Pack your bags, we’re going to Vegas! Or maybe a Caribbean cruise is more your style.

Those are the top domestic and international destinations Hoosier travelers are booking for the rest of 2009, according to a Travel Leaders survey. The travel agency network surveyed some of its agents and owners throughout the state.

Other notable findings in the 2009 fall travel trends survey:

• 65.6% of Indiana travelers are making U.S. travel reservations four weeks or less from the planned departure date
• 93.7% of respondents said clients are cutting back on some aspect of travel (such as shortening length of trip)
• Other top destinations domestically are: Orlando (ranked No. 2), Tampa/St. Petersburg (3) and Chicago and Dallas (tied at No. 4)
• Hoosiers traveling internationally are heading to: Cancun, Mexico (No. 2); Mediterranean cruises (3); Montego Bay, Jamaica (4); and Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Riviera Maya, Mexico; and Shanghai, China (all tied for No. 5)
• Still, 90.6% of Indiana Travel Leader respondents say overall travel bookings are lower than at this time in 2008 

Compare these findings to the national travel trends.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry was accused earlier this year of threatening to secede from the union. That’s not quite how it happened. We’ll share the true story below.

What’s interesting was the reaction — both within the state’s borders and from around the country. A Dallas Morning News columnist captured some of the best, primarily in opposition.

Perry triggered debate of secession in April, when he fired up a "tea party" protest in Austin with an anti-Washington speech that prompted the flag-waving audience to shout, "Secede!" The governor, a Republican, never advocated leaving the union, but he said: "If Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that."

Allison Castle, the governor’s spokeswoman, said Perry’s intention was to point a critical finger at the federal government, not to encourage abandoning the U.S.

The reactions, however, have been coming in hot and heavy. A sampling:

"Don’t let the door hit you in the you-know-what on the way out!" wrote Summer Lovelace of Fergus Falls, Minn.

"Secede – good riddance," wrote Paul Bernard of Laguna Beach, Calif.

There was some support in Texas with calls, e-mails and a rally in favor of secession, but plenty were not in the Perry camp.

"You are embarrassing our great state," wrote Bellaire resident Felicia Konkel. "Are you really that desperate for acceptance that you would pretend to consider this ridiculous issue?"

And this from Paul Stiverson of College Station: "Those sorts of outbursts are making all Texans look like a bunch of inbred rednecks, and I don’t appreciate that."

Jeffery H. Anderson of the Pacific Research Institute has a column published in today’s New York Post, labelling the latest health care reform bill as a harbinger of fiscal disaster. He also calls it a fraud (so, you know, not a fan). He contends:

The Senate Finance Committee yesterday voted on a fraud: Sen. Max Baucus’ "responsible" health-reform bill is actually a recipe for fiscal disaster — and the Congressional Budget Office report that supposedly bolstered the bill actually exposes it.

As others have noted, Baucus used all manner of budgetary gimmicks to oblige the CBO to give him the headlines he needed — a supposed pricetag of "just" $829 billion over 10 years, with enough other spending cuts and tax hikes to avoid adding to the federal deficit. But the CBO exposed the truth by taking the rare step of calculating what the bill would cost in its second 10 years.

In its second decade alone, the CBO projects, the bill’s costs would triple — to $2.8 trillion. The taxes and fines it levies would also triple — to $1.8 trillion. And its cuts to Medicare and related federal health programs would quadruple — to $1.9 trillion.

In its first two decades combined, the bill would cost $3.6 trillion and would raise taxes by $2.3 trillion.

Baucus’ most elementary trick was to have the bill’s "first 10 years" include several years when it hadn’t really kicked in. It was scored for 2010 to 2019, yet it wouldn’t be in full swing until 2015 — when its costs would exceed those of its first five years combined.

In fact, the bill wouldn’t cost anything in 2010. In its real first decade (2011-20), it would cost more than $1 trillion.

Furthermore, the CBO projects that, by the end of 2030, the Baucus bill would have cut spending on Medicare and other existing health programs by more than $2.6 trillion.  Read the rest of this entry »

As an artist myself, I find myself drawn (pun intended) to other artists around the world who are doing what they love. The invention of the Web and the prevalence of blogging have made my life easier. Now all I have to do to take in a good gallery exhibit is go to my preferred browser and search.

Over the past two years I’ve been doing just that. I’ve logged countless hours and have lost more sleep than I can imagine scrolling through some of my favorite art blogs. I’ve discovered everyone from a guy who created a skull out of a different material each day for a year to someone who routinely inks an old-fashioned comic strip. In between I stumbled upon someone who is eerily similar to me: he’s bald, sports a goatee and is an artist with a dream.

