Open Arms: Indiana enthusiastically welcomes COVID-cuted Kentucky diners, drinkers.

"Duh" just doesn't do it justice. Not only that, but every now and then, 125% is the new 75%.

Some Louisville bars report losing business as Indiana competitors face less stringent restrictions, by Sara Sidery (WDRB)

Some Louisville restaurants say they're losing business to competitors across the river, as Indiana has less stringent restrictions on patrons.

Indiana is keeping bars and restaurants at 75% capacity for another month, but Kentucky establishments are still stuck at 50% and likely will be for a while.

Bunker Deep -- Experiment Nigh.

There's a consistent feature of recent news stories and commentaries about the approaching economic reopening, and the different ways Indiana and Kentucky are treating the timing of these steps.

It's the absence from this discussion of New Albany's mayor.

When Jeff Gahan deigned to speak with WDRB last week, he said basically nothing.

“We are probably a little behind the governor’s directive to hit some of these benchmarks – we’re glad we have them but we are going to be very cautious how we move forward,” said New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan.

Gahan believes it’s hard to make a blanket statement applying to an entire state, especially with positive COVID-19 cases varying. “It is going to differ from municipality and county to county it’s just the nature of it,” he said.

Granted, we're accustomed to cerebral nothingness from ranking Democrats in Nawbany. It's peculiar, though.

If genuinely taken with the belief that reopening is occurring too soon, Gahan might embrace more stringent municipal measures than the false positive PR move of closing his beloved water park; after all, Governor Holcomb has consistently stated that local authorities can choose tighter counter-timetables if they wish.

For a mayor ever eager to grapple with the detested Republicans, it's odd.

Is it that his cadre of campaign donors need to get back to work and keep those pay-to-play coffers filled?

Probably.

Meanwhile, LEO Weekly has an opinion on the matter.

Indiana, Kentucky govs at odds over reopening economy… or when dining out becomes an experiment

So, on Monday, when you think about sitting down for a taco in Southern Indiana, consider whether it is worth the gamble, whether you want to be part of an enormous experiment… and whether you trust art and science to keep you well.

Kentucky is "Healthy at Home, not "sheltering in place," and shortly Indiana will be joining through distance.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear took the next step on Sunday evening, issuing an executive order for non-essential retail businesses to go dark.

This chart explains the meaning of essential versus non-essential.

My fellow Hoosiers, it might be helpful to get ready. Whether or not these measures constitute a slippery slope with reference to civil liberties, they'll be implemented in Indiana; as I write, the Twitter wire says Governor Eric Holcomb will be addressing the state at noon.

This just in: Gov. Holcomb's "Steps to Slow the Spread of COVID-19" include a shutdown of Indiana restaurants and bars (except for carry-out and delivery).

Joining Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois.

It's easier to cut and paste at this point.

Gov. Holcomb Announces More Steps to Slow the Spread of COVID-19

INDIANAPOLIS — In a continuing effort to slow the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Governor Eric J. Holcomb has announced additional efforts.

The governor and other state officials will conduct a COVID-19 briefing today at 2:30 p.m. in the south atrium of the Indiana Statehouse with the latest updates on testing and cases.

Here are additional directives from Governor Holcomb.

