Disqus - Latest Comments for seanshepard

Re: Big Labor Just Came Out Swinging Against the Green New Deal

seanshepard — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 21:04:33 -0000

When the Green New Deal was compared to the madness of the Khmer Rouge

https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

Re: Carmel shouldn’t get into the hotel business

seanshepard — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 20:19:49 -0000

To be fair, it has already generated lots of "cooler talk". Like, "Why the hell is a Republican run unit of government entertaining going into the hotel business, using taxpayers as a backstop on the debt and any losses, when the private sector has already decided it doesn't look like a good idea?"

Re: Mark Levin to the GOP: I AM ONE INCH AWAY FROM LEAVING YOU!

seanshepard — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 11:07:41 -0000

Hannity has always struck me as intellectually inferior to Limbaugh or Levin. But, keep in mind we are talking about people who are primarily entertainers. Hannity and Limbaugh strike me as traditional social conservatives and economic moderates. Both of them have been quick to mock true advocates for scaling back the Federal leviathan and their pro-intervention rhetoric does not help at all in thinking seriously and long-term about reducing the threat posed by foreign terrorism.

Re: Mark Levin to the GOP: I AM ONE INCH AWAY FROM LEAVING YOU!

seanshepard — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 10:32:22 -0000

People like to make fun of the Libertarians, but isn't this exactly what they've been saying? That the Republicans lack commitment to their own rhetoric? What's the point in winning if we never get what we want? (assumed to mean: smaller government, smaller budgets, massive tax reform [like The Fairtax], better options to the existing Social Security system, elimination of some Federal departments, strong but humble foreign policy and relations, less intrusion into our lives and more freedom?

Re: WATCH: Firefighter Gunned Down, Killed by Cop Just Hours After His Wedding

seanshepard — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 12:46:54 -0000

"The legal limit is .08" ??? Before they can shoot you? To take a cab? Or to drive a car - which he wasn't doing. And, I assume the reporter mean .21 not 2.21 but then to suggest it is illegal to be above .08 contributed towards an odd ending to this report.

Re: The Incoherent Backlashes to Black Actors Playing 'White' Superheroes

seanshepard — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 11:51:27 -0000

Using the Human Torch (Johnny Storm) as an example, are they also casting his sister, The Invisible Woman (Susan Storm) as black? And to reference Spider-Man, Iron Man and Green Lantern as having been sometimes black in the comic books is true, but Peter Parker, Tony Stark and Hal Jordan never were.

I love seeing The Falcon in the previews for the new Captain America movie. I think there would justifiable outrage if they had cast a white actor for that role (or Rhodey's in Iron Man). Sometimes we just want to see the stories and characters we know come to life on the big screen.

They ruin it when they make Wolverine over 6'0 tall (instead of 5'3 like in the comics), have Cyclops powers suddenly generating heat, send Logan back in time instead of Kitty Pryde or make the movie all campy and a big joke like they did with Green Lantern. Or when they give Superman a secret love child or cast someone not nearly pretty enough to Jean Grey. ;-) But, other franchises ruin their material too, like when they let JJ Abrams touch it and he has Captain Kirk fix the warp drive by kicking a giant spark plug back into place.

Re: A Point of Personal Privilege

seanshepard — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:26:07 -0000

If nothing else you take the job that is offered until you can find something better. The other thing to consider is whether there were lots of these workers who wanted the newly offered job but a majority vote of the union prevented them from having that opportunity. Once again, allowing your future to be determined by the opinion of the majority isn't really the best policy. BTW - don't we have some elections coming up? ;-)

Re: White Out

seanshepard — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 22:50:14 -0000

The opinion from the SoS office is consistent with what happened in the Patrice Abdulla (SP?) situation I believe.

Personally, I think this is a pretty big deal for someone wanting to hold the office responsible for being the expert on elections and the boundaries for such. Cutting through some of the rhetoric to the core issue, I think I'm inclined to agree with the Democrats on this one.

Re: Is Indy Sitting on Untapped Millions?

seanshepard — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:08:24 -0000

I would argue that it depends on who is paying the Hotel. If the consumer is paying the hotel directly and the hotel then kicks back to the on-line booking company than the full tax would be due. If someone is paying the booking company who then purchases the rooms at a wholesale rate, the tax would only be due on the wholesale portion. I don't know their business so I don't know the process.

Funny though how it is easy to jump on all these private entities for trying to work the system to save money but nobody wants to jump on all the private entities that work the system to steal from taxpayers (Arts, "crime prevention" grants, sports industry bail outs and subsidies)

Re: Is Indy Sitting on Untapped Millions?

seanshepard — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:04:47 -0000

How many "bricks-and-mortar" retailers are not also Internet retailers and fully empowered to adjust their prices to adjust for the lower overhead?

Re: 40 Days & 40 Nights

seanshepard — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:14:49 -0000

I had a conversation today with someone where they actually said, "Man, I never imagined the Republicans could run someone that actually made me consider voting for Andre. "

Fortunately, they don't have to lose sleep over that one and can pick a third option.

Re: 40 Days & 40 Nights

seanshepard — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:13:32 -0000

I don't have a problem with the Pea Shake houses. Everybody should be able to run one. It's the lack of equal enforcement under the law that I would take issue with. Make it legal or illegal (I prefer legal) but enforce it fairly.

Re: The Life of Brian

seanshepard — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:27:53 -0000

Wow. You guys (and gals) are brutal.

I'll just echo something Abdul referenced. I may disagree with Jackie Nytes on all kinds of things but I do respect her as one of the more engaged and thoughtful Democrats on the council.

