Andy Jacobs was a great man. He did not accept campaign contributions from PACs or, for that matter from what I remember during his tenure in Congress, anyone. He was re-elected on name-recognition developed from decency and honesty, rare qualities in a member of Congress at any time, but especially during the 1960s and into the 1990s, when he retired from the House of Representatives.

   In high school, I was upset when Andy Jacobs lost his re-election bid in 1972 to Bill Hudnut.…

   "Civil Discourse Now" will stream live from 11 am to 1 pm on Saturday, December 28. Our guests will include John E. Zaphiriou, a/k/a Groucho, who has interesting insights and interestingly incites people on the 'net. Matt Stone, of IndyStudent, also will be on hand. We shall discuss the highs and lows of 2013 and what we might expect in 2014.

   The Show will stream live from Shambles Furniture, at 7183 West U.S. 40 in Cumberland, on the far side of I-465 to the east. A good time…

   This year's coin toss came up George C. Scott in "A Christmas Carol" (rather than Alistair Sim in 1951's "Scrooge"). The script follows the work by Dickens. Also, the story gives on the feeling one is watching Fox or people who otherwise spew out GOP talking points:

   1)Jacob Marley was as dead as a doornail...And thank goodness there was no mention of a "death tax"---a/k/a inheritance tax. Otherwise, Scrooge would have had to part with all that wealth he obtained from his…

   In the early 1960s, when I was a child and still believed in tenets of conservatism, local TV, over the course of the evening on December 24, each year would report that weather radar had picked up an object in flight from the North Pole. The bit was humorous. Kids had the notion Santa Claus was real and with modern technology even could be tracked. Each year since various stations have carried similar coverage. Actually NORAD, the government's nuclear radar system, was the source of the…

   Last evening I inferred many of the people who had written about the infamous interview of Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the family at the center of the A & E network's "Duck Dynasty," had not read the interview. There was a feel that many simply quoted outrageous passages from other people's reviews of the article. Those reviews themselves might have relied on quotes from others' reviews. I wanted to read the entire article, so as not to be a hypocrite---at least not in this…

   Dan Carpenter has retired from "The Indianapolis Star" after a couple of decades as a reporter and then columnist. From what I understand from recent polls, I should believe reports of his retirement are damn lies, because a significant number of the American people hold the view that the media are untrustworthy. (Actually, the polling questions usually are something like, "Do you think the media is..." The word "media" is a plural. There is a bit of evidence that I took Latin in the…

   U.S. Representative Jack Kingston, a Republican from Georgia, has said children from families in poverty, who qualify for free lunches at school, should be forced to work for those meals. He suggested the children sweep the cafeteria floor to understand what it means to work. He said children should learn there is no such thing as "a free lunch." State Senator Stacey Campfield of Tennessee has introduced legislation in the Volunteer State that would cut State welfare benefits to parents…

   Yesterday evening I caught part of a statement made by a member of the House of Representatives to an audience of what appeared to be his constituents. The Congressman spoke of how people stay on unemployment benefits by choice. He then referred to comments several employers had made to him about people who would come to that employer, apply for a job, leave after the prospective employee learned the employer required employees to submit to urine screens, then have the audacity to include…

   Melyssa Hubbard (known then by her birth name of Melyssa Donaghy), first garnered headlines several years ago for several matters. She helped organize what arguably was the precursor to the movement known by the rubric "Indiana tea party." She led demonstrations against then-Mayor Bart Peterson, who, shortly thereafter, lost re-election to Greg Ballard, the predecessor of the current mayor, Ryan Vaughn. Last, but not least, she was busted by the City of Indianapolis.

   The "bust"…

   Public debate has increased recently in Indiana over the topic of education. Public discourse, as a general matter, is good. As Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in perhaps his most famous dissent: "But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas---that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get…

   As acrimony has overcome harmony in political discourse, so too have those who wield verbal cudgels sought to tweak otherwise vituperative rants with polite words.

   The words "batshit crazy" have been flung about to describe members of the opposition to that of a particular speaker's. Most often the phrase arises when an image of Michele Bachmann appears on the screen. The reaction is visceral and spontaneous amongst many people---except for a very thin majority of the registered…

   Prior to the Japanese attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, and the air bases at Hickam and Wheeler Fields, on December 7, 1941, there was strong sentiment against United States involvement in what would become called World War II. The Japanese attack muted much of the opposition in the United States. The following day, the United States Congress declared war on the Japanese Empire. Japan on September 27, 1940 had entered into the Tripartite Agreement with Germany and…

   Before The Show yesterday, I conversed with one of the artists at The Stutz Building---excellent place for artists and small businesses, and I really, really want an Auburn Boat-tail Speedster---about the nature of news media today. We discussed the absence of focus for the much greater amount of information available, thanks to the internet, compared to three decades ago. I mentioned that in the 1970s-1980s, national news primarily came through the three major networks. As the artist…

   Today we shall stream live, from 11 am to 1 pm, from the Stutz Building I, at 212 West 10th Street, Indianapolis. The Stutz Bearcat was manufactured in the complex, and even competed in the Indianapolis 500. The Stutz Artists Association is the largest association of working artists in Indiana. There are a lot of studios, but also spaces for other small- and mid-sized businesses in the two-building complex, refurbished, owned and managed by Indianapolis commercial developer Turned…

   Acronyms are handy. They short-hand complex topics. If a person, in a confident voice, throws three or four acronyms into a conversation, some people are more prone to accept the person's opinion as informed. If the person also quotes representatives of several prominent forces in a community, the person's statements on the given topic appear, on surface, validated.

   There is a FaceBook page captioned "Say No to TIFs in Broad Ripple." TIFs are Tax-Increment Finance districts. As…

   Tax-Increment Financing districts ("TIFs") were developed in California in the 1950s. The idea was to infuse areas desperate for investment with public funds. A specific area would be designated as a TIF. By "specific," I mean specific blocks would be designated as within the boundaries of that TIF's "footprint." Projects would be designed for the TIF. Bonds would be floated by (most often) the municipal government of the place in which the TIF was to be created. Money from the bonds…

We'll stream live, from 11 am to 1 pm from Ramada Inn Indy-East.

   Fifty years ago on this date, as we all know from massive coverage of acknowledgment of the event, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The cliche is true for me: I remember where I was and what happened. Mrs. Coleford was our third-grade teacher at New London Elementary School. Early afternoon, Mr. Kincaid, the principal, entered our classroom. Mrs. Coleford was one of my favorite elementary school teachers. She was kind, patient and made school interesting. Mr.…

   An item on Yahoo reports "It's a Wonderful Life" will have a sequel. The 1946 film, directed by Frank Capra, starred Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. The American Film Institute named it one of the 100 Best Films made.

   There is no mention of Capra in the article. There is mention, however, of the way in which the producers want to capture the original spirit of the 1946 flick. Apparently George Bailey's children relive the concept of what the world would be like had one or more of…

   Tomorrow's Show will stream live from Moore's Bar, 17 South Indiana, in beautiful Greencastle, Indiana. DePauw University will host Wabash College, a school of cretinous misogynists located in Crawfordsville.

   Wabash has won the past four meetings. There use to be a debate each year, in a series known as the Monon Bell debates. Those debates were after my time. We debated Wabash, at tournaments and in audience settings, and won. I do not recall a loss to Wabash. The Monon Bell…