When someone refers to an “elephant in the room” the “elephant” usually is an issue that is obvious and significant that all choose to ignore. In regard to GOP candidates in the May 5 primary for U.S. House in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District, the GOP mascot is an interesting touch.

One of my opponents, Kent Abernathy, places NATIONAL DEFENSE as the first priority of the Federal government, says we have to “make responsible choices in how we best spend our defense dollars,” but…

Another of my opponents in the May 5 GOP primary for U.S. House in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District, is Kent Abernathy, whose campaign website home page features eight photographs: at the bottom of the page are two family photographs and one photograph of Mr Abernathy with then-Indiana Governor Mike Pence; in the middle of the page is a face shot of Mr Abernathy; and at the top and in the middle of the page are photographs related to Mr Abernathy’s military career.

Mr Abernathy was…

As of one minute before midnight, Friday, January 24, eight people had formally filed, with the Indiana Secretary of State, as candidates for the May 5 GOP primary for Indiana’s Fifth Congressional District: Kent Abernathy, Andrew Bales, Rev Micah Beckwith, Allen R Davidson, Matthew Hook, Danny Niedergerger, Russell H Stwalley, and I.

Three people whose names are absent from that list, but who have announced their candidacies, are Dr Chuck Dietzen, Indiana Treasurer Kelly Mitchell, and…

The day after the shootings at Kent State University in May, 1970, our teacher in Advanced Biology -class I had first period - asked for a show of hands of everyone who thought the students had gotten what they deserved. I was the only student who didn’t raise a hand.

Western High School in 1970 was not what we, today, would call “progressive.” It had not progressed, one reasonably may infer, by 1984 when a junior high student, Ryan White, was diagnosed with HIV.

I developed a…

Indiana's CAN 2 formCAN2.Form01202020.pdf

Last week I was introduced to several people, over the course of an evening, each time with “and he’s a candidate for the 5th Congressional District ... as a Republican.” The person to whom I was introduced would stare at me.

In the several seconds’ pause I knew, from recent experience, one or more of several thoughts went through that person’s mind: Is this guy a racist [anal orifice]? Is this guy insane? Where did he get that cool corduroy jacket?

Several times on Twitter the…

Senate Bill 75 has been presented before Indiana’s General Assembly by Senator James Buck, a Republican from Kokomo. The bill would remove nomination of candidates for United States Senate from primaries.

To be clear: Buck is a state Senator, but his bill would change the ways in which the two major political parties nominate candidates for United States Senate. In a meeting of GOP people I attended Saturday, people, at first, were perplexed by this move by Indiana Democrats.

After…

On Saturday, February 8, from 6 pm to 8 pm at Elite Banquet Hall, 2820 South Lafountain in Kokomo, Indiana, Indiana’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (“NORML”) will host the first Congressional Cannabis Debate for candidates in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District.

I am one of four candidates - two Democratic Party candidates and one other Republican Party candidate - to accept the invitation. There is no stated “resolution,” as in a traditional,…

Usually when you quote somebody, either it is because you agree with what the person said, believe the person is someone who deserves our attention or both. You even can imply the person quoted shares your beliefs.

If the person quoted is, say, George Washington, you seem to garb yourself in the raiments of the Father of our country. On the other hand, you should be careful about whom you quote and be sure the quote is consistent with the quoted person’s beliefs,

Reverend Micah…

Amongst my opponents in the May 5 GOP primary for United States House of Representatives in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District is Beth Henderson, a registered nurse from Tipton County who uses the moniker “Nurse Beth” for her campaign.

On her website she addresses several issues. Under the header “Protect the Constitution” she states: “We must stand against government overreach into our lives and protect the Second Amendment and the unborn.”

I infer she does not mean she believes…

As noted here yesterday, Andrew Bales is one of my opponents in the May 5 primary for United States House of Representatives in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District. Candidates who take stands on issues risk voter “backlash.”

Candidates - usually “front-runners” if not in others’ at least in their own minds - are safer to keep promises vague and to use bland phrases that harken to “mom, apple pie and the girl next door” and simpler times (that never existed).

Mr. Bales is more…

Andrew Bales is one of my opponents in the May 5 primary for United States House of Representatives in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District. To his credit, Mr. Bales is more specific on more issues than other GOP candidates.

Mr. Bales, on most of those issues and in reasons for his decision to run, are ill-founded and in conflict with long-held principles of conservatism and reality - reality goes out the window when Mr. Bales says he agrees with the current occupant of the Oval Office…

We have been lied to for years about why military intervention absolutely is imperative: Korea, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Gulf War I, Gulf War II, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq.

A lot of US military personnel have been killed. A lot more people from other countries have been killed. Bottom line, if someone bitched, was: They’re fighting for our freedom and democracy!

Like hell they have been.

Today the individual who currently…

There have been several posts, recently on Facebook, that warn of persecution of adherents to the Christian faith if Democrats gain control of the White House and both houses of Congress. In this vein, the current occupant of the Oval Office has promised to “return prayer to school.”

First, the SCOTUS decision that supposedly banned prayer in public schools was Engel v Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962). Neither that decision, nor to follow, banned prayer in school. Group-led prayer was ruled…

People on Twitter and friends of mine here, in Indiana, purportedly a very “red” State, ask how the [Expletive deleted] I can run as a candidate for the United States House of Representatives from Indiana’s 5th Congressional District - or any office - in the Republican Party (GOP).

As I started to write this blog during the evening of January 7, the results of the actions of the current occupant of the Oval Office were playing out on TV. Twice I have watched, in real-time on TV, attacks…

Yesterday a couple of people on Twitter criticized my statement that education is not “free.” They referred to California’s system of post-secondary education that, until Reagan took office as Governor of California, had not charged tuition for individual students from California.

Nothing is “free.” Someone has to pay for it. By falling into this rhetorical trap, people like Betsy DeVos ultimately take charge. Let me explain...

Taxes were central to the early days of this country.…

Has the “American contractor killed” in Iraq whose death prompted the current occupant of the Oval Office - a/k/a dt - to stage attacks in Iraq been identified? If an incident predicates U.S. military action, we should have as many details as possible.

I have yet to see that the person has been identified.

First, was an “American contractor” even killed? The USA has a troublesome track record as to “incidents” upon which we predicate military attacks. In 1964 the Tonkin Gulf…

World-wide ChoMo ring run by high-level Democrats out of the basement of a Georgetown pizza joint that has no basement. Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the 2016 election. President Obama was not born in the U.S. Vaccines cause autism.

These are some of the bizarre claims, some repeated by the current occupant of the Oval Office (a/k/a dt), made by right wingers in the last few years. This is an administration born of reality TV & that eerily resembles aspects of “The Manchurian…

The current occupant of the Oval Office has left governmental positions unfilled. This has implications for any attempt to declare dt unable to perform the duties of office.

Amendment XXV, sec 4 of the Constitution is titled “Determination of presidential inability” and addresses removal of office of the President:

“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit…

The Declaration of Independence is one of our Nation’s founding documents and stands for the idea that government is by consent of the governed: “...Governments are instituted among [People], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,...”

Congress passed Public Law 107-243, “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002" on 10/16/02 and stated reasons for the eventual U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and overthrow of Iraq’s regime.

PL 107-243…