Re: No Parking, Part One

seanshepard — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 12:40:42 -0000

I wonder if that would ultimately lead to the city demanding a bunch of money as compensation for people filing to have a parade. ;-)

Re: No Parking, Part One

seanshepard — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 12:38:30 -0000

"Things have to be paid for" ... unfortunately, government rarely makes very good choices between "what things".

Regardless of what needs to be paid for, a 50 year monopoly grant is so far outside the bounds of reasonable it begs to ask who has pictures or video of someone in a compromising position.

These folks need to learn to make choices. You want political buy offs to community groups (who aren't going to vote for you anyway) to the tune of $5 million dollars? Do you want giveaways to the hoitsy-toitsy arts community for a million dollars? Or does somebody with a broken up sidewalk that is so bad that they have to mow it need that fixed? Does a street need repaved? Does some debt need to be paid down?

Do we need to give or loan millions of dollars to sports teams or do the taxpayers need something taken care of?

And, if the rush to do this crappy deal is all about putting lipstick on a pig for the Superbowl, that just adds credence to the past arguments that taxpayers will indeed be putting up money for this event ... perhaps for up to 50 years.

If rates need to go up, fine. That is NOT the core issue here.

Re: What Have They Done for Her Lately

seanshepard — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 01:26:04 -0000

LoL funny. It probably was just a reason for local self-importants to raise money so they could hobnob with somebody rich and famous. Bringing in Sharpton or Jesse Jackson for that matter just brings chuckles and eye rolls anymore.

I'd like to see somebody raise money to bring Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell to town.

Re: What Have They Done for Her Lately

seanshepard — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 01:17:26 -0000

I disagree with his politics and ideology but have always found Jose to be approachable, considerate and friendly. That's more than I can say for some of the councilors.

As for kicking Arizona out of the union. Can Indiana get kicked out? And if so, does that mean we wouldn't be at war with people who don't own tanks or planes and the 15.3% FICA withholding would go away along with 35% top federal income tax rate? Booming economy here we come!! ;-)

Re: Catching Up on Political Potpourri

seanshepard — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:37:21 -0000

LoL. Okay, but Rico's comment still made me laugh. Local snake oil bad, national snake oil ... not as bad?? ;-)

These folks are rushing to invest tens of millions (or more) in fixing up the city I presume on the assumption that it will draw more tourism long term? I don't think we're getting another Superbowl anytime soon.

Why do they not ever look it from the perspective of keeping taxes, regulations and subsidies low as a way to drive business development and innovation. Let Vegas worry about tourism, we should want as many large companies headquartered here and employing people as possible.

Re: Catching Up on Political Potpourri

seanshepard — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:32:01 -0000

TA - rest assured that at least this libertarian isn't a fan of the parking deal. a 50 year monopoly grant so that we can put some lipstick on the city for one big sporting event (or so that seems like what they're doing) is just ... I don't have the word.

There are all sorts of other ways to structure these kinds of deals; but, they may not get the up front purchase of the monopoly in them. But, hey, nobody's calling my phone asking for my opinion so that makes it easy to determine what they think it is worth. ;-)

If people want Libertarians to oppose this kind of garbage, then libertarians need money, votes and volunteers. With more libertarian influence in local government you wouldn't have gotten hand outs to sports franchises, a ban on street corner sign holding, political pay outs to churches and community organizations (resulting in a slight drop in the local income tax rate), no shell games included in the water deal and certainly no risk to this parking deal going through.

Re: Hit the Books

seanshepard — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:31:03 -0000

There is no such thing as "underpaying" thieves.

Re: Indianapolis’ Finest

seanshepard — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:25:56 -0000

I agree with TA's note about the Catfish comment.

While I may disagree with a lot of things the police are tasked to do (or many of the laws they are asked to enforce) I don't recall ever walking away from an interaction with an officer feeling like they were acting unprofessional or might have been intoxicated.

Just like anything else - when you have large numbers of people involved you are going to get some bad actors or have some bad things happen from time-to-time.

In fairness to the Ballard Administration, it would be interesting to know when a lot of the trouble officers were hired and/or promoted. The current administration catches flack when these officers screw up; but, I doubt many of them were hired on just in the last 3 years.

Re: IMPD Policies and Procedures

seanshepard — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:56:31 -0000

Completely disagree with the college degree requirement. Really, college degrees are mostly just a socio-economic filter that improves the chances of getting somebody who grew up in a household of educated or professional people. It has very little to do, as near as I've ever been able to tell, with how smart someone is, what their attitudes are or whether or not they know how to do anything.

Really, it almost just becomes crutch in the hiring process. For ANY profession, hire smart and talented people who can learn the job and/or skills and conduct themselves as adults.

Like the transparency stuff and a few of the other items. The rest is BS.

Re: Dear Dr. White

seanshepard — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:41:58 -0000

Short 6 minute video regarding New Orlean's school voucher program and its success.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Strong Democratic area now has one of the most market based school systems in the country. How bad do things have to get with the status quo before change can happen? New Orleans found out and made the changes. Great story and proof that if we can get past partisanship and union resistance to new ways of doing things, great things can happen.

Re: Dear Dr. White

seanshepard — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:48:46 -0000

In a more free market oriented system I'm sure you would see solutions to the special needs kids pop up. The challenge with the private schools might just be one of resources needed compared to size of addressable market. I doubt it's that they "don't want" that student so much as there is an investment associated with being equipped to handle it and an uncertain quantity of students likely to enroll at $10,000 a year compared to the "free" schools.

But, we've kind of gone down the path here of talking about limitations for all people because some or a few may require something different.

Re: Dear Dr. White

seanshepard — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:33:38 -0000

I agree completely with the sentiment regarding TA.