Reminder: Indiana Voting

Just in case anyone reading this actually lives in Indiana:

1-minute voter guide: Indiana's 5th Congressional District (Axios Indianapolis)

You’re not crazy. Voting in Indiana is intimidating. (Indiana Capital Chronicle )

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Bits and Pieces from Last Week

 A little late and from an unexpected source, I found support for my idea that the MPAA and the RIAA should be asking why porn survived into the digital age. That was something that I put out in 2010. The answer given in How porn shapes your phone habits, even if you don’t watch it (London Times) to my question is prosaic: 

The content was just bait to keep us scrolling and watching, while the traces of our most private desires were harvested and commodified.

More troubling now is this:

...Among the earliest people to craft online personas and compete for algorithmic visibility were so-called cam models: sex workers who already in the mid-Nineties began to vie for attention by selling the kind of parasocial intimacy that would later become a cornerstone of the creator economy. Viewers paid for nudity and sex, yes, but also for a sense of human contact. Influencers play with the same dynamic, offering carefully constructed fantasies in exchange for attention and, increasingly, money....

My reaction was it was a freak show, not reality, another thing to traverse while sight-seeing. But then I was never interested in the subject matter. Guess I was lucky, it may have been another in my group sessions went back to it. Leaving me wondering why. There really is nothing spectacular about looking at/watching naked people. I am left to the conclusion that I am missing the point, that I am out of touch.

Impossibility Is a Myth ( The Fence) some true white-collar crime for you art lovers.

Mike Ditka, the quintessential Chicago Bear and a Pro Football Hall of Famer, dies at 86 - law school made me a Bears fan. I have to admit not thinking of Ditka for many years now.

Who Put Bella In the Witch Elm? (Atlas Obscura) something weird to throw a curve in the works.

Because archeology fascinates me still: Ancient Wells, a Persian Trade Jar, and a Mysterious Structure Rewrite the Story of Tamil Nadu’s Sunken City and A 3,500-Year-Old Egyptian Dog Had a Unique Name, an Unusual Coat, and a Rare Hieroglyph ( Arkeonews).

Indiana interstate highway construction costs soar amid inflation, state's own ambitions (Indiana Capital Chronicle) brings me back to a 20 year old question: why not light rail?

 Is it nap time?

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What I Agree About Originalism & What I Disagree With Judicial Review

 I have put my research project into Indiana's Bill of Rights on hold as I await feedback. One issue that arose is originalism. As I see matters, Indiana has silently adopted the United States Supreme Court's theory on originalism. What is the problem with originalism? Selecting the source for the original meaning determines the outcome. It does not mean that the court has roamed through the whole of the historical record. In Indiana, the court went looking for abortion in The Debates of the 1851 Convention. A legislative subject not one for constitutional debate. I argue what should have been looked for was the meaning of liberty and the pursuit of happiness; the words that were actually debated as being rights.

 But this paragraph from Brian Fitzpatrick's Originalism: What it is, what it isn’t and why it’s the most democratic option for the Supreme Court from The Conversation, I do agree with.

Originalists think the Constitution can be changed only by the American people through the amendment process. Conversely, living constitutionalists believe it can be changed by judges through reinterpretation of the existing document. 

It is also disingenuous at both the federal level and in Indiana. At the federal level, the amendment process is so arduous that it is easier to pack the court with ideological judges. When the Indiana Supreme Court suggested abortion should be put to the people as a constitutional amendment, it ignored the amendment process needed the cooperation of the very legislature that passed the abortion ban.

Cute. Not to be taken as a cure-all.

Now, about judicial review, the power of a court to determine a law unconstituional. I have a problem with Who Is Supreme, the People or the Court? (Los Angeles Review of Books). Maybe two. The first issue is the focus on the federal level. 

Just as the folk story of Brown is simple enough to state, so too is the basic thesis of Supremacy. Bowie and Renan take on the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review, meaning the court’s power to decline to enforce federal laws. Bowie and Renan contend that judicial review, so defined, is fundamentally inconsistent with the republican, democratic foundation of the Constitution, and also that, in practice, judicial review has been weaponized for antidemocratic, illiberal ends. Indeed, judicial review has consistently been opposed on those grounds by abolitionists, labor organizers, and other progressive groups. It would be impossible to recount the entirety of the story that Supremacy covers, so I will merely highlight some of its key claims (while begging readers to get the book as soon as they can.) 

The states might have given a different answer - the amendment process is easier at the state level and there are states still electing their appellate court judges. An Indiana Supreme Court case held that judicial review was meant to protect citizens rights against a despotic legislature. That opinion emphasized the final judges of natural rights were the people. 

However, I cannot argue with this. 