• Indiana will adhere to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for large events and mass gatherings. The guidance recommends no in-person events of more than 50 people. Here is a link to the guidance: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/large-events/mass-gatherings-ready-for-covid-19.html
• Under the current guidance for schools, 273 public school districts are closed, using e-learning days, or on spring break and have announced a future closure. The Department of Education is working with the remaining 16 school corporations to determine their next steps and needs
• Bars, nightclubs and restaurants are required to close to in-person patrons and may provide take-out and delivery services through the end of March
• Hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers should cancel and/or postpone elective and non-urgent surgical procedures immediately. This action will help the healthcare system conserve resources and personnel necessary to meet emerging health needs
  • Physicians should continue to perform critical procedures necessary to prevent short-term and/or long-term adverse effects to their patients’ overall health
• The state’s Emergency Operations Center has been raised to a Level 1 status and will work in conjunction with the incident command center at the Indiana State Department of Health for planning, coordination, predictive analysis and other functions
• State employees will maximize the use of remote work and meet virtually whenever possible while maintaining operations. Non-essential in-person meetings will be limited to 10 persons or less and should meet virtually whenever possible. High-risk individuals should not attend meetings in person
• State employees over the age of 60 with underlying health conditions are advised to work from home, and agencies should identify work that can be accomplished remotely for those individuals
• The Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, which are closed on Mondays, will close to the public beginning Tuesday
• The visitors center at White River State Park will close
• Indiana state parks and recreation centers, including state park inns, remain open. Restaurants will convert operations to take-out and delivery
• State agencies already are developing remote work plans for employees and will continue to implement them while maintaining necessary state services. Employees who work outdoors are encouraged to practice social distancing
• The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) has suspended rules requiring certain unemployment insurance claimants to physically appear at a Work One location to engage in reemployment services for the next four weeks. This will ensure that individuals who may be symptomatic do not have to physically appear to continue their unemployment insurance eligibility
  • The DWD will also request flexibility under federal and state law to expand eligibility for claimants and ease burdens on employers.

• The Indiana Economic Development Corporation will postpone the inaugural Indiana Global Economic Summit, scheduled for April 26-28

• Communities are encouraged to work together to provide child care options for all who need assistance and delivery services of meals and other necessities for senior citizens
• Hoosiers who can donate blood are encouraged to visit local blood centers. Blood supplies are low. Please follow the guidance at www.redcross.org

More information may be found at the ISDH website at https://on.in.gov/COVID19 and the CDC website at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html.

Embarrassment as "the Donnelly campaign demonstrates the futility of seeking to surmount these obstacles by trying to out-Republican the Republicans."

This guy who wrote this piece teaches at Indiana University, the same place where Romeo is playing basketball.

The Guardian is big-time, so please pay attention.

Are there any questions?

The Democrats shouldn't move right to win Trump voters. Here's why, by Jeffrey C Isaac (The Guardian)

The midterms showed that pandering to Trumpism is a recipe not just for defeat but for demoralization. Even losing progressive campaigns brought hope

 ... How should the Democrats move forward with an eye toward 2020 and beyond? There are no easy answers, and in the weeks and months to come many answers will be debated. Democrats scored most of their victories in more or less liberal suburban and urban areas where Hillary Clinton won in 2016, and experienced defeat in much of Republican “red state” America, and especially the rural areas, where Trump won in 2016. Do the Democrats need to do better in these conservative, “red” areas? Certainly. Should Democrats attempt this by running candidates who play to the right and appeal to elements of Trump’s base? Many pundits are already stepping forward to urge this. I disagree. And the case of my home state of Indiana is instructive.

Is it ever.

One of the most striking Democratic losses on Tuesday was the resounding defeat of the incumbent Senator Joe Donnelly by conservative Republican Mike Braun. 

The word "loss" simply doesn't convey the odiousness.

The worst features of Trumpism dominated the Indiana Senate race. How did Donnelly respond? By emphasizing his closeness to Trump and the fact that he voted with Trump over 60% of the time, and by campaigning not against his rightwing attackers but against the left of his own party, running his own anti-immigrant, anti-liberal, and red-baiting ads.

It was a destructive and cynical calculation that severely compromised Donnelly’s integrity. More importantly, it was an abysmal political failure. Indiana voters drawn to Trumpism demonstrated on Tuesday that they strongly preferred a real, unadulterated Trumpist to a Democratic facsimile. And so Donnelly lost. First his soul, and then the election. A significant Democratic defeat.

Let's repeat that: "They strongly preferred a real, unadulterated Trumpist to a Democratic facsimile." And yet, how many self-styled local "progressives" voted for Donnelly and Liz Watson?

Area chiropractors should be having a field day.

Democrats lost big in Indiana. But some electoral losses can be seen as ethical and even political victories. And so I turn to Indiana’s ninth congressional district, and to the effort of Democrat Liz Watson to unseat one-term incumbent Republican Trey Hollingsworth.

As we already know, Watson also lost big.

