Civil Discourse Now

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

All Blog Posts (1,847)

Cities shouldn't build hotels

In the waning hours of the legislative session and w/o public debate, Indiana’s General Assembly passed, and Governor Holcomb signed, a measure that creates a new tax district w/in the original one-mile square platted for the City of Indianapolis in 1821. Money is needed downtown. 1/5

Fewer jobs exist downtown. Of course, when the new Criminal Justice Center was built a couple of miles away, quite a few jobs were sucked out of downtown. At least none of the money from the new tax…

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Added by Mark Small on May 20, 2023 at 2:41pm — No Comments

Gun violence deaths: we need a coefficient of deterrence

Gun violence shouldn’t bore America. Three dead like yesterday in New Mexico, 30 years ago, merited a few thoughts & a dozen prayers, but now 3 dead (in a State w/5 elector votes) can’t get either heads-up-the-orifice trumpers or any deities to expend a furrowed brow or a Hail Mary.1/4

God takes my calls. She said those who help themselves means State legislatures are on the hook. God, however, overlooks a salient feature of gun violence. Gun nuts say more guns = less crime. Gun…

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Added by Mark Small on May 16, 2023 at 3:17pm — No Comments

If you think U.S. overthrowing gov'ts is okay, be proud of migrants at our southern border!

We pause blog/tweets about The Constitution & ignorance (of Hamilton County preacher Micah Beckwith) to discuss people fr south of the Rio Grande who seek to cross the U.S. border. Too often ppl ask only: how do we keep them out? We should ask: why do they want in? 1/8

First, many cross Mexico fr other countries to get here. Axios reported 4/6/23 as “recently as FY 2019, 92% of all Border Patrol apprehensions [] migrants fr Mexico or [] the Northern Triangle Guatemala, Honduras…

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Added by Mark Small on May 12, 2023 at 9:48am — No Comments

The Constitution, Micah Beckwith & ignorance

I’m honored: Tuesday on “Mouthwash,” John Schmitz’s podcast, Hamilton County preacher Micah Beckwith called me an idiot. Beckwith says: “America was absolutely founded on Christian values. You have to be ignorant to think otherwise. The writings of our 1/7

Framers and the founding documents are very clear on that.” Beckwith does not identify values or how they are uniquely Christian. 1) In a 10/24/19 video, “The Church’s role in politics,” Beckwith says you can’t be moral if you are a…

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Added by Mark Small on May 10, 2023 at 5:21pm — No Comments

Remove Beckwith...

Kids who are “different” or speak out can be/often are ostracized. Example: voluntary group prayer isn’t voluntary if kids who choose not to participate are made fun of. The younger the kids, the less they understand impact of their actions. Micah Beckwith is a Hamilton 1/5

County preacher spirited onto Ham East Public Library Board (HEPLB) by Ham Co Council w/o public notice or listing on agenda & w/little notice before a vote. 15 other candidates werent considered. This is…

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Added by Mark Small on May 9, 2023 at 9:18pm — No Comments

PSA from the FBI, gun culture & tonight "smalltalk" returns on "Mouthwash"!

Elementary & secondary education today is different from our experience. Kids know a lot about tech & probably chuckle as someone (like me) tries to share a video (like the public service ad (PSA) I hope you see. Kids’ knowledge of tech is cool. Kids are familiar w/PSA’s topic. 1/6

What isn’t cool: kids have to know ways to survive mass shootings. Congrats go to Guy Relford, host of “The Gun Guy” on Indy station WIBC, who advocates gun culture & a view of the 2nd Amendment…

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Added by Mark Small on May 9, 2023 at 2:59pm — No Comments

Micah Beckwith believes "America was absolutely founded on 'Christian values,' he must not mean The Constitution

4/30: Micah Beckwith, a Hanilton County preacher who has sought political power, wrote: “America was absolutely founded on Christian values. You have to be ignorant to think otherwise. The writings of our Framers and the founding documents are very clear on that.” 1/6

