the reality tunnel

What’s old is new, apparently, especially with electoral fear-mongering.  I had heard that the label of “socialist” had been used to try to mar the political policies of many past presidents, but it was nice to find it in print.
Then, as is now, we don’t end up talking about actual policies – the effect of [...]

I recently started co-presenting the Middleway House’s Building Healthy Relationships workshops in local schools.  This is going to be an ongoing list of statistics about sexual assault so I can remember them, check that they’re still current, and get the context.

Only 6% of people accused of rape go to prison
60% of assaults happen in the [...]

Two days ago, I voted early in Bloomington, Indiana. It took me around forty minutes and was a pretty great experience. I want to encourage everyone who is registered to vote, to do so, but even if you aren’t registered to vote, can’t vote, or choose not to, please go to a polling [...]

From Georgia early voting: Prada wearers, discount devotees together:
There, overlooking an Office Depot and, in the distance, a Wendy?s and a McDonald?s, an anymore rare public coming together of the classes has been congregating on recent weekdays to exercise an all-American right: the right to stand in line.
Voters decked out in everything from [...]

One of the ways to ensure your vote gets counted is to vote as early as possible.  You may be able to vote but there may be complications with your registration (you’ve moved for instance) that might complicate things and could delay your voting or just make for an uncomfortable situation on election day.
Early voting [...]

So I made a map using Google MyMaps of venues for events in Bloomington.  Crystal added a ton of content and made it look pretty.  The hard part is figuring out how to provide a listing of event locations with the map.  You can get the map data for the map that you created in [...]

I don’t have the time or energy right now to process yesterday’s community meeting on the building of the county juvenile facility.  I learned a lot, was pretty disheartened, and realized, more than anything, that perceptions and realities of limited resources force people with similar interests and goals to become adversaries.  This is how the [...]

Via racewire, I can’t believe how much thoughtful analysis Byron Hurt was able to cram into 10 minutes.  It’s a great example of criticism without over-simplified condemnation.   Damn.

This is a sketch of my thoughts on the at-this-time-ambiguous proposal for a juvenile detention center in Monroe County in preparation for the public meeting about this on Thursday.  I’ve organized my thoughts in terms of questions and demands.
QUESTION: Is building our own facility the best way to keep our youth close to their families [...]

I’m as sick of snarky partisanship as much as the next guy, but couldn’t help but share this flyer for Indiana Republican candidate Mike Sodrel that I found stapled to a tree on the IU campus.  I think the tree will survive, but it just seemed crass to me somehow.  Still it wasn’t quite as [...]