In a way, the electoral margin underestimates the power of (her) loss. For while Watson campaigned tirelessly for months, holding town halls in every county in the district, Hollingsworth did virtually nothing. He held no town hall meetings, and he refused to debate Watson even once. One of the richest men in Congress and a beneficiary of all of the Trumpist support thrown to Republicans in the state, Hollingsworth demonstrated a cynical contempt for the competitive elections and public accountability that are the hallmarks of constitutional democracy. And he won.

Hollingsworth’s victory is a devastating blow for Indiana liberal Democrats, and it underscores just how stacked is the deck against Democrats in the state, who confront a trifecta of serious obstacles: gerrymandered districts profoundly favoring Republicans; garden-variety Republican voter suppression; and a general electorate demographically inclined towards and seriously mobilized by the right.

At the same time, while the Donnelly campaign demonstrates the futility of seeking to surmount these obstacles by trying to out-Republican the Republicans, the Watson campaign demonstrates the potential for something better ... Unlike Donnelly, she refused to turn on her own base. Instead, she tried hard to expand that base. Watson lost, indeed by roughly the same margin that Donnelly lost. But while Donnelly inspired widespread disillusionment among liberal Democrats, Watson inspired hope, in the promise of citizen activism, and in the possibility of a better Democratic party.

The author goes on to make the point that Watson's loss can be rationalized according to future-oriented strategy, while that might possibly be gained from Donnelly's dopey foolishness is a desire to take as many showers as possible in a futile effort to out-distance the taint.

Viva Oligarchy! It was our own Indiana politicians who abdicated their duties to represent their constituents' interests, and brought us bridge tolls.

Mr. Epperson nails it in his opening paragraph of his letter to the editor, but then strays into Loony Tunes territory by tagging John Yarmouth as being responsible for tolls. There'll be an answer below, but first:

Bridge tolls a hardship for some (News and Tribune)

As a disabled senior citizen with cancer, I’m already burdened with many medical debts. I often must see my personal doctor in Louisville. The tolls for passage across the bridge may be negligible for young working people, but they are a hardship for the poor and elderly. No discounts are available for locals, yet an interstate driver can simply not pay if they even get a toll charge of $4.

What a waste of time and added expense 3rd District Kentucky congressman John Yarmuth caused, delaying this project and increasing its costs. This is the reason we now have to pay a toll. I urge all Southern Indiana citizens to talk to their friends and family in Louisville to retire this scoundrelous politician.

David Epperson

At the newspaper's Fb page, KLB replies by shining the spotlight precisely where it stands to illuminate the greatest number of parties responsible for tolling -- namely, right here in Indiana. It's a devastating indictment, don't you think?

Sadly, Mr. Epperson's plight of being subject to tolls despite needing to access medical services in Louisville is due less to John Yarmuth and far more to his own political representatives on the Indiana side abdicating their duties to represent their constituents' interests.

They're the ones who allowed the plan to balloon from one bridge to 2 with a Spaghetti Junction rebuild.

They're the ones who let one governor choose an east end route that crossed a (albeit questionably) historic property that required an expensive tunnel to cross.

They're the ones who let another governor get a pass for reneging on his promise that our bridges would be built with state funds and not tolls.

They're the ones who ignored the fact that their constituents who work in Louisville already pay a tax to Louisville to cover using their infrastructure.

They're the ones who allowed the tolling plan to be set up in such a way that Hoosiers would pay far more tolls even while the states split the revenue equally.

They're the ones that allowed a toll set up that lets out-of-state/out-of-region drivers get away without paying (because collection rates for tolling-by-mail are dismal where they're utilized in other states) thus handing the tolling burden even more so on Hoosiers.

"One of the many things that makes Donald Trump angry is that Bernie Sanders does not seem to hold grudges."

It's a fast read, a good read, and a better excuse to repost these two photos of Bernie Sanders at The Exchange in May, 2016, when he WON the Indiana Democratic primary.

Come what may ... they can't take THAT away from me.

