Free Speech, Religion & License Plates

Finally, a reason to post on this poor neglected blog!

About a year ago, I got it in my head to apply for a personalized license plate in the state of Indiana. The plate would read "NO GODS", my little response to the annoying and ever more present "In God We Trust" official Indiana license plates. I figured if it was okay for the state of Indiana to officially endorse religion (and specifically the Christian religion, no matter what they might say about "God" being ambiguous), then it would be okay for me to personally request my belief in no gods.

Having forgot about my application, I didn't even think about it until I received a letter from the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles:

Dear Mr. B_______,

The personalized license plate ("PLP") referenced above has been denied as inappropriate due to form or content.
...

There's more, but it's basically telling me I can ask for a replacement PLP or request an appeal via an administrative hearing. Obviously, you know which option I am choosing. I decided to look up the relevant text related to allowable PLPs on the BMV website.

http://www.in.gov/bmv/3229.htm

Personalized license plates allow creativity; however, under Indiana Statue IC 9-18-15-4 (b) the BMV may refuse to issue a combination of letters or numerals, or both, that carry a connotation offensive to good taste and decency.

The BMV will deny a personalized license plate request if an objective, reasonable person would find that the customer’s proposed expression on the personalized license plate application is determined to carry a connotation offensive to good taste and decency, is misleading, or is otherwise prohibited. [emphasis added]

The question becomes, is the phrase "NO GODS" offensive to an "objective, reasonable person"? The only other portion of the guidelines above that could be a sticking point is "or is otherwise prohibited." If by that they include to mean a statement of religion, it is my opinion that a prohibition of religion on license plates went out the window when Indiana approved the "In God We Trust" license plate. If it is okay for citizens of Indiana to proclaim their religion via an Indiana license plate, not allowing me to proclaim my lack of religion seems to be a pretty obvious case of the state government favoring or promoting one religion or belief system over another (or over a lack thereof).

I've contacted both the Indiana ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation for their opinion and possible assistance. The FFRF responded quite quickly, saying they believe I have the BMV "in a pickle" but to wait for the ACLU-IN since the "In God We Trust" license plate issue was their baby back when that plate first came around. I'm hoping to hear from them soon before sending in my official appeal to the BMV for an administrative hearing. Either way, even if the ACLU doesn't take my case I plan on fighting this as much as possible.

If you have any suggestions, recommendations or help you can offer please let me know in the comments.

Update: Thanks to a friend of a friend of a friend for posting this to reddit. Check this blog for future updates, or just watch http://tcmso.blogspot.com/search/label/jdbvsbmv

Update II: Thanks to the reddit post, I've found another Indiana resident fighting the same fight, in his case for a "GODLESS" plate and who has already been in contact with the ACLU-IN and American Humanist Association. Hoping we can pool resources.

Also, thanks to Hemant Mehta for sharing the story via the consistently good read The Friendly Atheist.

Once I know more and have sent out my official appeal for an administrative hearing, I'll put up a new post.

Update III: I'll have to do a new post catching everything up sooner than I thought, but until then this: The reddit thread is really becoming a good source. First the other Hoosier fighting for a GODLESS plate and now a picture of a plate in the streets bearing the slogal "BE GODS." That will come in handy.

First as tragedy, second as farce

"The media is simply giving a very loud minority far more attention than the quiet majority." -Matthew Degnan, University of Notre Dame, Class of 2009, May 15, 2009

"It is another voice, it is a quiet voice in the tumult of the shouting. It is the voice of the great majority of Americans, the forgotten Americans, the non-shouters, the non-demonstrators." -Richard Nixon, August 8, 1968

"And so tonight-to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans-I ask for your support." -Richard Nixon, November 3, 1969

And lo, the modern right wing did look upon the New Left of the 1960s and said "that worked out great for them, didn't it! Let's try it!" Keep it up, conservatives. Keep it up indeed.

Free Parking

Last month I had to visit the Federal Building downtown. On my way back to my car, I noticed an odd parking space. Take a look at the car parked between the two red cars. Notice anything missing?



I couldn't get a good picture with my mobile, so here's the Street View of the same space. The blue car above is parked between the trees in the center of the picture. Zoom in once for the best view.


View Larger Map

There is no meter for this space. It is not marked with any signage or curb paint to indicate that it is a no parking zone.

I doubt this space was designed as a space for large vehicles such as limousines or box trucks. I assume that the meters were installed from the cross street intersections inward, and this is just the gap left over from choosing to install the double meters.

So the question is, is this free parking? Anyone have any experience with this space? I believe you can see co-blogger CJ's old place in the photo above. Care to weigh in?

EDIT: Whoops, forgot to title this post.

Bailing Out The CIB

Jen Wagner wants to know what Greg Ballard thinks of the CIB bailout options:

Food and beverage taxes: Bumping up Marion County's 2 percent food and beverage tax by 1 percentage point would bring in $18 million a year. This is one of the best options because it raises the most money. But opposition from taxpayer groups would be high. Odds: Still alive.

