The Zionsville school board has tabled, for now, a proposal to randomly test students for drugs.  Those not familiar with such tests should realize they can consist of tests of blood, saliva, urine, or hair.  Results can indicate “false positives,” and so a positive test usually is followed by another test to confirm presence of whatever the illicit substance might have been revealed in the first test.

   One parent was quoted: “If you want to test my child, test my child!”

  …

   One’s cynicism increases with age, and as one lives each day in a City whose Mayor is Greg Ballard.

   When the town hall-type meetings were held last year to discuss the proposed Whole Foods development on College Avenue, the “Envision” plan for Broad Ripple was discussed. The people who “Envision” change in Broad Ripple wanted to convert more areas to be pedestrian-friendly. There was talk of conversion of parts of Broad Ripple Avenue to a pedestrians-only mall. Pedestrians would…

   There have been calls for the States to convene to make changes to the United States Constitution. Article V of the Constitution provides:

   “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this…

   The States of Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana. Tax revenues and sales of Girl Scout® cookies went up. I am not sure what effect legalization has had on funds law enforcement has collected from forfeiture actions, but one would surmise those funds are down.

   Hoosiers who want to travel to Colorado or Washington or both should give serious consideration as to whether to indulge in cannabis sativa. “Weed” might be legal in Denver and Spokane, but the effects of consumption…

   The numbers and rates of unplanned teen pregnancies and teen abortions have dropped over the past several years.  Colorado’s numbers and rates have fallen at a quicker pace than other States. In 2008, Colorado was ranked as having the 29th lowest teen birth rate.  By 2012, Colorado was 19th.

   Part of Colorado’s success has been provision of free birth control, without necessity of parental consent, to teenagers. The Colorado Family Planning Initiative “has provided more than 30,000…

   Value for the entertainment dollar is a matter much sought after. The admission price of a feature film at an area theater plus popcorn plus a beverage can easily top twenty bucks per person. If the movie sucks, one has experienced rolling the dice of seeing only “snake eyes.”      There are a few entertainment bets that produce “wins” for less of an investment.  

   The Indianapolis International Film Festival starts Thursday, July 17 and runs until Saturday, July 26. This will be…

   Music!
   Steven Hayes, bassist for The Common, will be our guest as Matt Stone and I discuss music.
   We stream from 11 am to 1 pm on Live365. You also can hit the icon on this website or go to Civil Discourse Now on Face Book.

   States do not have “rights.” States have powers.  Human beings have “rights.”

   This is an important distinction. When some people argue that the Federal government overreaches, often they do so in the context of an issue in which a violation of the rights of “States’ rights” is claimed.  “States rights” often was raised in regard to Federal legislation in the 1960s aimed at racial discrimination. More recently advocates of greater restrictions on reproductive rights and greater…

   Do you want to know the nuts and bolts of political campaigns, the various items to be planned even before a candidate announces her or his intent to run?

   We will stream "live" from the offices of the Englehart Group, 405 Mass Ave, Suite 300 from 11 am to 1 pm to discuss political campaigns and the roles political consultants play in the campaigns.

   Our guests will be Blair Englehart and Adam Kirsch.

   Blair Englehart is a co-founder of the Englehart Group, a…

   In DePauw University's Memorial Student Union each week, a feature film---complete with three or four minutes of cartoons as an intro---was shown, twice on Friday night and twice on Saturday night. Admission cost a dollar. The experience was communal.

   "The Candidate" was one week's film. Robert Redford played the hippie-ish son of a former governor of California whom Peter Boyle's character recruits to run for United States Senate. The film is a classic. Redford devolves from…

   The contrasts would be sharp.

   In 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia over the summer. Of 73 men chosen by their respective States, only 55 participated. Of those, 39 were present to sign the document. Many delegates stayed in taverns. Inns and sleeping rooms were common amenities of taverns. Delegates had been sworn to secrecy about the proceedings and deliberations. Many of the delegates attended dinner parties, during which copious amounts of…

   Yesterday on InForeFront, Andrew Downs, a professor at IPFW, blogged about the effort to convene a convention to amend the United States Constitution under Article V, the text of which is set forth at the bottom of this blog.

   Professor Downs apparently advocates for such a convention. He “spoke briefly with a protestor who gave me two reasons why she was opposed to the idea. One reason echoed one of the protestors’ posters. ‘We don’t need law changers. We need law keepers.’ The…

   Sometimes it is difficult to agree with a specific person. There might be a list of such people one keeps, if not on paper or on a hard drive, then at least in one’s head.

   Pat Robertson has said things that secured him a place on my list of such persons. Glenn Beck is on that list, too. Apparently both Pat Robertson and Glenn Beck this week have stated the United States was wrong to invade Iraq and would be wrong to commit more troops to attempt to stop the chaos there. Mr. Beck…

   "Hinduism and Buddhism" was a course I took at DePauw. The professor was agog when Rollo May was scheduled to speak at our school. I never had heard of May, and inferred he was a scholar of eastern religions and philosophies. I took the course as an elective because I was interested in the subjects. I missed May's lecture. Later, I read some of May's works and regretted having missed that talk. May was described as an existential psychologist. His thoughts about creativity were of great…

   There is a lack of “trust” between the United States and Iran. Members of Congress have expressed concern about the United States seeking assistance from Iran in regard to the chaos created in Iraq as an aftermath of the United States invasion of Iraq.

   I believe it prudent for the people of Iran not to trust the United States government.

   In 1953, the United States joined with Britain and overthrew the popular Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh.  The Guardian…

   In Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, on what commonly is called the “copyright page,” all are warned: “All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in connection with reviews written specifically for inclusion in a magazine or newspaper.”

   I now shall quote from Cat’s Cradle.  The use is not for a “review” of the work, first published in 1963. I quote Vonnegut…

   We streamed live from IndyPride and had a lot of fun, amidst the chaos.

   Thanks go to a lot of people, but without Chris Morehead, Zach Adamson and Annette Siegel Gross we might not have gotten onto the air. 

   We look forward to covering this huge event next year.

   “Progressive” is defined as “favoring or advocating progress, improvement, or reform, esp. in political matters.” The American College Dictionary, 1962 ed., p. 968.

   Society in the United States seemed progressive in the 1960s, as compared to decades before. The concept of one person-one vote was given credence in Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962).  The Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965) were Federal laws aimed at protection of the basic right to vote. The…

   Civil Discourse Now will stream live from the Pride Festival downtown this Saturday. Watch for our banner and drop by to say hello.

   We did not know what the “Gadsden flag” was, but I sported it proudly on a button for the better part of a year.

   The two-day debate tournament was at Wisconsin State University at Oshkosh in the first semester of my third year at DePauw. Our first rounds were Friday afternoon going into the evening. Saturday morning’s rounds ended at lunch time, as I recall, with speaker awards and “e-lims”—the one-loss bracket format in which the eight or sixteen teams (I forget if the tournament…