BERNIE SANDERS’S HARD FIGHT FOR HILLARY CLINTON, by Amy Davidson (The New Yorker)

... Since conceding defeat in the primaries, Sanders has been one of the real champions of this campaign. He let his supporters yell at him and deride him as a sellout in bleak delegate breakfasts at the Democratic National Convention, in Philadelphia, as he endorsed Clinton and explained why they needed to do the same. He made getting support for her his priority, putting aside any subtle, undermining gestures that might have better preserved his rebel-rock-star status. He has kept doing so despite other revelations in the Podesta e-mails, ones that are not about him personally but about issues that he believes in—for example, about money in politics, as exemplified by the Clinton team’s nurturing of donors. And he has earned the right to negotiate hard on such issues in the future.

Nick Vaughn: "Money and Power: My Primary Election Synopsis."

Earlier this year, Nick Vaughn began writing guest columns ("Within City Limits") for NAC. For various reasons, he was unable to continue doing so, but let it be known that Nick always has a place to write here if he so desires. 

Following are his ruminations on yesterday's primary election. 

---

Money and Power: My Primary Election Synopsis

Well, Indiana has spoken, and with Indiana, Floyd County has spoken (well, at least 37.49% of Floyd County’s registered voters have spoken). The age old adage of “elections have consequences” has never felt so near to me before until after watching the results come in last night.

What we saw last night was a disturbing shift, that some will argue has been happening for awhile now, from substance and General Election electability to the unquivering and ultimately resounding strength of name ID and money.

When vague platitudes and millions of dollars can propel someone out of a primary instead of a proven record or substantive plans, something is truly wrong. When simple name ID propels you out of a primary at the local level instead of hard work and elbow grease, something is very wrong.

The real question is: why do we settle for this? Why is it that we allow ourselves to be butt of this big joke that is our current political system?

Call me crazy, but I believe that we should vote for the candidates who meet the following criteria: 1. Has substantive plans for how they will affect change in office, 2. Has the best chance of winning in the General Election, and 3. Works the hardest, knocks on the most doors, and meets the most people. Does this candidate win sometimes? Yes of course, a few of them won last night. A few.

The overwhelming majority of candidates who won last night, however, won because they had more money than everyone else and therefore the most name ID, or they were the product of the uninformed voter picking them at random because they had a good ballot spot or because they had seen their name before.

It is time for us to rethink the primary process. Don’t you think we ought to stop settling for what we deserve? Because I think it is. We need to stand up for ourselves and be informed voters. We also need to hold our candidates to a higher standard viz. what their plans are, why they are best fit for office, why they are best to beat the opposition in the General. These are the things that matter.

To reinstill integrity to the offices held by the people we elect, we must reevaluate the type of people we elect. We need to stand together and say vague platitudes won’t do anymore, just having a lot of money and a Super PAC won’t do anymore. Why should we be the victims when we have the ability to change who we vote to represent us?

Bernie Sanders dines in New Albany as local Democrats join Hillary at an Applebee's somewhere.

Bernie in NA. Photo credit: BWS.

Bluegill summarizes Tuesday, May 3.

Got to vote for a presidential candidate who actually represents me for the first time ever, got to see the candidate, and the candidate won the primary in my state, all in the same day. Shazam.

Bernie Sanders capped it off by dining at The Exchange and using the NA-FC Public Library as the backdrop for his victory speech.

As you'd expect, Floyd County's Democrats backed Hillary Clinton to the tune of 52.7% - 47.3%. Adam Dickey's local party apparatus mimics the national party machine's emphasis on incessant monetization to the exclusion of genuine political content, which makes Sanders' evening in New Albany all the sweeter.

He actually came close to overturning that voodoo, too.

The Confidentials returned from a brief holiday late yesterday afternoon, flying from Estonia to Netherlands to Atlanta to Louisville. We voted two weeks ago, and were asleep when the Sanders caravan passed through.

But that's okay, and I'm happy for those of you able to take part in the merriment. Echoing Jeff's comments above, the most important part for me was being able to feel good about casting a ballot, rather than doing so strategically whilst clamping the nostrils with a clothespin.

This one meant something. There's no reason why it can't continue to mean something.

Tennessee selects destructive book, gun as state symbols.

