Civil Discourse Now

Where the far left and far right overlap for fun and enlightenment

All Blog Posts (1,796)

Let's sit outside gun stores/shooting ranges & photograph those who enter!

Is there overlap of gun nuts & ppl harass women who enter women’s health centers? A peer reviewed study might establish a link. Also: do guns deter crimes & prevent more injuries & death than they cause? That question can’t be effectively answered. 1/6



The CDC have been barred, since the mid-1990s, by Federal law from sanctioning such research. The work can be significant. For example, 1964 Surgeon General’s report on mainstream cigarette smoke relied on peer review… Continue

Added by Mark Small on February 19, 2022 at 8:41am — No Comments

Opposites of meaning on a cold evening of rain

The Land of the Free has the largest # of inmates, total & as % of population of any country. The Home of the Brave uses drones operated like blips in video games, by kids in air-conditioned, reinforced concrete bunkers, here in the USA. The drones kill people. 1/3



One hopes they kill intended targets & usually on the other side of the World w/o a war declared. People used to say, “Love it or leave it.” I preferred, “Change it or lose it” Now anything might be too late. I’ll… Continue

Added by Mark Small on February 18, 2022 at 9:37pm — No Comments

"Liberty Institute" in Texas was created to stifle academic freedom

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “liberty” as “the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant.” Academic freedom in college means professors “should be free from institutional censorship or discipline.” AAUP, 1940. 1/5

Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick tweeted about Critical Race Theory (CRT) “we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed. That’s why we created the Liberty Institute at UT [Univ Texas].” To “ban” is “to legally or officially…

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Added by Mark Small on February 17, 2022 at 9:00am — No Comments

Gun survey this left-wing GOP candidate has received! Yee-haw!

1 benefit of candidacy 4 Indiana State Rep is organizations want to know where I stand on their pet issues. “Hoosier Gun Rights” & “National Association for Gun Rights” sent me a “candidate Survey” to be completed & signed by 3/4/22. Two items are @ the end. 1/8

“Please Note: Failure to answer a question will be graded as an anti-gun answer.”& “My signature affirms that the answers given above accurately represent my beliefs as a candidate for State Representative in the…

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Added by Mark Small on February 16, 2022 at 6:02pm — No Comments

Tonight on CDN: SEL and CRT w/Kim Livorno of Purple for Parents and Ronald Cunningham K-12 educator

There are people who say slavery, as an issue, is in this country’s distant past. As such kids in public schools should not be made to feel “uncomfortable” by study of slavery. We should put slavery in the context of a tumor holding that which should be released. 1/8

U.S. average adult weights today. Adult male: near 200 lbs, female 170. At the start of the Civil War, slaves were 17% of the total population and 32% population of the States that seceded. The tumor would be 34/28.9 lbs…

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Added by Mark Small on February 15, 2022 at 9:54am — No Comments

Free speech protects those who say trump stole 2016 election; his acts of treason are not protected

Prof Laurence Tribe noted trump “now suggests that in a country as ‘strong’ as he’d make ours, those linking his 2016 campaign to Russia would be put to death. That’s Donald Trump’s America. Not kidding.” I would have to be included on the list of the condemned. 1/5

I’ve written how trump obtained office w/Russian help. The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, passed by veto-proof majorities in House & Senate in 2017, noted Putin, in 2012, aimed to influence our…

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Added by Mark Small on February 14, 2022 at 8:18am — No Comments

I do not want racists' votes & I'm GOP candidate in IN86

If you are a voter in Indiana’s House of Representatives District 86 (IN86), please consider why you should request a Republican ballot for the primary election on May 3, especially if “GOP” or “Republican,” in these times, makes you angry or has an emetic effect. 1/9

1) Not long ago both major parties had progressive wings. Clean Air & Clean Water Acts were enacted & EPA created during a GOP administration. Roe v Wade: written by GOP-nominated Justice. @ 1 time Nixon & Dr…

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Added by Mark Small on February 13, 2022 at 7:46am — No Comments

Also from my platform: protect voting rights & eliminate "winner-take-all" method of selecting electors

More random points from my platform. 10) Voting rights. We should make it easier for people to register to vote & then to vote. Early voting, voting by mail and multiple polling sites facilitate voting. We need to pursue all three. Gerrymandering is a horrible practice. 1/6

Both major parties gerrymander to marginalize opponents. Redrawing district lines inherently is political, but should be insulated from partisans for any party. Non-partisan commissions are a step in the right…

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Added by Mark Small on February 12, 2022 at 8:33am — No Comments

Evangelical control of public schools = no choice

It is not easy to refuse to go along. Evangelicals, a minority among Hoosier Christians, might say a child may choose not to go along w/classroom-led prayer, ignore the difficulty of going against the “tide.” (NOTE: prayer in school never has been illegal.) 1/8

Each generation starts out as kids who face crap, some of which is different from what earlier generations faced & some crap is the same, e.g., puberty. In the 1960s I was lucky, as were a lot of the kids in our…

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Added by Mark Small on February 11, 2022 at 9:25pm — 1 Comment

Evangelicals lose out if kids are taught empathy & how to think

2/2/22, Huntington H.S., WV, from ABC News: students were ushered into an assembly & “told to close their eyes in prayer and urged to turn their lives over to Christ.” Students couldn’t leave “because the classroom was locked.” A spokesperson for the school, when asked ... 1/6



how an evangelical revival was required “during the school's daily COMPASS ‘noninstructional break,’” said, “‘It’s unfortunate that it happened... We don’t believe it will ever happen again.’” We have… Continue

Added by Mark Small on February 11, 2022 at 9:07am — No Comments

Purple for Parents Indiana seeks to impose its moral code on kids

Evangelicals (31%) aren’t a majority of Hoosier voters, citizens or Christians (72%), but act like they are a super-majority. There are (thankfully fewer) people like right-wing preacher/former GOP candidate Micah Beckwith. God, he claims, speaks w/Beckwith often. 1/10

