I thought the idea was that we should have as many eligible voters vote as want to vote.

   Part of the concept was not to make registration as difficult as possible.

   Part of the concept was not to change rules of eligibility to eliminate persons from being able to register.

   Part of the concept was not to reduce the number and location of polling sites so as to raise the degree of difficulty to that of a walk on the four-inch-wide bar (maybe it is six; you get…

   At 11 a.m. on this 7th day of April, 2012, "Civil Discourse Now" will stream live our discussion of war powers of the United States. Guests will be INdianapolis lawyer and war power advocate Jeff Cox, and pragmatist (by his own description) James Nease.

   We will film at Big Hat Books, 6510 Cornell Avenue in Broad Ripple.

   The Constitution provides that Congress shall have te power to declare war. The president holds the position of Commander-in-Chief. Especially since in…

   George Zimmerman is innocent.

   In this country our rights are recognized by the Federal Constitution, and the constitutions of the 50 states. One basic premise of criminal law is that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Until Zimmerman is charged, tried, and convicted, officially he is innocent. This premise was recognized by the United States Supreme Court in Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S. 432 (1895).

   One problem in the case is the initial reluctance of…

   There should be no controversy over Indiana BMV’s recent de-certification of specialty license plates of three (3) groups, including the plate of one group that helps gay teenagers deal with the stresses of being gay, a teenager, and (I would infer; and perhaps this is the greatest source of stress) a Hoosier.

   License plates on motor vehicles serve two legitimate purposes: identification of individual vehicles and generation of revenue for administration of the system for…

   The topic of next week’s Show is whether a declaration of war is necessary, under the Constitution, to commit United States military forces to combat.

   Too often the U.S. has sent troops to faraway places for reasons difficult to discern. Prior to World War II, Indochina was a possession of France. The people living in Indochina had not invited the French to come and occupy their lands. The French conquered the lands. In turn, Japan swept through the area and took it from the…