Welcome to my new series, Batshit Crazy Expeditions Through America. Let's visit Tennessee, and the book that inspired the Inquisition and a thousand pogroms.

Bill to make Bible Tennessee's official book heads to governor, by Joel Ebert (The Tennessean)

Tennessee is poised to make history as the first state in the nation to recognize the Holy Bible as its official book.

After nearly 30 minutes of debate, the state Senate on Monday approved the measure, sponsored by Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, with a 19-8 vote, sending the legislation to Gov. Bill Haslam’s desk.

Then, a veritable cannon.

Tennessee’s new official state rifle is so powerful it can ‘destroy commercial aircraft’, by Christopher Ingraham (Washington Post)

The Barrett .50 caliber rifle is a powerful gun. Widely used in the military, its rounds can "penetrate light armor, down helicopters, destroy commercial aircraft, and blast through rail cars," according to a report from the Violence Policy Center, a gun safety group. The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence describes .50 caliber rifles like the Barrett as "among the most destructive weapons legally available to civilians in the United States."

And as of Wednesday, the Barrett .50 caliber is now the official state rifle of Tennessee, joining an illustrious roster of other state symbols including the raccoon (state wild animal), the tomato (state fruit), and Tennessee cave salamander (state amphibian).

Finally, lest we Hoosiers stoop to smugness, remember that Mike Pence is our governor, Ron Grooms shines the guv's ideological shoes, and we have our own official state firearm.

Replica of Grouseland Rifle, the official state gun, commissioned for bicentennial, by Tim Evans (Indy Star)

Indiana is among six states where lawmakers have designated an official state gun.

In the other five, it is a type of gun — the Colt 45 in Arizona, for instance, or the Browning M1911 automatic pistol in Utah.

In Indiana, however, it is an individual firearm. Just one gun: The Grouseland Rifle.

At least the Grouseland Rifle can't be used to shoot planes from the sky.

Cape Breton Island sounds better and better with each passing day.

In State of the State, Mike Pence congratulates Ron Grooms for servile, ingratiating, sycophantic, fawning, unctuous, oily, groveling, subservient, submissive and slavish devotion to Mike Pence.

Okay, so the real story had nothing to do with this.

On a side note, have you ever noticed that even as the newspaper denies its Clark County Centrism, the weather always originates in Jeffersonville?

Sunday reading: Real Indiana and wedges splintering.

A confession: When I land at a newspaper website demanding the answers to stupid questions before being permitted to read the content, I ALWAYS GIVE THE WRONG ANSWERS.

Piss off, Gannett.

Friday's SCOTUS decision on marriage is wonderful, and in Indiana, we still have much work to do.

Locally, this probably means utilizing whatever means are available to extract a clue from the barren consciousness of Ron Grooms, who has learned absolutely nothing from the lessons outlined in these two articles.

It might take until 2018 to pay back Mr. Grooms, by voting against his continued presence in Indianapolis. Let's not forget to do so.

First, Matthew Tully: "Pockets of intolerance and the pettiness of a few influential culture warriors don't define Indiana." I hope he's right.

Dear America, this is the real Indiana, by Matthew Tully (Indy Star)

First, the polls show that the politician most closely tied to the religious freedom debacle, Gov. Mike Pence, continues to pay a severe price for his advocacy of the bill and his handling of the debate. What this shows is that it wasn't only outsiders who were upset with what Pence and his Republican Statehouse allies did. Among the angry were Hoosiers.

Many Hoosiers.

Second, the poll found that Indiana residents strongly support concrete, legally binding actions aimed at inclusiveness. Actions such as the expansion of state civil rights laws to include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Next, John Krull observes that political wedges are multi-directional.

Note that in response to these latest reversals, the rapidly shrinking Pence is defiant; if the governor cannot defeat the gays, then he'll raise a middle finger to greenhouse gas emission rules.

When wedges no longer work, by John Krull (NUVO)

... But here in quiet, staid Indiana two events have given the political landscape an earthquake-level shake.

The first involved the mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city, Democrat Pete Buttigieg of South Bend. Buttigieg is a former Rhodes Scholar and a Navy reservist who was deployed to Afghanistan for seven months last year ...

