Creative Math at the Indiana BMV

I visited my local BMV branch (New Haven in case anyone is curious) today to renew my driver's license and discovered how the BMV has managed to reduce waiting time so much the last few months. It seems that the time of my visit, which is shown on my receipt as being only 1 minute and 57 seconds, was timed from when I checked in to when they took my money (which as it happens occurred in the same transaction that included my checking in). The 10-12 minutes I stood waiting in line to check in didn't count. The time I spent waiting to have my photo taken didn't count. The time to take the photo didn't count. The time I waited until my new license was finished didn't count. Mind you I didn't think the service was too bad, about 30 minutes from beginning to end, but telling me that 30 minutes is 1 minute and 57 seconds irks. But it is so typical of what passes as improved service from our State government under Gov. Daniels, which seems to consist of being told how much better things are now and using creative math to make the point.

Just to go one better, countries visited.

create your own visited country map

Taking on the challenge

create your own personalized map of the USA

An Alluvial Fan on Mars

State Promotional Ploy?

"Mitch", the governor, has proposed an "Indiana Commerce Connector", an Interstate Quality Toll Road which would, if built, lie in an arc around Indianapolis from the Northeast around the south of the city to the Northwest. My younger son has pointed out that it would resemble a horseshoe if viewed from space and suggests that it is nothing more than a giant billboard for the Indianapolis Colts to be seen from the International Space Station and to be paid for by the State's motorists.

Near "Spy" Sat Quality Image from Mars

Osama's Double Dog Dare

The punch line of a politician's joke makes a perfect sound bite. Sen. Kerry, as an experienced politician, crafts his speeches so that sympathetic editors will pick out the good sounding sound bites for the news services. He has no one to blame but himself when the hostile camp picks up on a line which, when taken out of context, can be made to sound bad. The Senator should be an irrelevancy this fall, but he played into the Republicans' (desperate) hands. In the end I think all it will cost the Democrats is tempo, but in a chess game tempo can be all important.

Speaking of Republicans, I received in the mail yesterday (3 November) a mailing from the Indiana Republican Party with Osama's face gracing the cover and the caption:
"He thinks one more attack might break our will.
"He thinks we aren't tough enough to stick it out . . ."
Gee, Osama has double dog dared me to vote Republican.

The Indiana GOP ought to get real. The flyer, if you read the finer print, has to do with the Congressional elections, but the Indiana GOP obviously thinks that this logic should spread all the way down the ticket. What does bin Laden have to do with our State elections?

In Washington the RNC is telling its Congressional candidates to run on local issues. In Indiana the Republicans are running away from local issues (as evidenced by this flyer and the recent initiative by state legislative leaders on illegal immigration, a federal issue if ever there was one). There is a certain irony in a political party telling us we need to "tough it out" when the federal branch of the party wants to "localize" the elections and the state branch wants to "nationalize" them. I guess "toughing it out" is for us, not them.

The Republicans this fall just don't want to talk about their record. Can't say I blame them. Now, where were they, oh yes, Sen. Kerry. . .