Let's say the so-called Fair Tax is enacted. As I understand the Fair Tax, new goods are subject to taxation. Used goods are not.

   What constitutes a "new good"? Let's look at automobiles. One new tire on a used car does not a new car make. On the other extreme, one used tire on a car fresh off the assembly line, I think most people would agree, does not make the car "used." What about "refurbished" cars? The State---and I use the word in the general sense of sovereign---would…

   Ryan Vaughn, the president of the City-County Council, was one of our guests on Saturday's show.  To his credit, he could have lied and no one (except him) would have realized it.

   One issue that we discussed was mass transit in Indy. I explained I lived in Chicago for a couple of years where we didn't have to schedule our lives around arrival times of the bus at the corner. Especially during morning and evening rush hours, on most routes, a bus came by every five or ten minutes.…

   Paul Ogden and I co-host "Civil Discourse Now" and film on Saturdays, usually at 1 p.m., at Big Hat Books, 6510 Cornell in Broad Ripple. If you turn east onto 65th Street off of College, Cornell is the street immediately before the Monon Trail. Big Hat Books is the second building north of 65th on the left (west) side of Cornell. This week we shall discuss local campaign issues with candidates for City-County Council. 

   On October 22 we shall discuss the legalization of all…

   There are two populist movements emergent in the United States today. My friend and colleague Paul Ogden perhaps disagree on basic political philosophies. I agree with his position that the Occupy Wall Street people and the tea baggers are both populist movements. Did you notice that Occupy Wall Street did not adopt a name that had a meaning of which its participants were unaware? The OWS people have college degrees, from what I understand. A great many of them are angry over having…

   Words and phrases oftentimes are misleading. One can ask whether "local politics"---or politics of any kind, can be discussed rationally. One could qualify the topic by particular place---Marion County, Indiana---and time---the  second decade of the Twenty-First, what historians in all likelihood will call the Chinese Century or the Indian Century but in no event Another American Century. As economic policies begun under the nominal presidency of the man who almost was cast as Rick Blaine…

   There are advocates for the Fair Tax as a substitute for the Federal Income Tax. There also are advocates of no taxes at all. This Saturday, "Civil Discourse Now" will have, as our two topics, the Fair Tax---and that is not a tax levied to fund the State Fair ("Our state fair is a very good fair!") or the various county fairs, although it could be---and the Federal Reserve. We start at 1 p.m. at Big Hat Books.

   I must apologize to a person who took the time and the interest to…

   In grade school, junior high and high school, we watched the news each evening. At least those of later to be called geeks watched the news. A chief feature of the reports of Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley (after his partner Chet Huntley succumbed to cigarette-related cancer), and whomever the anchor-of-the-month was featured on ABC was the latest in student demonstrations. Civil rights demonstrations were on as well, but as a white kid raised in rural Indiana, I identified more with the…

   Ann Coulter must have spiked the LSAT. How else could she have obtained admission into the University of Michigan School of Law? She only says things to attract attention and sell books, one might say. If she were a Hollywood gossip person, matters might be different. I do not mean to downplay the harm that harsh, false words can have to a person who is the target of an item from a Hollywood gossip person. I do not say "columnist" because, here in 2011, I think  that term is obsolete. …

   On Saturday, October 8, on "Civil Discourse Now," Paul Ogden and I will discuss the so-called fair tax and also the Federal Reserve.

   We did not shoot the show last week and that was my fault. I was sick on Thursday and was out-of-sorts through the weekend. I feel particularly guilty because one person showed up at Big Hat Books, 6510 Cornell Avenue, where we do the show at 1:00 p.m. I would encourage anyone who wishes to do so to come to the show.

   I think  the fair tax…

   This is the year the Colts can use to draft a replacement for Peyton Manning, when Manning retires in 2019 or 2020. The record of our boys in blue should be dismal. If the Colts are as ineffective as they looked against the Browns, we should see the Number One pick---please don't tell me it's been traded away---firmly in Bill Polian's clutches. I do not know if there is a quarterback of Peyton Manning's odd combination of talents---physical ability, football genius, and a geekish love of…

PLACE: Broad Ripple Tavern

   On November 12, 2011, DePauw University will play its rival to the north, Wabash College. Former Republican candidate for United States Congress---and alum of the school in Crawfordsvile---Carlos May has agreed to join me in a discussion, or more likely debate, agreement on the exact wording of which we have yet to reach. It will encompass whether single-gender, post-secondary educational institutions are of any positive value. We should start at about…

   Members of the legal profession are reputed to gouge clients for fees. There is the joke about the lawyer who died, went to the hereafter, and was told he was overdue because, from his billing records, he was indicated as being nearly one thousand years old. A lawyer cannot bill for work not performed, however. A "retainer" must be billed against by the hour. Also, the methods of billing, be they by the tenth of an hour or a quarter of an hour, must be by some fraction. As an example, a…

   On this week's show, being shot Saturday, October 1, Paul Ogden and I shall discuss two topics. One is the wisdom or folly of forfeiture laws. Those are laws that provide the means by which local government can confiscate private property with fewer restraints, some would say due process, than that in which it otherwise would have to engage. The second is whether all drugs should be legalized.

   We start at 1:00 p.m. at Big Hat Books, 6510 Cornell Avenue, in Broad Ripple.  

   I attended and graduated from a high school that, prior to my enrollment, had a speech team, but not a debate team. A couple of weeks into my first year on the speech team, we attended a debate tournament as a favor to the coach of another school. I was hooked. I loved debate. I was on the team all through high school. The culmination was our making state finals. When I reached Depauw, I already had been in contact with the coach, Doctor Weiss, and one of the debaters. Again, I debated al…

   The deep political theorist and former candidate for Vice President Sarah Palin complained, a couple of years back, about "death panels" in President Obama's health care reform package.

   First, I want to say I think the package was weak. We need national health care, not this weird hybrid first proposed by the Republicans in 1994, one in which private insurance companies play a big role. Second, the plan created no "death panels." In fact, for years private insurance companies…

   In 1973, when I registered for first semester classes at DePauw, I was amazed by the fact DePauw had its own computer. The thing was the size of a two-bedroom house in a blue-colar 1960s subdivision. Its memory was probably less than that of a digital wrist watch---for those who still wear watches---today.

   This explains, in part, the problems we have had with software, etc., and the delay in the show Paul Ogden and I co-host, "Civil Discourse Now," coming on-line. Well, finally…

   Our streets need fixed.

   I wanted to get home from the office in time to watch the kick-off. I stopped at Marsh for a couple of things for chili. I asked the cashier if the percentage of people in Colts regalia decreased after games started. Her non-answer was "I don't think one person should mean so much to people." Okay, this was Sunday, and maybe her reference was in the context of theology. I made it home in time to watch about the only good play the Colts would make, a first…

Pael show. pa.u. l Ogden and mark Small hosting Greg Fettig and Luther Garcia, Show should be up at 11 a.m. Enjot.