His name is Terry Border and he lives here in Indianapolis. For about three years he’s been bending the fabric (or wire) of reality. He takes wire and ordinary objects we see around our houses (corks, spice jars, fruit and cheesy snacks to name a few) and literally bends and shapes them into something else, injecting personality and life into them along the way. He then photographs them and posts them for all to see.

Within these photos we get a glimpse of what really goes on behind the cupboard. Why are carrots such great parents? What do people really think of Hamlet? How do you fight a cold? All these questions and more are answered on Terry’s blog.

His site boasts over 10,000 unique visitors per month. Now, he’s put some of his most creative creations into a book. “BENT OBJECTS: The Secret Life of Everyday Things,” was released on October 6.

I encourage those interested in good humor, great art and a desire to support local artists to check out his blog http://www.bentobjects.blogspot.com/ and pick up the book. Or drop him a comment at BentObjects@gmail.com.

A big kudos to my alma mater down in Bloomington for having its eighth affiliated Nobel Prize (counting faculty and former students). Elinor Ostrom got the call yesterday morning about receiving the award and has been granting interviews since. The Indianapolis Star explains:

In a nutshell: Ostrom has dedicated her life to exploring how humans can better manage things such as water systems, forests, fisheries — and even themselves — by being active participants in decision-making and management of resources…

Her work, which she shared with her husband, Vincent, has developed during the past 36 years of research performed at the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, which the Ostroms founded together. She served as its director until July when she stepped down to become senior research director.

The center has researchers in more than a dozen countries — working with forest managers in 13 nations, water resource officials in the Western United States, government reformers in Liberia and peace builders in Sudan.

The key to any success, Ostrom said Monday, has been the involvement of local people who are affected and have a vested interest.

"What we have ignored is what a community can do and the importance of real involvement of the people," said Ostrom, who first observed this in Los Angeles, watching how the community worked together to solve the problem of saltwater intrusion into the groundwater systems.

There are many, many things right in our country. While freedom is one near the very top of the list, something is not right when the "whocanisue.com" web site helps proliferate lawsuit abuse. Read for yourself in an installment from the Heartland Institute’s Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly.

A lawyer referral Web site is causing controversy in Florida over rules governing legal advertising. It’s called “whocanisue.com” and features a drop-down menu suggesting possible causes of action to wannabe litigants.

Under nursing home abuse, for instance, there are numerous subcategories, such as bed sores, dehydration, and falls and fractures. Lawyers are matched with clients by zip codes. Listed under “Hot Topics” are car accidents, bankruptcy, divorce, DUIs, foreclosure, overtime, mortgage loan modifications, and wrongful termination.

Strict rules apply to lawyer advertising, but the service isn’t, legally speaking, lawyering, so they may be exempt from those rules, though the matter hasn’t been finally resolved.

Business seems to be booming, with 250 law firms signed up and about 25,000 visits to the Web site every month. The service operates in California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and other states. Lawyers using the service rave about it.

“I’m getting probably twice as many phone calls,” one said. Another said his phone hasn’t stopped ringing. “The name was catchy,” he added. “I was upset I didn’t think of it.”

Others called the advertising “egregious” and a “disgrace.”
 

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to pass its version of health care reform legislation today. But a new report — titled Potential Impact of Health Reform on the Cost of Private Health Insurance Coverage — warns about the likely impacts on individuals, families and businesses.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers study looks at four key provisions:

• Insurance market reforms coupled with a weak coverage requirement
• A new tax on high-cost health care plans
• Cost-shiftng as a result of cuts to Medicare
• New taxes on health care sectors

Health care costs are going to go up absent any reforms. With this combination of provisions, the increases are projected to be significantly higher. How high? According to the study, the cost of private health insurance coverage will increase:

• 26 percent between 2009 and 2013 under the current system and by 40 percent
  during this same period if these four provisions are implemented
• 50 percent between 2009 and 2016 under the current system and by 73 percent
  during this same period if these four provisions are implemented
• 79 percent between 2009 and 2019 under the current system and by 111 percent

The authors wrote: "Market reform enacted in the absence of universal coverage will increase costs dramatically for many who are currently insured by creating a powerful incentive for people to wait until they are sick to purchase coverage."

Additional analysis and numbers are expected from the Congressional Budget Office after committee approval and before floor debate. This report certainly gives all involved something to consider.