Bernard P. Fife was a lawman. He wore a badge—issued to him by Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry. On the lot where they shot "The Andy Griffith Show," Barney Fife was a lawman—so long as the cameras were rolling, he was acting within the script, and all the other actors stayed in character. In other words, he was a fictional lawman. Barney Fife also is the first example of whom people think of an overly-zealous, authoritative person who should not have even one bullet on his…

I finished Alfred Lilienthal's book What Price Israel? recently. A very interesting thesis, especially in light of other knowledge that I previously possessed concerning some of the author's assertations.

Several things stuck in my mind. This book was written in the early 1960s, yet most of the author's comments concerning the influence of well-heeled minority special interests upon the U. S. Congress and Presidency are as accurate today as they were…

   Would this person be in her/his right mind?

   Mr. League, a wealthy person, announces he wants to throw a party, in a private residence, for a lot of his wealthy friends. He has certain requirements, but insists he pay—nothing. He receives several responses. He picks Mr. Indy (I’m trying to make identities vague here), because Mr. Indy not only will not charge Mr. League any rent, but will pay all the costs—security, food, beverages (and Mr. League’s pals like to drink), and…

   One would think a small shop would be the kind of local business politicians (of either major party) would want to benefit from a publicly-subsidized event. After all, each election cycle "small business" is an often-used phrase to extol candidates’ virtues. I never have heard a politician speak ill of "small business" as a concept.

   Let’s say a locally-owned sandwich shop, within one mile of Lucas Oil Stadium (or in Broad Ripple, on Mass Ave, or in Fountain Square) displays a…

   The First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads, in relevant part:

  "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech..."

   Article I, sec. 9 of the Indiana Constitution (Article I is our State’s Bill of Rights) reads:

      "No law shall be passed, restraining the free interchange of thought and opinion, or restricting the right to speak,    write, or print, freely on any subject whatever: but for the abuse of that right, every person…

   Next Saturday, January 28, 2012, at 11:00 a.m., "Civil Discourse Now" will film one or more acts of civil disobedience. What is "civil disobedience"? Black’s Law Dctionary: "A deliberate but nonviolent act of lawbreaking to call attention to a particular law or set of laws of questionable legitimacy or morality."

   This is real, folks. This is as real as it gets. The conduct will address corporate greed and oppression as well as efforts to quash free speech.

  …

   I lived in Wisconsin for three-and-a-half weeks. In April, 1979, I was recently graduated from college and unemployed. I had dubbed the place in which I lived, on Home Avenue in Kokomo, "The Slum." If the movie "Stripes" had been out, maybe I would have enlisted. Instead, I decided to go to Madison, Wisconsin. A fraternity brother and his future wife had transferred to the University of Wisconsin. I had visited once, and the place seemed ultra-cool.

   Unfortunately, a lot of other…

   Bob Dylan sang, "You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." The Weathermen, later changed to Weather Underground, named themselves after that lyric. The on-line forecast for tday shows: (1) a predicted high temperature of 56 degrees, (2) a current temperature of 57, (3) a seventy percent (70%) chance of rain, (4) current conditions include rain, and (5) I hear rain beating against the walls of the house.

   This disconnect (current popular word) was played out…

   The Indiana General Assembly is comprised of he House of Representatives (100 members) and the Senate (50 members). Members of the House serve two-year terms. Members of the Senate serve four-year terms. Every two years all of the seats of the House and half of the seats of the Senate are on the ballot.

   That means all of the current members of the House and half of the members of the Senate (absent a member here or there who resigned because of scandal; such is politics) ran for…

   Until the mid-1960s, as I recall from growing up, there only were two bookstores in Kokomo. One was on the town square. The place was closed-in, shelves floor-to-ceiling, with the feel of a book shoppe in a 1930s movie about London. I only went into the place once or twice. As was frequently the case, the old man had a grudge against the owner or one of the counter people for a slight, real or imagined, from long before. Only after I had graduated from college and stopped there on a whim…

   The latest word is Democratic members of Indiana’s General Assembly want to issue of Right to Work ("RTW") placed on the ballot as a referendum on the November ballot. House Speaker Brian Bosma has said the idea is reasonable and he will listen to debate on the matter. Former Speaker, Rep. Patrick Bauer of South Bend makes a good point when he says since RTW was not debated in the last election, the matter should be placed before the people of Indiana.

