Happy Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was created, I think it must be said, as a religious holiday. Yet, not being a religious sort, I still find Thanksgiving to be one of the best holidays. The direction of my thanks is, perhaps, more ambiguous, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am thankful for the fact of creation, for having been born in a bountiful place and time, for a good family and for a great deal more. Regardless of whether your thanks is going to a deity, to a particular individual, or to no specific person at all; I think one of the primary benefits of giving thanks is that you stop taking things for granted. It is also an act of humility, a recognition that you are not solely resp

Gov. Daniels eases regulations on propane gas carriers under emergency powers
Browsing the governor’s executive orders, as one tends to do on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, I noticed that there were a couple of orders issued recently that relaxed the motor carrier regulations regulating hours of truck operation for drivers transporting propane. The executive order cites a need for the use of propane to dry crops, an excess of which is needed due to early heavy rains that delayed planting of Indiana’s crops. However, the order does not limit the relaxation of motor carrier

Stalling in the Small Claims Court
Moody v. Wellman, LLP (pdf) is a Not for Publication opinion issued by the Indiana Court of Appeals. (”Not for Publication” means it’s not to be cited as precedent — I’m not violating any state secrets by giving out the link). It’s a simple landlord tenant dispute with a tenant who wasn’t represented by counsel. It doesn’t break any new legal ground, but I thought I’d flag it as a nice little snapshot of a case in the life of a small claims court. It illustrates the ability of a person to tie up a case without having a lawyer or a defense to speak of

The Sweet Smell of Corruption in the Morning
Actually, it started last night, but in any case the FBI investigation and arrest of Tim Durham has the Indianapolis blogosphere lighting up (and, contrary to Mr. Shella’s assertion, it’s a bi-partisan pile on – with Advance Indiana and Ogden on Politics featuring prominently.) The

Five Years of Masson’s Blog
You have enough anniversaries, I guess you start forgetting them. November 15 would have marked the 5th anniversary of this blog. I think the quality ebbs and flows, but I’m still enjoying having a place to spout off and perhaps, occasionally, pass along pieces of information folks find valuable. The writing is fun and helps me crystalize my thoughs on a subject. But, mostly I enjoy the comments. For whatever reason, a fine group of commenters have made this a regular stop. I’m not up for putting together a retrospective at this point, but just by way of reference, when I started this thing, John Kerry had just lost an election to George W. Bush, my son was bare