Indiana

Books I’ve read Recently

Garden Accents: Simple-To-Build Projects to Enhance Your Yard or Garden (How-to Gardening)
Quite a few interesting building projects for hardscaping your garden. I read this over while drawing up plans for our flowerbeds.
Pit of Vipers (Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective) #18
by Carolyn Keene
There are 21 books out now in this all new series of Nancy Drew stories. These are brand-new tales, not revisions or updates of the originals, and they set Nancy squarely in the present, complete with cell phones, hybrid cars (Nancy’s, of course) and high-tech surveillance equipment. And another change that’s somewhat jarring — they’re told from Nancy’s first-person point of view.
Indianapolis Hoosiers’ circle city
by Geib, George W.
Indianapolis Through Our Eyes: The Indianapolis Star 1903-2003
by Indianapolis Star
Indianapolis: a circle city history
by Tenuth, Jeffrey
Greater Indianapolis: the history, the industries, the institutions, and the people of a city of homes
by Dunn, Jacob Piatt, 1855-1924

Continue ReadingBooks I’ve read Recently

People You Meet While Gardening

I met two interesting people this weekend while planting bulbs in my front yard. One of the is our neighbor, Craig, who owns the house to the north of us, and is moving back in. He’s not new to our neighborhood — his family has owned the house for decades — but he’s just now returning because he’s been in Afghanistan and Iraq for the past four years in the military. I didn’t ask him what branch or anything about what it was like, (I figured that was way too much to get into) but of course a million questions raced through my brain. He did mention, while talking about is plans for working on the house, about possibly being called back to service, but he seemed pretty pragmatic about it. I hope that doesn’t happen; I’d prefer having someone live there. The house has seemed pretty lonely all this time.

The other guy I met was John Elrod, the Republican candidate for State Representative for District 97 running against Ed Mahern. He was walking around knocking on doors and leaving flyers. I talked with him for a bit, and was somewhat surprised that he said he went against his fellow Republicans on the marriage issue. He said that he felt the “government should get out of the marriage business altogether and marriages should be considered as ‘civil unions.'” I was tired and dropped the ball on that question — I should have followed up specifically on the marriage amendment and how he would vote on it, because his other statement was way too broad.
One thing that really bugged me — when I later opened his flyer, the interior contained photos of the logos and signs of all the downtown neighborhoods, making it seem like they were endorsing his campaign. I certainly know that’s not true, but anyone else reading it would get that impression. Not cool.

Continue ReadingPeople You Meet While Gardening

Friends of Tom Delay plan attack ads on behalf of Indiana’s Chris Chocola

Associates of disgraced former house majority leader Tom Delay are funding attack ads under the name “Americans for Honesty” for nine Republican congressional candidates in embattled districts, including on behalf of Representative Chris Chocola of Indiana, according to the New York Times.

A previously unknown group led by a Republican political consultant in Houston is financing television advertisements against nine Democratic House candidates from North Carolina to Arizona.
The group, Americans for Honesty on Issues, is spending more than $1 million on the advertisements, which accuse Democratic candidates of carpetbagging, coddling illegal immigrants, being soft on crime and advocating cutting off money for troops in Iraq.
The television spots appear to be the first wave of a boatload of negative political advertising that will appear in the weeks before the Nov. 7 election. Many of the advertisements will be produced by independent organizations known as 527 groups, after the provision in the tax code that allows such groups to spend virtually unlimited sums on political activity as long as it is not formally coordinated with parties or candidates.
…
The leader of Americans for Honesty on Issues is Sue Walden, a close ally of Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader who left Congress amid questions on ethics and fund-raising. Ms. Walden has also raised money for President Bush and served as an adviser to Kenneth L. Lay, the former chief executive of Enron who died in July.

Americans for “Honesty” — I’m surprised that lightning hasn’t struck them already.

Continue ReadingFriends of Tom Delay plan attack ads on behalf of Indiana’s Chris Chocola

Oh my god, Did Bauer just throw us under the bus?

Thanks to Bil for pointing out this jaw-dropping statement from Indiana Minority Leader Pat Bauer, D-South Bend:

“I just think that the only way for (Republicans) not to (continue to) demagogue it is to have a redundancy. It’s too bad it has to go in the constitution, but so be it,” Bauer said. “It’s not worth the time, the trouble, to point out that it’s not a problem (in Indiana), so it’s better just to have the vote and see how it goes.”

Under GOP leadership, both chambers of the General Assembly passed a same-sex marriage amendment last year. The measure must be approved by the newly elected Legislature next year or in 2008 before it could go on the statewide ballot for approval from voters.

That’s nice. Tell me again why I live in Indiana?

Continue ReadingOh my god, Did Bauer just throw us under the bus?

