"Many conservative Americans have seen their livelihoods threatened by the very neoliberal economics their party seeks to extend."

See: Chickens, Colonel Sanders, et al.

The world as seen by Republicans, in a land of myth and amnesia; US conservatives are increasingly keen to interpret their country's woes primarily in terms of threats from abroad, by Gary Younge (Guardian)

... But while liberals are more likely to see the roots of this crisis as domestic – growing economic inequalities, religious zealotry, corporatisation of media and politics – conservatives are increasingly keen to perceive the primary threat as external: immigrants, Islam, foreigners and foreign trade.

Potpourri: "Everybody Knows that Smoking Ain't Allowed in School."

The backlog keeps getting bigger, so here's a sampling of recent links and news items, some mine, some sent to me.

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Constitution, schmonstitution … what’s it have to do with St. Daniels and his plan to establish charter re-education centers for the state's misspent youth? The Perry County News takes a look, and we breathlessly await the Tribune’s editorial take on the matter, in which we're betting the best and brightest will be asked to step forward and teach school for a while.

It always gladdens my heart to note that taken as a group, Indiana’s legislators remain as cowardly and hypocritical as I’d always imagined they are. A partial list of exemptions to the Indiana state legislature's ballyhooed tough statewide smoking "ban" now includes casinos, taverns, bars, nursing homes, bunco clubs, VFWs, American Legions, pay toilets, chicken shacks, bandstands in public gazebos within 100 feet of a flower shop, and cigar bars, but only if populated by 50% or more lobbyists on Wednesday nights in June.

The bill’s annual sponsor, Charlie Brown, quoted while lying prone after Lucy yet again yanked away his football, politely characterizes these carvings as “compromise,” and while probably not a single legislator would compromise when it comes to his or her own health and well being, the health and well being of workers is now being “compromised” all the way down to where the bill itself has been rendered nonsensical.

Perhaps the legislature might helpfully specify the actual places where smoking is to be banned, which presently number five or six vegan juice bars that never allowed smoking in the first place. Read all about it here (Facebook thread here), and know that to his credit, our Rep. Clere voted against the latest round of dumbings down.

In other tidings from the DingDong Chamber in Indy, Mike Ladd, executive director of the Urban Enterprise Zone Association in New Albany, asks if the war has been successful, and he's not talking Afghanistan Taliban Blues. Rather, Mike lets us know that the Danielsist cadres see a power-grab opening in the gentle art of municipal bankruptcy.

The essence of this bill is that a community’s creditor, or two or more creditors combined, that fall into the criteria above, would be able to request three people in state government to declare a city bankrupt, followed by what essentially amounts to a state take-over; while removing certain appeals processes.

Bankruptcy's nothing, Mike. Just wait until St. Daniels sends in the teams of partisan GOP commissars to whip us into prime Gitmo shape, maybe even literally. No doubt they'll help the medicine go down with plenty of help from their Facebook pages, because even Maureen Hayden (!) has noticed that legislators are using social media to make "friends" with their constituents.

Maureen -- let me get this straight -- you mean that some legislators view social media as means of facilitating communication? Wonders never cease. Friends? I don't have the heart to tell you that down here, in the wide-open, fenced-in spaces of the Open Air Museum of Ignorance, Superstition and Backwardness, some legislators are content to use social media to make enemies.

Speaking of the inner workings of the Open Air Museum, how is it that this fellow from so far away can provide such an accurate depiction of life in a place where Steve Price is our leader: Just The Same Old Dumb. Pitt should be made an honorary New Albanian, although I bet he'd pay double to avoid it.

Finally there is good news and bad news: A bill would form New Albany-Floyd County parks district, and "remove" our parks from politics. Let's hope. The Clere Channel Network is poised to take full re-election credit for introducing the parks district bill, although the CCN hasn't had much to say about Ed's support of this "bad news" repugnancy, as Bluegill covered it at Facebook:

In response to my local state rep and the Indiana House passing a xenophobic "English only" bill yesterday, I'm trying to to figure out if I'm going to pay my state taxes this year in quetzals, birrs, riels, or Belarusian rubles.

online.com/article/20110124/NEWS01/110124026" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Indiana House passes 'English only' bill (Journal and Courier)

State documents would have to be published in English only under a bill that passed the Indiana House today by a vote of 63-26.