Hotel taxes: An increase of 1 percent in Marion County's 9 percent hotel/motel tax would drum up $4 million a year. The hotel industry is opposed to any increase, saying it would make it more difficult for Indianapolis to compete against other cities for convention business. Odds: On the table.

Raising admission taxes: Increasing Marion County's 6 percent admissions tax by 1 percentage point would bring in $1.5 million a year. Mayor Greg Ballard likes this idea, though the Indiana Pacers are especially loath to do this because it would make it harder for the team, already struggling with thin turnout, to draw crowds. Odds: Possible.

Concessions from the teams: The Indianapolis Colts now get a share of revenues generated during non-Colts events at Lucas Oil Stadium. Giving that up would mean $3.5 million for the Capital Improvement Board a year. The Pacers hope the CIB will assume $15 million a year in operating costs at Conseco Fieldhouse. As a compromise, the CIB might assume a portion of that amount. Odds: Uncertain.

Expanding taxing districts: Adding new hotels and other stadium-related businesses to a sales tax increment financing district in Downtown would generate $10 million a year. Odds: Possible.

Alcohol tax: Indiana's spirits, wine and beer taxes are on the low end, but lawmakers are more interested in solutions that affect Marion County alone, not the whole state. The taxes raise about $42 million a year, which is split between the state and local governments. Odds: Unlikely.

That's a good question, and certainly one I can't answer. But I can certainly offer an opinion as to how the bailing out should be done. The CIB deficit is at $43M, and they've already agreed to $6M in cuts, leaving $37M to make up.

First things first. I'm sorry, but the Colts and Pacers have to make concessions here. The public's sympathy for bailouts is small enough, and I see no good argument why the economic bad times should only be shouldered by the government. So let's take the $3.5M the Colts get from non-Colts events (which is ridiculous anyway, but that's another story). Now the Pacers actually want the CIB to take on additional costs, which strikes me as unrealistic on their part. We'll come back to that, but for now the $3.5M seems like a no-brainer. Deficit down to $33.5M.

Marion County Taxes: From a purely selfish standpoint, this is the one I'd like the least because I eat out, whereas I don't stay in hotels. But that's a lot of revenue to pass up, and eating out is a luxury, so lets do that and pick up another $18M for a deficit of $15.5M. But hey, let's do all the others too. The special tax district for $10M, the hotel tax for $4M, and the ticket tax for $1.5M. That comes to... $15.5M.

So if we adopt all the local tax increases and take none of the costs the Pacers are trying to push off on us (but also not ask them for concessions like with the more successful Colts) we can close the gap. Seems a bit overly burdensome to Marion County in my opinion. The final option of using state alcohol tax money is rejected almost out of hand because provincial representative in the rest of the state don't want to spend the money on Marion County. But wait! Marion County is this state's tax base. It's almost certain that the rural counties that would be most opposed to this plan are net tax recipients, taking money from Marion and the doughnut counties. The fact is the state's economic success is intertwined, and hurting Marion County hurts everyone. Now I do believe that Marion and the doughnut counties most certainly benefit more than the rest of the state on this issue, but not exclusively. So I think what I'd like to see is for the deficit to be paid out by some combination of concessions from the sports teams, local taxes applied to Marion and the surrounding counties, and some state funding. Food, beverage, and hotel taxes are probably the best source for the local tax revenue, and the burden on any one county is less when we're extracting revenue from all of them. I think the alcohol taxes are also probably a good source of the state contribution as well. As Wagner says, our alcohol taxes are already low, so there's room to increase them without creating a black market. Alcohol is also a luxury good with negative public health externalities, also making it a decent candidate for some additional taxation.

Now this plan is probably completely unfeasible politically. Instead I'm afraid what's going to happen here is that Marion County will get hammered. I hope I'm wrong.

Credit Default Swaps vs Poor People Getting Houses : FIGHT!

A friend on the Facebooks recently got into a political internet slap fight (I always think of this XKCD) that ended up with a bit that essentially blamed the economic crisis on "Bill Clinton and his subprime mortgages". Never mind that a) what they are probably referring to is the government push to get more of those less well off able to buy houses b) that was actually done under Jimmy Carter, I believe and c) the whole "Democrats helped poor people get houses and that caused the crisis!" is very un-classy and a drop in the bucket compared to the Credit Default Swap Mess.

So I decided to but in a little on her comment about that thread.

Two great videos that help explain what credit default swaps are and how they nuked the economy.

CDSs are important because they were completely unregulated, meaning banks bought very heavily into them. Essentially many "too big to fail" financial institutions made a bet that the housing market would just keep going up forever. An unrealistic expectation. When housing prices finally started to fall, the whole house of cards came crashing down.

The Credit Default Swap market was worth $62 trillion recently (down from it's peak certainly given the way things have crashed). It was worth $900 billion in 2000 with Phil Gramm (R-SC) deregulated the CDS market.

