There's been an expensive but thus far generally unsuccessful movement to ban smoking in all public places in Indianapolis. As someone with a life-threatening chemical sensitivity to, among other things, cigarette smoke, I can't help but feel strongly about this issue. To everyone who has put their dollars and energy into freeing Indianapolis from smoke in bars, restaurants, et cetera, I'd just like to say...

Shut up!

Yes, you heard me.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America begins:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

If you are human, and you are born here, you are a citizen, period.

For all they talk about small government and constitutional conservatism, the GOP are just as much big government idiocrats that Obama and his friends in the Democratic Party are.

"So they won't go on our welfare roles" is not a reason to deny our citizens their rights based on something their parents did. In a sane world, we'd just stop subsidizing poverty to begin with.

The gall of suggesting an unconstitutional measure to mitigate a small portion of the damage done by another unconstitutional measure is staggering.

Reuters reported yesterday that a bill about to be considered would raise taxes on investment fund managers, by treating some of their investment income like "regular" income.  Will this raise a lot more money in the grand scheme of things?  No.  Why do it?  Politics.  It's a way to look "tough on" Wall Street.

This week the unpopular people are the investment fund managers, so we are going to tax them extra, and not let them eat lunch at the cool kids' table.

This CNN article is well worth the read, even though it comes to the completely wrong conclusion.  Michelle Alexander writes that she's a criminal, and so are you: