Civil Discourse Now

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

July 2012 Blog Posts (16)

Where are the jobs of the future?

   Where are the jobs of the future?

   In the years after World War II, American factories cranked out goods for all the people home from the War or who had been here waiting for loved ones to come home. Many people made things in factories. A college diploma was not necessary. A high school diploma was not necessary. Work on an assembly line generally paid well and provided good benefits.

   Construction trades required more skills, but paid more money and still required no…

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Added by Mark Small on July 31, 2012 at 6:30am — No Comments

Mind blown by a wonderful week at the Indianapolis International Film Festival---and more today, July 28, 2012!

   The week has been chaotic, fun, educational, and humbling. I also should say it was "mnd-blowing," but the limit of one gerund to a paragraph already has been reached.

   I had "pre-conceived notions" about what we would encounter at the Indianapolis International Film Festival. I worked in and around theater in college and for a short time after. There were great people in that world. However, there are only so many times one could bear to hear an actor describe how he prepared…

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Added by Mark Small on July 28, 2012 at 6:55am — No Comments

Today's Show: From the Indianapolis International Film Festival

   We will shoot from the Indianapolis Museum of Art today at 4:30. We will not stream live, so there will be about a two-hour delay between videotaping and everything going on the internet.

   4:30. Matt Mays is the director of "The Greatest Return," a documentary about environmentalists who have attempted new approaches to deal with the way in which the world has changed and to save the species that are in danger of extinction.

   5:00.  Ronald Short is a Hoosier and…

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Added by Mark Small on July 24, 2012 at 6:26am — No Comments

Chaos in Colorado: not ideology, just pathology.

Colorado Chaos

   "When mindless acts of terror (is the phrase redundant?) occur in the world, will people please not immediately ascribe those acts to believers of Islam?"

   I wrote those words exactly one year ago (07/23/11) tomorrow, after the nut went crazy in Norway and killed 84 people. Thursday night we had another episode of insanity, but here in the States. ABC did a lousy job (as in: check sources, don’t just Google® someone’s name) and tried to link…

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Added by Mark Small on July 22, 2012 at 6:15am — 1 Comment

Today's Show: guest will be Indianapolis native and director Adam Newell. Live at 11 a.m. from IMA.

  As I wrote yesterday, "Civil Discourse Now" will cover the Indianapolis International Film Festival. The festival opened Thursday night and runs through Sunday, July 29th.

  Today our guest will be Indianapolis native and director Adam Newell, whose film "Video Stop" will be shown Monday night. We shall be shooting "Civil Discourse Now" from the Indianapolis Museum of Art, from the Nourish Case just inside the entrance (to the right). We hope to shoot a couple of shows…

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Added by Mark Small on July 21, 2012 at 6:39am — No Comments

Indianapolis International Film Festival and a review of "The Oranges," with Hugh Laurie.

   "Civil Discourse Now" will cover the Indianapolis International Film Festival. The festival opened last night and runs through Sunday, July 29th. This is a different direction for subjects of interest for The Show. We are not just about politics.

   The Festival’s website gives times of flicks and locations. Most of the movies will be shown at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, but also at the Earth House, 237 North East Street. You can check out details at…

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Added by Mark Small on July 20, 2012 at 7:39am — 1 Comment

Can someone please conduct an independent audit of what happened with the last Super Bowl(r)?

   We are supposed to be overjoyed at the prospects of Indianapolis playing host to Super Bowl LII®. City leaders have boasted of the money the last Super Bowl® brought to Indianapolis. Those leaders overlook some of the financial incentives Indianapolis extended to the NFL®, such as the NFL® not having to pay certain taxes.

   The City came up with a study that showed we "made" $152 million from acting as the host city of the last Super Bowl.® The report is from Rockport Analytics,…

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Added by Mark Small on July 19, 2012 at 5:55am — 1 Comment

Promoting teen pregnancy and venereal disease

Indianapolis municipal code bars people under 18 from purchasing condoms and vibrators, under the Orwellian mantra of "promoting the public morals, health, peace and security in the city".  Safe sex and masturbation are good things.

Municode link: http://tinyurl.com/7v9ql2y

Added by Bill Thompson on July 16, 2012 at 2:11pm — No Comments

Watch The Show by hitting the UStream tab on the website: yesterday's Show.

   We stream "live" on Ustream®. I was unaware that The Show has a link to the website and automatically provides access to archived shows. I should have taken that course in FORTRAN in undergrad.