   That is an excellent…

   Here are few things to know about the Right to Work ("RTW") legislation, the vote in the Indiana General Assembly for which has been held off for several days (before the inevitable, it would seem, passage):

   1) Compulsory union membership is not an issue.

   NLRB v. GM, 373 U.S. 734 (1963) held that people cannot be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. However, employees can be compelled to pay toward the costs of negotiations on wages and benefits.…

   We were taught in Civics, freshman year of high school, that the Constitution created an experiment, in which individual States could experiment with variations of law. Out of all the experimentation would come improvements, along with some failures.

   One dynamic of the Constitutional Convention that was overlooked was the competition between the States. After all, that was a significant reason for Hamilton’s, Madison’s, and the other delegates’ departure from the charter they…

   Once more, we go to the Orwellian aspects of the legislation called  "Right to Work" ("RTW"). Who would be so left-wing in their radicalism as to assert that a human eing has a right to work in her/his job? Oh, that’s right—the same folks who are so protective of Indiana’s status as an at-will employment State. "At-will" means an employer can fire a worker—and Mitt Romney has said he loves firing people—for anything, except, generally, reasons based on race, gender, religion,…

  "Right to Work" ("RTW") sounds like a great idea. Why should anyone be deterred fro a "right to work"? If something is a "right," it should be protected by law.

  The wording of HB 1028 is similar to the other two bills pending before our General Assembly:

"Makes it a Class A misdemeanor to require an individual to: (1) become or remain a               member of a labor organization; (2) pay dues, fees, or other charges to a labor               organization; or (3) pay to a…

   George Orwell’s fame is derived from two books: Animal Farm and 1984. From the latter came the linguistic Newspeak, the language promoted by the State. Today, when one speaks of something as "Orwellian," usually it is in the context of a "good" label applied to something most would consider bad.

   Presently before the Indiana General Assembly are two bills in the House of Representatives (HB 1028 and 1043) and one in the Senate (SB 0395) that are considered "right to…

   During yesterday's Show, I referred to W.A. Clark, a Montana business tycoon/minerals baron of the turns of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, as C.W. Morgan. I got the name wrong, but all the other matters about the man that I cited were correct. I had the name right in my blog from a couple of days ago---and a print-out of the blog in a 3-ring binder right in front of me. So mea culpa.   

"Civil Discourse Now" welcomes back panelist Jeff Cox. Also wwelcome goes to Nicolas Martin, in his first apearance on the Show. Nicolas is a long-time libertarian, a faithful serf to his nine-year-old daughter, and a funeral photographer whose website link is at the end of yesterday's blog & will be repeated on the Show today. Those interested in watching live, we shoot at 11 a.m. at Big Hat Books, 6510 Cornell in Broad Ripple. We will be on-line no later than 11 am Sunday.

   Odds are very good that Western Partnership will be taken up on a petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court. Whether the Montana Supreme Court’s holding will survive there is a bit like speculating whether, once in the NCAA tournament, Indiana University will fare well.

   The justices of the Montana Supreme Court are aware of the possibilities of course. Chief Justice McGrath wrote for the Montana Court fully aware of the possibilities. That is why…

  So, let’s pick up from yesterday. The Montana Supreme Court, on December 30, handed down a decision in Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. Attorney General, 2011 WL 6888567, ("WTP" for short) that, seemingly in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 130 S.Ct. 876 (2011),  has upheld Montana’s ban on corporate donations to a "a candidate or a political committee that supports or opposes a candidate or a political…