keep quiet about. But now the pressure is off all of us; we no longer have to work so hard at apologizing or forgetting our bum calls, [...]
This is the first in a series of cartoons about the Legislator/Lobbyist relationships in the General Assembly. Up to now, Legislators haven't considered it a problem. Newspapers statewide are coordinating their coverage of this issue. We're going to shine a little light on the process, then you [...]
With Christmas shopping just around the corner, how do you think shoppers are feeling? This cartoon can go a lot of different ways and depends on the right words to make it work. If you think you have what it takes send it in to "Caption This."
Just [...]
The unemployment line is where corporate America is meeting middle America. This week's "Caption This" winner is, Douglas J. Bender, Elkhart, IN - Man: "I used to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company." Woman: "I know. You laid me off."
Runners up: Larry Vandeventer, Plainfield, IN [...]
President George W. Bush seems to regert the $700 billion Wall Street bailout:
I went against my free-market instincts and approved a temporary government intervention to unfreeze the credit markets so that we could avoid a major global depression.
Damage done, apology too little and too late. And without mentioning Barack [...]
I’m going to stick my fingers in my ears and go na-na-na-na until you’re done talking, ’cause I just don’t want to hear it. That seems to be the attitude of some at Purdue University about library prof. Bert Chapman’s provocative blog post on “the economic arguments against homosexuality.”
But [...]
Shame on the residents of Fishers for voting to spend more money on education, complicating things for everbody else in the state. So says the Richmond Palladium-Item:
Officials in Fishers say the referendum approval will spare them having to cut at least 60 teachers in the faces of property tax [...]
People are freaking out over revelations that the Lucas Oil Stadium’s food service has been cited 42 times and fined $3,900 for, among other things, the presence of mice and mice feces. The vice president of the Capital Improvement Board wants to assure fans, though, that those responsible for [...]
The disaster film “2012,” based on all the hype about Mayan calendars and doomsday predictions, prompted this, 10 end-of-the-world predictions that, well, didn’t turn out. I call your attention to this one, since Pat is still around and apparently not even a little bit embarrassed at having been so [...]
If I tried to rank the worst Supreme Court decisions in my lifefime, Kelo v. City of New London, which more or less put the last nail in the coffin of private property, would be right up there. And what came of it? Nothing:
The Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in [...]
Getting beyond the “political correctness” argument for what happened at Fort Hood:
The most-heard reason for the possible failure is political correctness. No doubt. But Sen. Lieberman’s committee should avoid making this its main line of inquiry, because that is a problem without a policy fix. It minimizes the real [...]
If I get the flu, I should stay home so I don’t infect my co-workers. But if I do that, I might make my cats sick:
EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - A cat in Iowa has the H1N1 flu, most likely caught from it’s owners. The cat is recovering, but as 14 News found, [...]
Hoosiers are just a bunch of anti-tax yahoos. We dare not give them the power of a referenum and actually let them vote on scool building projects or big tax increases — nothing would ever be approved again!
Voters in Indiana’s fastest-growing community have overwhelmingly approved a referendum giving its [...]
So, the government’s stimulus plan has created or saved how many jobs?
“Stimulus” is in the process of turning a nasty recession into a genuine depression. The evidence is in the “Employment Situation” report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on November 6th. The “headline” unemployment rate shot [...]
Some insightful Veterans Day thoughts:
My father came out of World War II with decidedly mixed feelings about war: that some times it was necessary and that most of the time it wasn’t. He was never particularly political, but he was outspoken that no child of his would ever serve in any [...]
From Rand Simberg, who says the problem isn’t that Obama doesn’t spend enough time on the economy, it’s that his philosophy isn’t capable of stimulating growth, this sounds about right:
But something he could have done — that would have cost nothing at all — would have been to not [...]
Congratulations to the City Council. It got this one right:
A gas station and mini-strip mall appear to be on their way to the south side of downtown Fort Wayne after City Council approved the rezoning of about two acres at 3230 Fairfield Avenue.
Council twice voted, 6-2 and 7-1, on [...]
So, next year, Mark Souder is going to face a primary challenge from somebody running to his right:
. . . to hear Phil Troyer tell it - it’s time to lower the curtain on a supposedly conservative politician who has forgotten his roots.
Is Mark Souder, who just this week [...]
Is Elkhart noisier than all other Indiana cities, or are they just obsessed about the issue?
Drivers in the northern Indiana city of Elkhart may want to think twice about pumping up the volume on their car stereos.
The city is aggressively enforcing its noise ordinance, which carries a fine of [...]
Hey, just in case you were worried about the old Memorial Stadium not having a useful future:
INDIANAPOLIS - Hundreds of vehicles destined for the scrap heap are filling what once was the outfield of the former minor league baseball stadium in Indianapolis.
A salvage company is leasing the Bush Stadium [...]
Ah, those crazy Californians, they just kind of make up the law as they go along:
Setting up a potential showdown with the mayor, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors reinstated an ordinance on Tuesday requiring that juvenile offenders who are illegal immigrants be convicted of a crime before they [...]
Oprah’s TV efforts have always seemed just a heartbeat away from being a freak show, and now she dives into the slime bucket head first:
WESTVILLE — A month from the day he is set to be executed at the Lakeside Correctional Facility, Matthew Eric Wrinkles will appear on national [...]
I suspect this is one of those cases in which the city feels it has to fight to the bitter end in fear of setting some kind of precedent. God knows what trouble in might get in if it got the reputation of being soft on back-pay issues. But it does [...]
19-year old Alison Lesch of Auburn faces a preliminary charge of attempted murder for putting her hours-old newborn daugher in a garbage bag and leaving her in a Dumpster. It is being suggested that she could have avoided the whole unpleasantness of being arrested if she had just been thinking [...]
Have I missed something?
Anti-abortion Democrats have reignited the national abortion wars with their victory Saturday on an amendment to House health care legislation that would prevent women from obtaining abortions through government-sponsored insurance or any plan that receives government subsidies.
Reignited the abortion wars? When did those flames go out, [...]
