Justice Scalia made “original intent” (what the white male landowners who wrote or who wrote and ratified The Constitution meant) a popular way to construe provisions of The Constitution. Today I want to discuss the state conventions. (I’ll use abbreviations for each State.)

The main Convention was held in Philadelphia from May to September, 1787. Twelve of the 13 States sent delegates to The Convention. RI sent none. Some people believe we should look to the State conventions to…

Language itself is an issue when the topic is “guns,” and those who call themselves “gun rights advocates” go apoplectic and justify others calling them “gun nuts.” If people are scared to talk about gun violence, all of us lose.

At suggestions limits be placed on sale of “assault rifles,” I’ve heard people who love guns almost sneer and correct the speaker, and say there are no such weapons. (Hint: doesn’t matter the term you use, you’ll be called out if you favor limits.)

We…

COVID has devastated this country. Over 300K are dead and tens of millions of people thrown into economic chaos because there was no leadership from the Federal government. People need far more than $600 to exist.

There are several ways to obtain money for people in need. One: we need to slash a defense budget that has been absurdly high for decades. We will be more secure when we kill fewer people. We need factories, not aircraft carriers.

After all, access to our defense…

Lou Dobbs is an ass. I can say that because he’s 1) a public figure 2) engaged in political speech and 3) such expression has the greatest protection in this country. Oh - and truth’s a defense against a claim of defamation.

The last few days Lou and his pals at Fox have backtracked claims they made about two corporations - I won’t name them - involved in voting machines and software. Rudy Guiliani described one of these companies as a “front” and hinted they rigged the 2020…

Local tax policies do not lend themselves to sexy treatment in the media. Constitutional crises, after all, only pop up every few generations. However, two pandemics rage across the USA. One is COVID-19. The other is TIFs. We need to keep our eyes on both.

TIFs are a favorite tool of ruthless advocates of socialism: “A political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the…

On January 20 the man who has brought this country to its financial knees will cede the control he has held for four years. On that day Vladimir Putin will see the stooge he placed in The Oval Office leave for parts unknown.

To recover financially, this country has to adopt traditional GOP positions. Since so many people - 300K at last count - are dying as a result of trump ineptitude, this seems as good of a time as any to resuscitate the estate tax.

Rich bastards conned…

December 15 e-mail from Indiana GOP state chair Kyle Hupfer: “Chuck Schumer is determined to win [Georgia’s Senate] seats and erase our GOP majority in the Senate, and we can’t let that happen. The Senate might be our last line of defense ...

...against the radical left and their progressive policies! Please join in helping us defend our Republican majority in the Senate by supporting Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in Georgia.” I could not let this “funder” go by without…

As our focus is on the fight against evil (trump, et al), several questions to ponder lest we become too distracted. Why the rush to execute Federal prisoners before January 20? How TF do we still use the phrase “States rights” 155 years after the South lost?

How many immigrant children - in her clutches for whatever reasons - has Betsy DeVos’s NFPs “placed” since she’s been in office? And, seriously - anybody know - YET - why we still have troops in Afghanistan?

Indiana’s lame duck Attorney General/Elvis impersonator Curtis Hill has joined with 16 other States in a challenge brought by Texas before the U.S. Supreme Court to disqualify the electors of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin and replace them with pro-trump electors.

Texas’s AG filed a Motion for Leave to File Bill of Complaint. SCOTUS has set a deadline of noon today for the four named defendant States to reply. In the meantime, trump has sought to intervene and show…

Indiana’s lame duck Attorney General/Elvis impersonator Curtis Hill has joined with 16 other States in a challenge brought by Texas before the U.S. Supreme Court to disqualify the electors of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin and replace them with pro-trump electors.

Texas’s AG filed a Motion for Leave to File Bill of Complaint. SCOTUS has set a deadline of noon today for the four named defendant States to reply. In the meantime, trump has sought to intervene and show…

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed., 2001, p. 1009, defines “irony” :“the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.” And “hypocrisy”: “a pretense of having a virtuous character , moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not really possess.” Id., p. 943.

The Convention acted outside its charter to “devise such further provisions that appear [ ] necessary to render the constitution of the Federal Government…

To panhandle is “to beg (usually on the street).” Amer. College Dictionary, 1962 ed,, p. 875. Downtown Indianapolis has become rife with begging, but its pace accelerates, and its numbers of practitioners increases, each January. Perhaps it’s the cold.

The area of greatest concentration is between Capitol Avenue on the east, Washington Street on the south, Senate Avenue on the west and Ohio Street on the north. These beggars are aggressive and can be quite offensive. They threaten to…