Indiana has made a name for itself many times over the years by being at the top of this list or that list.

Like just recently our proud state showed up at the top of the list of states with the most high school dropouts.

Nice.

And we have eight of the 10 largest high school gymnasiums in the world, so we certainly top that list.

But the list we top that came out this week was the most bizarre yet.

Yes, Indiana tops the list of states with the most terrorist targets.

That's right. We have more terror targets right here in the Hoosier State than they do in New York, California, Illinois or Washington, D.C.

Here's the list of the top 10 states and the number of terror targets in each:

1. Indiana - 8,591

2. Wisconsin - 7,146

3. New York - 5,687

4. Virginia - 4,231

5. Texas - 3,804

6. Washington - 3,650

7. Nebraska - 3,457

8. California - 3,212

9. Pennsylvania - 2,873

10. Illinois - 2,059

All across the land, 77,069 terror targets were identified, so Indiana contains roughly one in nine of them. That's between 11 and 12 percent.

Of course, this terror target list was compiled by the federal government so that should tell you right away how credible it is.

Seems the feds asked our state officials to list everything in the state that could be a potential target.

So, according to a story in the Indianapolis Star, state officials put all "critical resources and infrastructure" on the list. Critical resources and infrastructure apparently included things like hospitals, nursing homes, big buildings, flea markets and Wal-Marts.

One of the terror targets on the list is Amish Country Popcorn, a small business in Adams County.

State officials told the Star that they were just doing what they were told by federal administrators from Homeland Security.

They weren't given any criteria for what was or was not a "critical" asset, so I suppose they wanted to err on the safe side.

I guess one could just shrug this off as just another amusing example of inane governmental bureaucracy and inefficiency.

But actually, it's a little more serious than that.

The complete list is known as the National Asset Database. And it is this database that's used to determine how much money states should get in anti-terrorism grants.

So, based on the database, Indiana would get 30 percent more anti-terror money than New York.

That 's just crazy and counterproductive.

A few months ago, lawmakers were bemoaning the fact that New York's share of federal anti-terror money diminished this year.

"Now we know why the Homeland Security grant formula came out as wacky as it was," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told The New York Times. "This report is the smoking gun that thoroughly indicts the system."

I find myself in a rare moment of agreement with the liberal lawmaker from New York.

But you see, the most disappointing part of this whole story is the fact that it is our tax dollars that are being squandered here.

Hundreds of millions of tax dollars are at stake here and we can't get it right.

It's like the piles of FEMA trailers that were built and towed to a holding area to rot.

One of my co-workers - who loves nothing more than a good spread sheet - added up all the taxes he paid last year.

Federal income tax, FICA, state and local taxes, sales tax and property taxes. He also included licensing fees.

The final tally showed that fully 51 percent of he and his wife's gross income went to some sort of tax.

And there are plenty of politicians in Washington who think he isn't taxed enough. They want to raise taxes.

For what? FEMA trailers and protection for popcorn factories?

It really is sadly insane.

I think most taxpayers don't mind paying a fair amount of their income to the government.

But they also expect the government to be a good steward of those tax dollars.

It isn't. It's a horrible, wasteful, inefficient, inept steward of tax dollars.

The National Asset Database is just the latest sorry example. [[In-content Ad]]