Comments by Tribune columnist out of line -- no, troggies, not mine.

I almost missed this one. Thanks to D for pointing me in the right direction.

McDONALD: Comment by French official out of line, by Tim McDonald (Tribune local columnist).

Instead of my usual device of running a representative portion in this space, permit me to briefly summarize the columnist's position:

A French official makes an ill-advised comment about America's handling of relief to Haiti, is quickly disavowed by his own government, thus providing the columnist with a pretext to devote 900 words to repeating just about every "let's bash the Frogs" cliche ever uttered.

That's basically it. How he refrains from the "mint condition, unused rifle only dropped twice" joke is inexplicable to me. Perhaps the equally xenophobic Healthblogger already used that line in an anti-Obama rant.

Was the comment by the French official out of line? Probably, seeing as France's president rushed to clarify it. Is it then logical to repeat the very same error in in attacking the comment? Certainly not. However, not unlike masturbation, it apparently comes naturally to Americans, even the educated ones, to boost our ever-shaky patriotic self-esteems by periodically lashing the French ethos.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch PBS's "American Masters" bio on Julia Child for a second time, but not before I celebrate nativist buffoonery in the guise of learned commentary with a bottle or two of imported Burgundy.

User fees for foreigners: If incomprehension is the enemy, are we on Candid Camera yet?

(To myself) ... it simply has to be a set-up, like when comedian Don Novello wrote goofy letters to politicians and corporations in the guise of Laszlo Toth ... but I guess I’m falling for it …

Following is the text of a July 9 letter to the Tribune, unarchived as of yet, but worth examining for insight into life within the confines of the Open Air Museum.

He wants out-of-state visitors to pay

I went to Sam Peden Community Park recently to go fishing.

There was a crowd but considering it was July 4, I should not have been surprised. But after checking out the license plates of the cars in the parking lot, I noticed that 90 percent of these people are from Kentucky.

Why in the world would people drive across the bridge to visit our parks when Louisville has at least five or six parks of their own?

Back in the day, when Community Park was new, there was a fee to get in there. Yes, there was a swimming pool at the time.

But since we have to pay to go into Deam Lake or Buffalo Trace, if you are not a county resident, why not be charged to get into Community Park, if you are not an Indiana resident?

We do not have that many parks as it is and we all know or city and/or county could sure use the money.

-Jim Baird, New Albany

Well, one way to look at it is to separate the apples from the oranges. Accordingly, we see that Deam Lake State Recreation Area is administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and as a state facility, it’s a whole different discussion.

At Buffalo Trace, which is a Harrison County parks property, resident and non-resident alike pay to enter. However, a discount is given for county residents. Interestingly, entrance is free for bicycles and pedestrians – and as a seeming carrot for the physically fit, that’s exactly as it should be. Harrison County’s fees are explained here.

A glance at the NAFC Parks & Recreation web site shows that Floyd County also charges a full range of fees and rentals.

I don’t know why we’ve never decided to gouge Kentuckians for the privilege of using our parks, but it might have something to do with plain ol' karma. That's because there’s another way to look at it. Those Kentucky residents bypassing the dozens of parks owned and operated by Louisville Metro to frolic at Community Park are traveling to it via I-265. Accordingly, they must pass numerous stores, restaurants and other businesses on Grant Line Road while in route.

It’s inevitable that money is being pumped into the local economy by these visitors. I’d venture to say that we come out ahead in the end.

Maybe my take is skewed, but when I see cars with Kentucky plates parked at my own business, I feel pride, not dismay. Sixteen years ago, the prevailing conventional wisdom was that no self-respecting Louisvillian would cross the bridge to drink beer and eat pizza in New Albany.

But they do.

Why on earth would they? To me, it's this: Just because we're New Albanians doesn't meant we must labor under the leaden weight of an inferiority complex. It doesn't mean we can't be good at something, and do it right.

Countless others in New Albany spend their days trying to make visitors feel welcome, secure and unthreatened. It certainly doesn’t help the cause to feel suspicion toward fellow inhabitants of the metro area, and to wonder why on earth they’d want to come here.

Ask ‘em that same question aloud -- why come here? -- and chances are they will reconsider wanting to do so. That’s a self-fulfilling prophecy if I’ve ever heard one, and yet we hear it emanate from the conjoined obstructionist councilmen at almost every council meeting.

Sad. Very sad.