... Then, hours later, a poll conducted by a respected GOP pollster – and paid for by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels’ first campaign manager, Republican Bill Oesterle – showed that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (also a Republican) is in real political trouble.

Amazingly, on RFRA, the farcical pharmacist Ron Grooms has voted against Indiana's best business and economic interests.

When old white guys live in cultural bubbles, this is what happens.

Hoosier business boosters battle boycott from 'religious freedom' bill ahead of Final Four, by Maureen Hayden (CHNI)

... (Chris) Gahl, along with a small army of Indianapolis boosters, is now scrambling to mitigate the public relations damage done by the controversy with this message: “No matter what a signed piece of paper says, it doesn’t kill Hoosier Hospitality.”

NABC and Starlight Distilling: "Put a Hoosier spin on Thanksgiving."

It's an honor having NABC's Hoosier Daddy and Black & Blue Grass on the table with these many other fine Indiana food and drink products, made right here in Indiana -- including vodka from our friends at Starlight Distillery. Thanks to Luanne Mattson and the Southern Indiana Tourism Coalition for helping to make it happen.

Indiana’s holiday bounty: Put a Hoosier spin on Thanksgiving (video from Fox59)

The Hoosier State has plenty to offer when it comes to unique holiday treats.

Mark Newman from Visit Indiana stopped by FOX59 Morning News to let viewers know how to put a signature Hoosier spin on Thanksgiving dinner.

The Great Divide: " It’s way too ghetto in Indiana.”

I contend that historical memories are short but their consequences are long. As a cultural demarcation, the Ohio River represented the Mason Dixon Line. Slavery was south of it, and not north. Kentucky was "neutral" in the Civil War, but southern leaning. Indiana was northern, part from its Copperheads ... and Southern Indiana's more like Alabama than Michigan ...

Never mind.

The Great Divide: Why aren’t we crossing the bridge?, by Kevin Gibson (LEO Weekly)

 ... To wit, several responses I received via social media about why people won’t cross the bridge play right into these stereotypes. One Louisville native who now lives in Indiana called Louisville “to [sic] ghetto.” Another said of Southern Indiana, “Not much over there. Except great restaurants, brewery’s [sic] and cool views of Louisville. Otherwise, it’s way too ghetto in Indiana.”

Indiana as Deep South wannabe.

Before Hoosiers like me prematurely crow at the expected nearby state appearing therein, we need to take a look at the list. Let's hear it, Mike Pence ... and St. Daniels.

Drum roll please: With a few stray exceptions, we're looking at stupidity, poverty and Republican Party hegemony in this bottom ten.

Yep.

The 10 Dumbest States in America, by Tony Owusu (The Street)

Here is a list of the 10 "dumbest" states based on percentage of the population with Bachelor's degrees.

Walkability in Indiana: Now your polling place is not in your own neighborhood. Happy driving!

My political science instructor at IU Southeast once remarked that she regretted the passing of traditions like that of the election night party, with people clustered near the television (before that, the radio) awaiting election results and debating politics.

This was 1979, mind you.

Now I'm finding myself in similar territory. For ten years, we've walked round the corner two short blocks and voted at S. Ellen Jones Elementary School, bright and early on Tuesday morning. Now the walk will be all the way to the library -- good for my daily exercise regimen, but bad for Mr. and Mrs. Confidential's record of voting as a team prior to her departure for work.

I suppose we might have walked to the clerk's office last week and voted as a unit, or gotten absentee ballots and filled them out over coffee at the dining room table. Such automated, new-age voting exercises will become the next tradition, at least for those relative few who bother voting in the first place. For now, you'll need to allow me a few election cycles to mourn the passing of old ways, which might be characterized as more communal -- like those folks gathered around the television.

In a few years, when I'm voting by means of the successor to my iPhone, or a microchip identity app implanted in the skull, at least have the grace not to remind me I wrote these words.