Susan Fuldauer Fundraiser

We are strapped for cash and time, so we can’t go to this, but I wanted to be sure to pass it along because it’s an EXCELLENT cause…

Get tickets to this event to raise money for Susan Fuldauer. You will get food, drink, comedy and the pleasure that your donation is going toward removing Bosma from office. Life doesn’t get any better than this guys! Lets all buy tickets and have kind of a pre-game party before the election.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27
IT”S A NIGHT OF COMEDY
To Support
SUSAN FULDAUER
For State Representative
JOIN US AT MORTY”S COMEDY JOINT
3625 E. 96th St.
DOORS OPEN 6pm, SHOW STARTS 7pm
$30 DONATION
Preshow Hors d’oeuvres
2 Drink Minimum
FOR TICKETS PLEASE CALL
Kathy Gillette 755-6670 OR Susan Fuldauer 727-4505

Continue ReadingSusan Fuldauer Fundraiser

I got called the D-Word

No, no, not “difficult.” The other D-Word. The one that’s the equivalent of the N-word. You know… the one that if you had the balls to say it to my face, you’d be riding to the hospital in an ambulance. Yeah. THAT D-word.

And who busted out this lovely phrase? Only our Indianapolis’ Finest — [link redacted because Abdul hid the blog when he got in trouble with the law] our esteemed law enforcement officers at IndyUndercover.

Gee, I wonder why homicides are at a record high, petty theft is up 50% and we’ve got a major drug war on our hands? Could it be because our police force are sitting at home with their penises in one hand, typing furiously at the computer with the other, trying to intimidate Indy residents out of speaking their minds, and at the same time libeling every elected official in city government? I feel so safe with these guys “serving” and “protecting” me.

Okay, really, I do realize that IndyUndercover isn’t actually law enforcement — it’s a right wing hit site set up to try to influence the local elections (witness the date it was set up, the topics of conversation). Still, you’d think that actual law enforcement would be offended that these fakers and propagandists are out there defaming their name.

Bite Me

2019 Update: It turned out that the libelous IndyUndercover blog site was run by malicious Indianapolis blogger, public nuisance and noted homophobe Abdul Hakim-Shabazz. He got outed by the police when he revealed the name of a confidential informant who was working with arson investigators and she almost got killed.
Continue ReadingI got called the D-Word

Fishers Renaissance Faire, 2006

Fishers Renaissance Faire, 2006
See all my photos from the Ren Faire.
according to the official website for the event:

The Fishers Renaissance Faire is a dynamic, cultural and experiential event in an enchanting park setting that celebrates the relationship between Fishers and its Sister City of Billericay, England while immersing faire goers in the history, habits and lifestyles of the Renaissance Period.

We had a lot of fun again this year, and among other things, Stephanie found the dress that will be the model for her wedding dress. She’s having a version of this made in white for our wedding. The filmy fabric over the top is really gorgeous, and I absolutely love the long sleeves. I didn’t get a great photo of the train though…
Stephanie's wedding dress

Continue ReadingFishers Renaissance Faire, 2006

The “dangerous” gay community

From today’s Indianapolis Star:

But lawmakers and judges are a different matter. Legislators have been carrying guns into the Capitol for years, exercising what they say is their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Twenty-five of Indiana’s 150 senators and representatives had permits to carry concealed weapons in 2003, according to a study published by The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne.
Sen. Brent Waltz is among the elected officials licensed to carry a sidearm under his coat. He supports the security measures and does not plan to bring his gun to the office after the new steps are implemented.
“I’d probably check it at the door,” Waltz said. “I think it is not a bad thing to have fewer firearms in the Capitol.”
Waltz, R-Greenwood, said he is not worried about his safety inside the Statehouse, but his trip to and from the building sometimes makes him a little nervous.
Lawmakers, Waltz said, vote on emotionally charged issues — such as proposals to ban gay marriage or abortion — and occasionally receive death threats from those who disagree with their positions.
“Certainly there’s a level of risk anyone involved in public life takes,” Waltz said. “It’s important for government to try to reduce those risks as much as possible.”

I sent this email to Senator Brent Waltz’ office:
Since you brought up gay marriage as one of the “emotionally charged issues” that must mean you’ve received a death threat from someone in the gay community, right?
I’ll be giving your office a call in the next few days to get more information on the death threat you received. I write for an online paper, and I’m going to do a story on this. I’d like to talk to Senator Waltz, and with any police that investigated the threat to find out more about where it came from and what follow up occurred.

Continue ReadingThe “dangerous” gay community

Indy Undercover

I mentioned Indy Undercover on IndyScribe, but I’ve now read several of the posts, and want to comment here on it separately.
Indy Undercover a site about law enforcement issues in Indianapolis, purportedly written by an law enforcement officer. It’s getting lots of traffic and comments from other people who claim to be law enforcement officers in the city, and the tone of the site is hyper right-wing and very, very anti Democrat.
There are a couple of blog comments that reference this past year’s Human Rights Ordinance — specifically that officers felt the ordinance trumped their concerns about the consoliation of the IPD and the Sheriff’s Department. But the comments are virulently homophobic, which is really alarming. These are the people who are supposed to serve and protect us? Yikes, yikes, and double f*&king yikes.
UPDATE: After the 2006 November election, it was revealed that the Indy Undercover website was not run by anyone from the Indianapolis Police Department, but rather by Indianapolis radio personality Abdul Hakim-Shabazz.

Continue ReadingIndy Undercover