The median home price in the united states in 2005 was $213,900. If you want to compare that to the size of the CDS market, that would mean the current CDS market would avearge out over 289,855,072 2005-median-value homes. According to the 2003 census bureau housing survey there were 105,842,000 households (which includes apartments)

Given there are some date differences in my data and some very rough math, still the CDS market outweighs even the value and number of homes in the united states. The government helping a few more poor people get houses is a drop in the bucket compared to the failure of CDSs and the "too big to fail" banks' involvement in that mess.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/ahs/03dtchrt/tab2-1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_estate_pricing
http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/financial-crisis-primer-less-family-friendly-but-way-better/

There's possibly a math mistake in there, or an oversimplification. It was done in a rush on a Facebook comment thread. The main point stands though that "poor people getting houses they can't afford" is a drop in the bucket compared to the size of the Credit Default Swap mess. It was bad deregulation in 2000 and a failure to patch that hole for this long that led us to the mess we are in. And for that, yes, you can blame greedy corporations and our representatives in Congress that did nothing to undo the mistake of not regulating those CDSs.

Neglected Blog Is Neglected

So this idea has failed, but I'm going to try to rescue it with a shot post with quick and dirty math about Credit Default Swaps that was fun to put together but potentially has some horrific math error I haven't seen that will render the entire post bad. So.. stay tuned!

"As Tall As Cliffs" - Margot & the Nuclear So and So's

I'm sure all of the Readers are familiar with this band, but you might not be familiar with this series of videos from La Blogotheque.  Basically, they take an artist or artists and have them walk around in a public place performing some songs.  Andrew Bird's performance of "Weather Systems" is particularly good, in my opinion.  But here's Margot doing one of the songs from their newest album.

Margot and the Nuclear So & So's - As Tall as cliffs - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Analyzing Another Potential Bailout

First our banks failed, then our porn industry calls for a bailout as well. Now our auto industry teeters on the brink of collapse. But another big failure is on the horizon with consequences we cannot possibly imagine.

JDB: Quick! We need a bailout of the chicken wing industry!
http://deadspin.com/5139146/chicken-wing-shortage-threatens-to-destroy-super-bowl

CWK: Also, I demand a chicken wing industry bailout. The cascade effect as this spills over into our chili and potato skins industry is too much for the economy to bear.

JDB: Chicken Wings is an industry TOO BIG TO FAIL! Oh sure, BW3 can weather the initial storm, probably buy up the smaller failing players but if this is allowed to go on our entire sports bar industry could be taken down.

CWK: It's the small local firms like Scotty's Brewpub that will really feel the effects. Think of the small businessman!

CWK: And of course all the firms the sports bars buy supplies from. I don't think people realize how embedded into the economy the bar food industry is.

JDB: America's over-extension of the chicken wings will also hurt other solid areas within the Sports Bar Market. Sure, the potato skins sector is on solid footing but the weakness of chicken wings will drag it all down.
Not to mention the international effects. China, for one, will feel an impact of an American Chicken Wing Crash

CWK: Why this statistic I have here from the totally unbiased and not at all funded by the bar food industry Center for Bar Food Research (Located in Buffalo, NY) says that unless the "Big Three" sportsbar chains (BW3, Hooters, Damons) get a bailout it could cost the US economy eleventy billion dollars and 3 million jobs.

CWK: If you disagree, then clearly you hate bartenders and food service professionals and want their families to starve.

JDB: Of course, calls to let the Sports Bar Market crash and reorganize on its own into smaller regional or local chains less apt to bring down ancillary markets are roundly dismissed by the CBFR.

JDB: The best compromise I believe would be a nationalization of the Sports Bar Industry, with the government eating the bad Chicken Wing Assets while selling the still strong Potato Skin and Mozzarella Stick sectors. If/when chicken wings rebound, America will then be better off and able to profit from them

I don't think America has faced a crisis like this since the New York Bagel Crash of 1934.

The GOP Version Of The Bill Is Stuffed With Eagle Down

So it looks like the Democrats in Congress and the Obama Administration are already caving to the Big Scary Republicans.

House Democrats appear likely to jettison family planning funds for the low-income from an $825 billion economic stimulus bill, officials said late Monday, following an appeal from President Barack Obama at a time the administration is courting Republican critics of the legislation.

Dear Democrats Who Happen To Actually, You Know, Be In Power By A Decent Margin,
When negotiating from a position of power, you throw out a high number that you know you can't get and back down from there. You don't start off at your desired result and then let the opposition lowball you down.

I swear, it's like the Democrats are Amy from Futurama and the Republicans are the car salesman Victor (the 1:10 mark is where you can see the resemblance):

FuturamaWeeknights, 9p/8c

Amy's Car Shopping

More Funny Videos
Comedians on Tour

Get Funny Ringtones
Stand-Up Comedy

So who does that make Malfunctioning Eddie?

Via Think Progress.

Update: Brad at Sadly, No! knows how to negotiate with Victor.

99 Problems, but a Bush ain't one

I'll try not to let this become a video blog, but this is too good not to share. Jay-Z at the Obama for America Staff Ball:




ANd one more bit of funny. The common joke was that Dick Cheney looked like Dr. Strangelove, but I like The Foggy Monocle's take of Cheney as The Big Lebowski alot.