   Yesterday’s Show was great. A lot of people showed up at The Recovery Room Lounge to show their opposition to the smoking ban in Indy. There were a lot of interesting points made:

-ALL of the bar owners noted loss of business since the ban took effect.

-Other businesses—juke…

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Added by Mark Small on July 15, 2012 at 6:05am — No Comments

Today's Show at the Recovery Room Lounge + studies on which the anti-smoking ordinance are based fatally are flawed.

   In 2005, the City-County Council passed, and Mayor Peterson signed into law, restrictions on smoking in public places. The first section of that ordinance, Sec. 616-101, delineates the reasons for the ordinance. Under the title "Findings and Intent," Sec. 616-101 cites secondhand smoke (SHS), a/k/a environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), as a "major contributor to indoor air pollution," "a cause of disease in nonsmokers, including heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, and lung cancer." …

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Added by Mark Small on July 14, 2012 at 6:49am — No Comments

July 14 Show: 2 p.m. from the Recovery Room Lounge, 1868 Lafayette Road.

   From the Recovery Room Lounge, 1868 Lafayette Road on Saturday, July 14, 2012, we shall shoot Civil Discourse Now. The starting time will be 2 p.m., a departure from our usual, as the location is host to a special event.

   The first segment of The Show will be "What’s Going On," 14 minutes of discussion of three or four headline items.

   The rest of The Show will be about the smoking ban Indianapolis put into effect on June 1. People who are opposed to the ban should come…

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Added by Mark Small on July 13, 2012 at 6:24am — No Comments

Inconsistencies of Indy's smoking ban.

   One aspect of Indianapolis’s recently-amended smoking ordinance is that it is a ban. Unless a person is a member of a private club, or is in a casino or off-track betting establishment (referred to as a "satellite" in the ordinance) she or he cannot smoke a cigarette inside the premises of a business in this county. Cigar smokers still can smoke, but only in (again) private clubs that vote to allow smoking or cigar bars. Cigarette smokers cannot smoke in cigar bars.

   The Indy…

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Added by Mark Small on July 10, 2012 at 6:01am — No Comments

Congress should enact a statute to "forgive" all student loans: completely.

   Congress bailed out the big banks with the idea that the money given promptly would be lent out to the public and the economy, thereby, would be stimulated. Some estimates put the amounts received as high as $16trillion. The idea, that the big banks promptly would lend the money, turned out to be wrong. The big banks—JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, the usual suspects—have sat on the monies they received. I guess they await a rainy day. Given the severe drought conditions in…

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Added by Mark Small on July 8, 2012 at 5:58am — 5 Comments

Today's Show: The Supreme Court's "okay" of Obamneycare a/k/a Affordable Care Act at 11 a.m.

  The Supreme Court’s June 28 decision on the Affordable Care Act a/k/a "Obamacare" is a read of interest. Chief Justice Roberts has caught flak from many—usually the right-wing—for his unexpected opinion that found the individual mandate passed constitutional muster, but the expansion of medicaid did not catch up. (I am sorry about the play one words, but I had to do that.)

   Many people point out that those who promoted the Act said it did not raise taxes, and yet the taxing power…

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Added by Mark Small on July 7, 2012 at 6:31am — 2 Comments

Mitch Daniels as president of Purdue University?

   Mitch Daniels has been named as Purdue’s new president. Several questions came to me when I heard the news.

-Will his million-dollar annual salary enable him to return contributions he received from convicted Ponzi schemer Tim Durham so the small-investor victims of Durham will receive a pittance of their stolen investments?

-Will the former governor be given a "pass" if he rides his Harley past the dorms during "quiet hours"?

-Will Mitch allow the capable people at…

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Added by Mark Small on July 6, 2012 at 6:08am — 2 Comments

Initial effects of "Obamacare" on rates at Anthem(r) or WellPoint(r) or whatever the company is called.

   With all the consternation of the Affordable Care Act—a/k/a "Obamacare" a/k/a "Obamneycare"—many people have missed the forest for the trees.

   I have Multiple Sclerosis. I make no secret of the diagnosis and wrote about the disease as part of the reason I walk in the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini-Marathon® each year.

   When I was diagnosed with MS in 1994, I had no health insurance. I applied to a private carrier, but was rejected for my "prior medical condition." I…

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Added by Mark Small on July 4, 2012 at 6:41am — 1 Comment

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