Would a ban on judicial review—or even targeted restrictions on judicial review—fix everything at the Supreme Court? No, and I don’t take Supremacy to suggest otherwise. For one thing, I’d bet almost anything that this Supreme Court, which is full of judicial supremacists, including Chief Justice John Roberts, would invalidate any federal law that attempted to limit the court’s power.

And yet, Bowie and Renan make a powerful argument against judicial review. Don’t let this review displace your own review—you should dig into their case.

 

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Indiana Secretary of State Debate; Trump I s Corruption; Donald J. Trump Making Us A Laughingstock; Let's Live In Carmel!

 Sharp divides in Indiana secretary of state debate over noncitizen vote, spending audit (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

Okay, foreigners cannot vote. In Indiana, there are people from the precinct who can challenge voters; the voter registration office requires driver's licenses; the ID needs to come out when voting; and so I just do not see why the Republican candidate is retailing MAGA scare tactics. Unless he thinks we are as dumb as MAGA politicians seem do do.

Kimberly Guilfoyle’s Demand for Cash Off the Books Exposed - drain the swamp? No way. Where else could people like this breed?

If Trump Steals an Election, Here’s What to Do (The New Republic)

Naked Trump Statute Goes on Display in European Parliament (The New Republic)

Carmel, Indiana, ranked by WalletHub as third best small city to live in    

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Yesterday I visted Metamora and Oldenburg

I went south again yesterday with CC. I am sooooo regretting it. But I can say it was useful for research. I have forgotten so much over the years, mostly that things are further apart  or closer than I remember.

We left close to 11 AM. Down Indiana 3 again to Rushville. By the time we got there, we were hungry. We stopped at Rosita's Pancake House; CC wanted breakfast. She got chicken fried steak with eggs and hash browns. I got the cheddar cheese burger and onion rings. We were both surprised at how good the food was. If you are in Rushville, give Rosita's a shot.

We went down US 52. Far less traffic than there had been on Indiana 3 any time on Monday. 

 More wooded than I recall, but when I had been down this road before it always in the late Spring. More flatness, too, nearer to the State Road 3 intersection. Then it stwisting and an incline into the Whitewater River valley. I noticed newer, more expensive, even stylish homes along 52.

One trip south, I am thinking 1972 or 1973, Mom stopped the car and watched hang gliders launching off this hill. It now has a cross and some other building atop it, and a gated entrance. I did not take the time to read the sign. I assume it belongs to the church across the highway.

 

By the time we got to Metamora, lunch had its usual effect on CC, and she began dozing off.

 I expected nothing from Metamora, this being a Wednesday, and the town met my expectations.

No, the surprise was the canal being dry.  The big flood shut down the inlet for watering the canal and it is now dry.

 Then we went to Oldenburg. We stopped to check out the convent.

 The last is of the old church next to the convent. I do not know if I captured the sheer size of the convent. There might be more nuns than townspeople.

 

CC  asked what people did for fun down there and we decided not much. We were ready to get home. We did that a little after 5 PM. Since then I have been pretty much crippled. Great scenery, though. 

Although I made one more run to the grocery while I have a car, with every step pain radiated from my knees. I hope to be able to walk tomorrow.

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Indiana Politics - There's An Election Coming

 I assume since no one ever comments to these posts that they are not read. It's better than admitting this blog and its posts suck! This post feels especially useless. If anyone is reading me, I doubt they are from Indiana.

But I cannot help myself.

See, I am utterly opposed to changing Indiana's Bill of Rights on bail. First, it is unnecessary. What no one will mention is that if a judge and a prosecutor want someone to stay in jail before trial, then they will stay there. The bail could be cash only. Try to raise even a $10,000 bond if it is in cash. As Right to bail: Amendment asks voters to rewrite pretrial detention rules (Indiana Capital Chronicle) points out the stats do not show any need for this change. Please vote against this.

This feels like it ought to be more isgnificant: Former GOP lieutenant governor endorses Ballard in secretary of state race  (Indiana Capital Chronicle). Could this a reaction to Trump's gerrymandering stunt?

 I did post another article on this but when it comes to Rokita, once is not enough:  Indiana AG Todd Rokita sues disciplinary officials, alleging retaliation over political speech  (Indiana Capital Chronicle).

Finally, Indiana Voters - all the info you require for voting in Indiana.

Ah, well, maybe this will make it all feel better:

 

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Yesterday I Went To Versailles

After liturgy yesterday, I decided on a road trip to Versailles. It was as much a research trip as a get away. I also intended to get in some fishing. That was the only failure of the day, the fishing. I left about 10 AM and returned after 6:30 pm. I was asleep by 8:30, my right foot went numb on the way back, and the rest of me had achieved a state of uncomfortable numbness by the time I got into the apartment.