Beckwith’s “Christian values” must include slavery & racism. “The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior…

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Added by Mark Small on May 6, 2023 at 9:32am — 1 Comment

God, Jesus Christ and their absence from The Constitution

Monty Python: “No one knows when to expect The Spanish Inquisition!” An inquisition is a persistent, grueling examination conducted w/o regard for the examinee’s dignity or civil rights. Black’s Law Dict., 10th ed., p. 913. We know when to expect Micah Beckwith, a Hamilton 1/7

County preacher. His move toward worldly power has been steady. Beckwith ran in the 2020 GOP primary for INCD 5, eventually won by Victoria Spartz who won’t seek re-election in 2024. Beckwith was gifted the next…

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Added by Mark Small on May 5, 2023 at 5:22pm — No Comments

Another day will mean more gun deaths to protect the 2A

Another day in America & more people dead from guns. How many deaths did the latest spate of shootings prevent? Gun people get highly technical (e.g., “‘AR’ don’t stand for no ‘assault rifle’, dumbass”) & you’d think they’d have calculated a coefficient. But Jethro’s School 1/4

of Brain Surgery, Double-Ought Spyin’ & Fry Cookery (a/k/a 3rd grade) is tough. In undergrad I stalled guns. During a meeting of faculty chairs, deans & student leaders at DePauw University in…

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Added by Mark Small on May 5, 2023 at 6:05am — No Comments

The math of gun violence is one-sided

It’s near the start of a speech barely five minutes long. In 8th grade it seemed every night our “regular programming” was interrupted by a “Special Report” or “Bulletin.” Tonight I made sure the line was correct & tweeted, then watched all of Robert Kennedy’s speech in Indy. 1/5

In a park around 22nd & Central, he told a crowd that Martin Luther King had been shot & killed. The tweet to which I’d replied (“The mathematician?”) struck me. People who say “guns made this…

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Added by Mark Small on May 4, 2023 at 8:15pm — No Comments

They don't report bennies from buddies or testify truthfully. I present to you the Roberts Court

Some say this U.S. Supreme Court has no clear identity w/John Roberts, its Chief Justice, as past Courts. I disagree. The integrity is consistent. E.g., Justice Clarence Thomas is the latest: his billionaire buddy Harlan Crow pd tuition 4 Thomas’s grand nephew, raised by Thomas as 1/7

a son. Crow dissed any who question his largesse, saying he’s long attempted to help “at-risk youth.” A youth in Thomas’s household is “at-risk” if s/he fails to learn only a SCOTUS justice can enjoy…

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Added by Mark Small on May 4, 2023 at 4:57pm — No Comments

WIBC's "Gun Guy" should be specific: how many lives are saved by each little corpse in a mass shooting?

Epidemiology can determine if A causes B & deals w/“incidence, distribution & possible control of diseases & other factors relating to health.” Gun makers’ focus on humanitarian goal of killing more people more quickly neglects sales. E.g., causes of death usually are determined only 1/5

by autopsy but a 1964 Surgeon General’s report linked mainstream smoke (MSM) to cancer. Adult smokers went from 42% to 19%. (2014). Big Tobacco, for yrs, knew from their own studies that…

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Added by Mark Small on May 3, 2023 at 8:03am — No Comments

We need to end TIFs and handouts & realize my opponents platform is at best empty

I have an opponent in tomorrow’s primary for City-County Council Distr 2, here in Indy. I’m running in the GOP to fight forces of bigotry & ignorance. From fliers put out by Matt Hills, you can’t tell he’s GOP in a blue district in the bluest of counties. His #1 priority,“keeping our 1/7

Neighborhoods safe,” is ducky but his proposals suck, e.g., permanently re-establishing office of Director of Public Safety.” That adds, or re-labels. an office in the bureaucracy. (Taste great?…

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Added by Mark Small on May 1, 2023 at 5:34pm — No Comments

GOP policies of denial of reproductive rights & of discrimination scare away "talent"

Tomorrow, May 2, is the primary election. Here in Indy/Marion County, the office of Mayor and the 25 seats on the City-County Council are up for grabs. We can’t allow one of the two “major” political parties to be run by forces of bigotry & ignorance. After a lifetime of voting, & 1/5

sometimes volunteering to work, for the Democratic Party, I’m running in the GOP primary for City-County Council District 2, a very blue district. Matt Hills, my opponent, in the mailers I’ve…

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Added by Mark Small on May 1, 2023 at 8:03am — No Comments

Sorry but I have to give a shout-out to those who foster gun violence!