Christians have a bad history of discriminating against each other. As recently 8/14/60, Eugene C Pulliam, publisher of The Indianapolis Star, wrote: “Why won’t Jack Kennedy be frank enough to admit publicly that it was…

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Added by Mark Small on February 9, 2022 at 7:39pm — No Comments

More on GOP chair Hupfer's 7 things GOP stands for; actually the last

The last of 7 points in a Feb 4 email from Indiana GOP chair Hupfer that purport to reply to President Biden’s question “What are Republicans for?” Item 6: “Equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome.” This ignores reality. Teddy Roosevelt, a GOP Pres, saw this. 1/6

TR advocated for "a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes." He argued that estate taxes are required "to preserve a measurable equality of opportunity." As we have seen, the more wealth goes into fewer hands, the…

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Added by Mark Small on February 8, 2022 at 2:37pm — 1 Comment

More on GOP chair Hupfer's things GOP stands for

To return once more to the Feb 4 email in which Indiana GOP chair Hupfer purportedly replied to President Biden’s question “What are Republicans for?” w/7 points. Item 6: “The sanctity of life.” That’s a grand idea for the Grand Old Party! We need to sponsor a study. 1/5

How many actual lives, as in people in existence, have been saved as a result of Roe v Wade? We have several categories. Incidence of violent crime dropped in 1991 nationwide, about the time males who would have been…

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Added by Mark Small on February 7, 2022 at 4:05pm — 1 Comment

When is a child's mind free from a racist parent

U.S. Const., Amend XIV protects a parent's right to raise their child. K.T.K. v. DCS, 989 N.E.2d 1225, 1230 (Ind. 2013). A parent's interest in care, custody & control of her/his child perhaps oldest of fundamental liberty interests. Troxel v Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 65 (2000). 1/7

“Racism” is “belief that some races are inherently superior to other races. ( ) Unfair treatment of people often including violence against them , because they belong to a different race from one’s own.”…

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Added by Mark Small on February 6, 2022 at 8:41pm — No Comments

More on GOP chair Hupfer's 7 things GOP stands for

In a Feb 4 email, Indiana GOP chair Hupfer replied to President Biden’s question “What are Republicans for?” w/7 points. Item 3: “Free, fair, and secure elections,” an implicit value of any U.S. political party, but a not-too-subtle swipe at the 2020 election & trump’s loss. 1/5



First, let’s cut the crap. An article, 2/3/21, by the Hoover Institution, affiliated w/Stanford, states allegations of voter fraud in 2020 “fail either because sometimes the ‘fact’ is inaccurate or it is… Continue

Added by Mark Small on February 6, 2022 at 7:55am — No Comments

More points, at random, from my platform

Random platform points. 5) Gun violence: gun ppls’ claim that gun ownership deters crime not been subj of peer review study. If claim is true gun ppl should welcome such studies that by law CDC cant sponsor. Indiana should fund such studies at our public universities here. 1/5



6) Environment: w/some of the dirtiest air & H2O in U.S. Indiana isn’t good 4 business. Air should be clean enough to breathe & H2O in our streams clean enough that a person can drink directly from them… Continue

Added by Mark Small on February 5, 2022 at 3:06pm — No Comments

More points, at random, from my platform

Random platform points. 5) Gun violence: gun ppls’ claim that gun ownership deters crime not been subj of peer review study. If claim is true gun ppl should welcome such studies that by law CDC cant sponsor. Indiana should fund such studies at our public universities here. 1/5



6) Environment: w/some of the dirtiest air & H2O in U.S. Indiana isn’t good 4 business. Air should be clean enough to breathe & H2O in our streams clean enough that a person can drink directly from them… Continue

Added by Mark Small on February 5, 2022 at 3:06pm — No Comments

Hupfer's wrong: Pres Biden's agenda is not "far Left" but I am far-Left

Indiana GOP chair Hupfer asserts: “Joe Biden, in an attempt to place blame for his floundering far-Left agenda, has been asking the rhetorical question: ‘What are Republicans for?’” Let’s be clear on a cpl of points. First, Pres Biden’s agenda is not “far-Left.” 1/7



I’m “far Left” & agenda incl protection of civil & voting rts, women’s reproductive rts, passage of ERA, Medicare for all, clean air & water, elimination of student debt, cut military budget & eliminate DH… Continue

Added by Mark Small on February 5, 2022 at 8:16am — No Comments

What does the GOP stand for? I'm running against bigotry & ignorance

I received an email from Indiana GOP chair Kyle Hupfer who asserts: “Joe Biden, in an attempt to place blame for his floundering far-Left agenda, has been asking the rhetorical question: ‘What are Republicans for?’ Of course, [Pres Biden] doesn't really want to know” 1/7

In 2020, GOP stuck w/2016 platform & its lead candidate added “core priorities.” Hupfer lists 7 items. Item One: “American exceptionalism”: our nation’s ideas & principles give us unique moral leadership &…

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Added by Mark Small on February 4, 2022 at 3:50pm — No Comments

God is invited to call in & be recorded

JR Ewing was all-American tone: winning’s no fun unless you cheat. Indiana’s education system skews rules in favor of schools that aren’t supposed to receive public funds. Ind.Const, Art. I §6 states: “No money shall B drawn from the treasury, 4 the benefit 1/5

of any religious/theological institution.” But today a lot of Indiana tax $$$ go 2 religious schools. Prof Sheila Kennedy’s blog a few days ago is accurate: “religious indoctrination academies supported by Indiana’s voucher…

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Added by Mark Small on February 2, 2022 at 9:28pm — No Comments

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