I went down Indiana 3 to New Castle and then to Rushville. All territory I included in “Road Tripping”. I managed no photos until I stopped in Spiceland for a break and a Coke.

 

The intersection of Indiana 3 and US 40 (The Old National Road), and a bit of Dunreith.

My memories got a serious jogging after I left US 40 for Rushville. It is neither as flat or as straight as I recalled.

 I did not recall the big Diamond factory as I came into Rushville. The second factory looks different but I recall its position. Rushville's commercial park seems ambitious, if empty.

 

 

The fast food places and chain stores all seem to be on the north side. There is also the county hospital. 

After that, there is what might appear as Hoosier quaintness. It makes me think there was money here and might still be. 

 

Call me very surprised at finding a Japanese restaurant in Rushville.

Below this area begins what would be the town center - the city government offices, small shops, the county courthouse - if it were not so close to what is the south side of the city.

 This is where I got out of the car and took a short tour. Where I parked was in the block north of the intersection between US 52, State Road 3, and State Road Indiana 44. US 52 goes northwest to Indianapolis and southeast to Cincinatti. 44 goes east to Connersville and west to Shelbyville. The view from that corner:

 The castle-looking building is the Rush County courthouse. Lots of semi-trucks passed me heading south and north.

You can see the streets are empty. The antique shops were closed, but not the Radio Shack.

What makes Rushville historically significant, its most famous citizen:

 

I thought to eat at the restaurant that had been south of the courthouse on 3 next to the Flatrock River. Only the restaurant was now a park. I decided on eating at Greensburg. A quick bite.

What I think is the coolest shot I took all of yesterday.

 The road started to roll more, its straightness relaxed. I stopped only for this bit of strangeness.

 I tried snapping shots of Greensburg as I came into the city. These are of the area just south of Interstate 74. 

 I was looking for US 421. It was not to be seen. A frisson of anxiety as both road and scenery were unfamiliar. I assumed I was to the east of the courthouse area. That assumption was wrong, I was to the north. Not much activity around the courthouse square as lunch time approached, but the tree remains in the courthouse tower.

 Two things I did not capture with photos were another Japanese restaurant (is this because of the Honda plant in Greensburg?) and the Sinclair gas station (that came out too blurry). Sinclair is a brand I have seen since I was a little kid; my mother had a cousin working for them back then, so the name stuck in my brain. 

Heading southeast on 421 out of Greensburg:

 Only there was a detour that took me east to Batesville. Lot of cool stuff there, and I really regretted losing the battery before I ran into the town later from the east. The town seems growing, I saw plenty of new and rather attractive homes going up (probably expensive homes, too).

 Time forbid more shots. I left Batesville on State Road 229. This is the kind of winding road where you pay attention to the asphalt and obey the speed limits.

 Eventually, I got through to Osgood and back on 421. That was after Napoleon where I should have taken photos.

 I wound up eating at the Osgood Grub Company on my way back home. It is in the same location as a place where we ate during our family trips to Versailles. Definitely not the same menu, which is ala carte and a bit stiff, but their ribeye sandwhich was fantastic and I almost ordered a second.

The Tyson Methodist Church and the Tyson High School remain the same. I forgot how big the school is. I think my mother's mother graduated from Vesailles High School which was replaced by Tryson's school.

 My oldest sister might be surprised how Versailles now has a CVS, not quite as much Brigadoon as it was when we were little.

 

 Two places to eat and drink, but I got a photo of only one.

 They now have a government annex on the north side of the old courthouse that I could not get in one shot (new = 2012), and I swear the courthouse is now bricks instead of white wood.

 The jail looked the same:

 As did the cemetery:

 Where I found a new mystery. I was unable to find the graves for my mother's mother, her sister Betty or her other sister Mary Ellen. Somehow, I lost my grandmother and two aunts, and an uncle. Finding out more is the job for today.

I spent most of my time in Versailles at the local historical society. 

 

The fellow manning the place was helpful, but the books were more helpful. I solved a couple of mysteries - I held the wedding certificate of my mother's mother's parents' wedding certificate. I found an entry for the guardianship for my mother's mother's father; he got to Ripley County through his mother's family. My mother's father was living in Anderson when he married my grandmother in 1919.

But the camera's battery died in the cemetery. Time had run out for fishing. I left the historical society at 3:30. I came back on 421, taking the detour at Osgood (after that amazing ribeye standwich) to Indiana 129 to 44 into Batesville, and from there I chose Interstate 74 to State Road 3. This was 3:44 pm. Then it was a straight drive back home. It was almost 3 hours after I left Batesville.

I was surprised to see more Beau Bayh signs in Ripley county than in Delaware.   

And it has taken me about almost that same amount of time to get this post written along with attendant emails.

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