Vote center locations in New Albany:

New Albany-Floyd County Public Library
New Albany Housing Authority
Pineview Government Center
Grace Lutheran Church
4-H Fairgrounds
Christ’s Community Church

Vote center locations outside New Albany:

Tunnel Hill Christian Church, Georgetown
Georgetown Christian Church, Georgetown
John Jones Automotive, Greenville
Floyds Knobs Community Club, Lafayette

Back to the Ghetto: "Religiously conservative businesses" amid their own kind?

I recall the words of my hero Christopher Hitchens, even as I read about various legislative efforts (Arizona, Indiana) on the part of soon-to-be-extinct elderly white theocrats to sanction discrimination based on religious indoctrination:

"There are four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum of servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking."

First, the dawdling old white guys, cluelessly pandering.

Anderson Cooper Demolishes Arizona Politician Supporting Homophobic Bill, by Jack Mirkinson (The Huffington Post)

Then a journey into the "fully intended consequences" labyrinthe.

Arizona bill’s other outrage: Why anti-gay bigotry is just the beginning; Legalizing discrimination is horrible enough. But a sneaky pro-corporate provision in the bill will also shock you, by Emmett Rensin (Salon)

Of course, not excepting the propensity of theocratic fascists in Indiana to gaily hop aboard the discriminatory train.

Indiana official slows bill to allow some religious bias, by Tony Cook (IndyStar)

But let's also acknowledge a contrarian point-of-view, as offered with customary aplomb by RV:

From what I understand, the Arizona bill is a reaction to the New Mexico photographer who refused to work a gay commitment ceremony, & was subsequently sued for refusing. Should a gay caterer be forced to cater an event at Westboro baptist Church? Should a Muslim DJ be forced to spin records at a Satanist wedding? Should a Nation of Islam drycleaner be forced to clean Klan robes?

Oh, New Albany ... please stop breaking my liver.

If I were to link directly to Valerie Alexander's article, you'd miss the Bookseller's introduction, which helps to establish proper context.

When New Albany is namedropped elsewhere in non-flyover America, even amid otherwise positive stories, the reference invariably tends to focus on the way we really are and remain, rather than the way we'd like to see ourselves -- allowing for "we" as perhaps a couple hundred persons among 37.000.

It's a stunning disconnect, made all the more annoying because it's true. This culture needs changing. We smile and build half-million dollar dog parks connected by nothing, to nothing.

Rinse, repeat.

“Oh, Indiana, Please Stop Breaking My Heart!”

Every once in a while, we discover something written from afar but aimed directly at New Albany. Remember the Chicago Tribune story from 2008 where a downtown businessman declared (implicitly representing us) that he could never vote for a black man for president?

Same-sex marriage, Indiana and the legal deluge.

In which the Hoosier state's conservative cadres are on their heels, wagons circling.

Indiana Finds It’s Not So Easy to Buck Gay Marriage Trend, by Monica Davey (NYT)

... So suddenly Indiana, where lawmakers in the coming weeks are expected to call for the second vote needed to put a ban before voters in the fall elections, is now in a far more tense, unpredictable and closely watched spot than anyone here had imagined — a test case in whether a state will impose new limits on same-sex marriage in this fast-moving political and legal environment.

It's a fine seasonal gift, isn't it?

online/blogs/comment/2013/12/same-sex-marriage-the-legal-deluge.html">SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, THE LEGAL DELUGE, by Jeffrey Toobin (New Yorker)

... Then, on Monday, two days before Christmas, a federal court in Ohio issued a lower-profile decision that may have been the most important of all. James Obergefell and John Arthur, who lived together in Cincinnati, married in Maryland at a time when Arthur was gravely ill. In anticipation of Arthur’s death, the couple petitioned the state of Ohio for Arthur to be listed as “married” on his Ohio death certificate, and to record Obergefell as the “surviving spouse.” Ohio, which does not allow same-sex marriages, refused, but federal judge Timothy S. Black ruled against the state and in favor of the couple. The judge said it was “not a complicated case.” Throughout Ohio’s history, Ohio has treated marriages solemnized out of state as valid in Ohio. “How then can Ohio, especially given the historical status of Ohio law, single out same-sex marriage as ones it will not recognize?” Black asked in his opinion. “The short answer is Ohio cannot.”