Tax Increment Financing districts—TIFs for short—are relatively recent arrivals in the minds of most residents of Marion County.

   What is a "TIF"? It is a specially-created tax district to capture tax revenue linked to increased property values from new construction and use the money for improvements within the same district. South Bend Tribune, Apr. 18, 2011.

   Let me put it another way. Say there is a four-block square area in a city that one would call…

   In his farewell address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously warned of the military-industrial complex. President Eisenhower was no left-wing pacifist. He held five stars as a general in the United States Army. He was Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces’ invasion of Normandy. He forced German civilians to tour death camps after allied forces liberated those camps, so that history could record—and others later be unable to deny—the atrocities committed by the Nazis.

   Did…

   Under Indiana law, biological parents are entitled to rights of visitation with their children. Absent marriage, once paternity is established, a biological father even may seek change of custody if he can convince the trial court that the mother is, in some way, unfit.

   Maybe I missed something in the statutes and the guidelines for visitation, but there is "no exception for rape." No—I do not use this phrase in the context of laws that relate to abortion. I use the phrase as to…

   By Tuesday, August 21, 2012, at 5:00 p.m., Rep. Todd Akin had to withdraw from the Republican Party nomination of United States Senate in Missouri. He had not. He still can do so, but now only by court order.

   All four living former United States Senators from Missouri have asked Akin to withdraw. Romney’s campaign has made it known Akin should withdraw. Still Akin believes he is the best person to unseat McKaskill.

   The race for United States Senate is not the only race…

   U.S. Akin made a stir with his comments about what he called "legitimate rape."

   The gist of what he said: he had spoken with doctors who told him a woman’s body has mechanisms, if a woman is raped, to avoid pregnancy. Aside from the fact the claim is baseless in science, other aspects of his comments bothered me.

   He explained to the interviewer that in the case of rape, perhaps the rapist should be punished, but not the baby.

   First, rape is a crime. At one…

This is a continuation of a conversation begun yesterday (08/18/12) on FaceBook.

Jim,

   You raise interesting points. I think I should address what I meant by "tolerance." Simple disagreement with others is within the realm of tolerance. You mention having been rebuked by those on the left for various beliefs you have had. I do not know the type of verbal exchanges you might have had. If they were on a level such that you felt punished for your beliefs, that is unfortunate.…

   Mitt Romney refuses to release any more than two (2) years of his income tax returns. Day before yesterday his wife was quoted as saying those were all the returns they would release because (1) that was all they legally were required to release and (2) the press would attack the Romneys over the information in the returns.

   Then yesterday Romney said he has reviewed his returns and has paid at least 13 percent in income taxes each of the years in question and last year paid…

   With Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate, we are faced, once more, with the question of "personhood" amendments, or P.A.s for short in this column. I have addressed this topic before, but this is very important. When I first read mention of P.A.s, I had to look up the term. P.A.s provide that a human life begins at conception. The implication is a human life is entitled to all the rights of a person at that point. This is another attempt to scuttle Roe v.…

   Andrew D. Kirch posted an interesting comment today. He said that Rahm Emanuel was one of the top ten jack asses. I pondered the matter. I asked what parameters should be set for such a ranking. Just U.S.? All time? Andrew said U.S./last 20 years.

   Before we begin, a couple of points to be made.

   First, what is a "jack ass"? Other than a Male donkey," a "jack ass" is "a very stupid or foolish person."  American College Dictionary, 1962 ed. There is more to the…

   Yesterday—Friday—at about 5:30 we walked down to Broad Ripple. A few months ago, and especially before June 1, that was a time of day on a specific day of the week when the bars would be bustling. The week was over, the workday had ended, and people would be out to blow off steam. The sidewalks would be a bit crowded as people went from place-to-place.

   Yesterday’s weather was beautiful. The high reached 76 or 78 degrees. One would expect people to be out in droves.

  …

   Last night I was asleep by 9:00 and felt well-rested when I woke at 4 a.m. Various studies indicate that (1) a minimum of seven hours’ sleep per night provides one with optimum rest (2) sleep is best obtained on a regular basis so that the biological clock of one’s body runs on the same schedule and (3) if people comported their lives by these two factors, amongst other benefits, the national health would improve, people’s lives would be longer, and insurance rates would drop. I can cite…

   Mitt Romney’s failure to produce tax returns underlines a significant reason why he should not be president.

   In 2008, in an attempt to suck up to John McCain and be named the GOP’s candidate for VP, Romney provided 23 years of his income tax returns to McCain’s people. That is according to Steve Schmidt, a chief member of the McCain campaign team. Since that was reported at least one week ago, I have not heard anyone from Romney’s camp deny that claim.

   At the end of…

   "I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process."–President Benjamin Harrison (Republican), 1891.

   I am surprised to quote President B. Harrison positively. He was President of the United States during one of our worst periods of corporate excesses. Workers had no rights and labored for many hours while paid pennies. Workers’ protests were squelched by violence.

   By the 1970s, the American labor force…

   When I was a kid, we all (kids in the neighborhood) looked forward to the Howard County Fair. That was a must-see. A stop at the Lions Club tent for food came first. We would hit several other tents and be given various crap—amongst which always was a yard stick—for free. We had to walk through the farm implement area and sit on tractors and earth movers. The miscellaneous "big tent" seemed always to have a vacuum cleaner that kept a ping-pong ball suspended in air. The rides were the big…

   Gore Vidal died yesterday evening at the age of 86. He wrote a lot of books, screenplays, and essays. He seemed always good for a quote.

   My first recollection of him was his famous exchange with William F. Buckley on August 28, 1968, during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Vidal was as far left as Buckley was far right. They were hired as commentators by ABC. In the streets of Chicago, what the Walker Commission later called a "police riot" had riveted the attention of…

   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…

   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…

   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…

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…

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

  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…