Members of the legal profession are reputed to gouge clients for fees. There is the joke about the lawyer who died, went to the hereafter, and was told he was overdue because, from his billing records, he was indicated as being nearly one thousand years old. A lawyer cannot bill for work not performed, however. A "retainer" must be billed against by the hour. Also, the methods of billing, be they by the tenth of an hour or a quarter of an hour, must be by some fraction. As an example, a…

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   On this week's show, being shot Saturday, October 1, Paul Ogden and I shall discuss two topics. One is the wisdom or folly of forfeiture laws. Those are laws that provide the means by which local government can confiscate private property with fewer restraints, some would say due process, than that in which it otherwise would have to engage. The second is whether all drugs should be legalized.

   We start at 1:00 p.m. at Big Hat Books, 6510 Cornell Avenue, in Broad Ripple.  

We have received a couple of inquiries as to whether we have or allow an audience when we shoot "Civil Discourse Now." Anyone is welcome to attend. Today (September 24) we shoot at an earlier time than usual. We will start at 11 a.m. and discuss with Pat Andrews TIFs and priorities in spending of the City of Indianapolis. Our usual time to start is 1 p.m. We shoot upstairs at Big Hat Books, 6510 Cornell Avenue. It is just north of the Brewpub and next to the Monon Trail.

   I attended and graduated from a high school that, prior to my enrollment, had a speech team, but not a debate team. A couple of weeks into my first year on the speech team, we attended a debate tournament as a favor to the coach of another school. I was hooked. I loved debate. I was on the team all through high school. The culmination was our making state finals. When I reached Depauw, I already had been in contact with the coach, Doctor Weiss, and one of the debaters. Again, I debated al…

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   The deep political theorist and former candidate for Vice President Sarah Palin complained, a couple of years back, about "death panels" in President Obama's health care reform package.

   First, I want to say I think the package was weak. We need national health care, not this weird hybrid first proposed by the Republicans in 1994, one in which private insurance companies play a big role. Second, the plan created no "death panels." In fact, for years private insurance companies…

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   In 1973, when I registered for first semester classes at DePauw, I was amazed by the fact DePauw had its own computer. The thing was the size of a two-bedroom house in a blue-colar 1960s subdivision. Its memory was probably less than that of a digital wrist watch---for those who still wear watches---today.

   This explains, in part, the problems we have had with software, etc., and the delay in the show Paul Ogden and I co-host, "Civil Discourse Now," coming on-line. Well, finally…

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   Our streets need fixed.

   I wanted to get home from the office in time to watch the kick-off. I stopped at Marsh for a couple of things for chili. I asked the cashier if the percentage of people in Colts regalia decreased after games started. Her non-answer was "I don't think one person should mean so much to people." Okay, this was Sunday, and maybe her reference was in the context of theology. I made it home in time to watch about the only good play the Colts would make, a first…

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Pael show. pa.u. l Ogden and mark Small hosting Greg Fettig and Luther Garcia, Show should be up at 11 a.m. Enjot.

 

This week's show!

Civil Discourse Now, the weekly show Paul Ogden and I co-host, will have a panel discussion today at 1:00 at Big Hat Books, just north of the Brew Pub on North Cornell in beautiful Broad Ripple Village. The first topic for discussion will be the propriety of calling people who espouse principles of the so-called tea party movement "tea baggers." The second topic will involve whether bin Laden achieved his goals with the attacks on the United States staged on…

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   In a few days is the 10th anniversary of the attacks plotted by Osama bin Laden and his cronies. Bin Laden's stated goals, as I understand them, were to deprive Americans of their liberty and to wreck our economic system. The use of commercial airliners filled with passengers to crash into buildings was a mechanism to achieve those goals.

   As to our liberties, what occurred in "the aftermath of 9/11"? That is a phrase we have heard or read many times. The (Orwellian-named)…

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   In America, the desire for (more) money and material things is viewed as a positive quality. It drives the economy. It is the dynamic behind the free market. In the couple of weeks since the disaster at the State Fairs, plaintiffs' law firms have made an embarrassment of our profession in their efforts to be first to jump in and show themselves to be the champions of the downtrodden---the downtrodden being those who lost their lives or were injured when the stage collapsed before…

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Amend the Indiana Constitution: no more 50-year contracts.

Politicians like to give the image of having successfully solved a problem, with little or no cost to the average citizen. The average citizen is happy with this fairy tale. After all, taxes are bad. Higher taxes are even worse. So if a mayor gets money into, for an example, his city, and shortfalls are met and little projects are built, things are marvy-poo for John Q. Public and his spouse Jane. Let us say, for our…

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