I congratulate Guy Relford, host of “The Gun Guy” (spiffy play on words) on WIBC, where he advocates a culture of concealed-carry & a 2nd Amendment the 1st Congress never intended. For every mass shooting in the U.S., Mr Relford should feel good. 5 more are dead in Texas. 1/5

Laughs & chuckles abound on his show & in ads for gun shows, like the pooka (seven-foot-tall imaginary rabbit) from the movie “Harvey” getting shot & a one-liner about the Brady Bill (named for…

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Added by Mark Small on April 30, 2023 at 8:04pm — No Comments

Military mind sets are not good for municipal government

Tuesday, May 2, are primary elections. Indy voters can request a Democratic or Republican party ballot. I’m a candidate in the GOP primary for City-County Council District 2. Matt Hills is my opponent, but his mailers omit mention of party, unlike Brienne Delaney, also running for 1/5

District 2, who clearly notes her Democratic Party affiliation. District 2 is extremely “blue,” i.e., Democratic. Perhaps Mr Hills believes it better to mislead progressives so that in the general…

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Added by Mark Small on April 30, 2023 at 11:54am — No Comments

In a country awash w/war surplus available for cops, what tech don't they have?

Tuesday May 2: primary elections! Armed idiots at polling places have been used to scare ppl away from voting. Prior to the May, 1925, primary, the Chief of the Indianapolis P.D. issued orders to keep members of the Horse Thief Detective Ass’n from all public polling places. 1/6

The association was the KKK’s “enforcement,” sought to intimidate voters who were hostile to the Klan & members drove through black neighborhoods & displayed their guns as a warning for blacks “to stay…

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Added by Mark Small on April 29, 2023 at 4:25pm — No Comments

Abortion's legality, drop in violent crime rates & City-County Council

At the foundation of our government are lies and contradictions. My opponent in next Tuesday’s GOP primary repeated one of those lies. MAGA people validate Santayana’s warning that those who fail to study history are condemned to repeat6 it. The 1/6

Constitution of the “Land of the Free” protected slavery. Now, by total number and %, we incarcerate more people than any nation. In 1991 rates of violent crime in the USA were cut in half. Neither women’s reproductive rights nor USA’s…

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Added by Mark Small on April 29, 2023 at 12:40pm — No Comments

City-County Council District 2: Matt Hills would have our police act as an occupying army

Matt Hills, my opponent in the GOP primary next Tuesday for City-County Council District 2, has said keeping our neighborhoods safe is his “number one priority.” Unfortunately suggestions he makes in pursuit of that goal are platitudes that originate in the Land of Failed Policies.” 1/5

Example: “Invest in technology to better fight crime and keep our officers safe.” This approach pits the police against ... citizens. Hills has experience as an officer in the Army. Strategies of an…

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Added by Mark Small on April 28, 2023 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Suspended for a year yet the justice who denied an extension lacks the integrity to be on The Court

“What does Russia have to do with the suspension of your law license?” a friend asked after she read my last 2 blogs/tweets. In 2017 I represented Clients in Blumstein, et al v Pence, et al, 16-907, and Bailey et al. v. United States, 16-1464, & challenged validity of the 2016 election, 1/9

in part, on violation of the Invasion Clause of the Constitution, Art. IV, sec. 4: The United States shall protect each of the States against “Invasion.” Allegations we raised have not been…

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Added by Mark Small on April 28, 2023 at 10:45am — No Comments

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