In 1972 I was chosen as one of two delegates from our high school to attend Hoosier Boys State, an annual event sponsored by the American Legion to inculcate our youths with proper values, and respect for the Constitution. The first day we were there a delegate from a high school near Anderson was tossed out when he asked why we had to march everyplace. The second day, I saw a couple of people, anti-war pamphlets in their hands on state-owned property (Indiana State University) confronted…

   First, many thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday.

   The Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution was included in the Bill of Rights for a reason: to protect individual rights not enumerated in the Bill of Rights. I will blog on this more tomorrow in a piece on which I have been working for about a week. Maybe I am something of a geek, but I gain pleasure from reading about our country’s history, particularly that related to the Constitution.

   There are…

Hiatus as we re-gear for a better "Civil Discourse Now." And I returned from DePauw.

   We shall be on hiatus for the next couple of weeks as we re-gear The Show and the website. We shall upstream "live," but not immediately upon return June 23.

   The website also is under re-construction. I never had heard of "Ning" before we started "Civil Discourse Now." I thought "Ning" was the evil emperor on "Flash Gordon." While I am certain it is a platform service of…

   The name of Pepsi© no longer will adorn the roof of the Indiana State Fair Coliseum. A dispute arose over the amount to be paid for further "sponsorship" of the building. The State Fair Board wanted more money. The plan is to renovate the facility over the next two years.

   I do not like governmental entities to accept money to name structures, built with taxpayers’ money, for the function of billboards. I know: as a fan of the Cubs I realize my team plays at Wrigley Field. The…

   Indianapolis’s ordinance that bans smoking in most places is in place for the time being. I thought it would be interesting to visit a new establishment in Broad Ripple in which patrons may smoke tobacco consistent with the ordinance.

   The Village Cigar is located at 6513 North College Avenue, next door to the North Side Social.     The bar is small and comfortable. I liked the wicker bar seats—I do not consider them "stools" since they have backs—pulled up to the bar. Joe was…

   Once again, I find myself having to apologize to those who came to the website only to find no Show. They expected to watch a discussion of our Bill of Rights, as contained in the Federal Constitution. Again, technical difficulties wiped out the audio of The Show.

   Next week, I guarantee, we shall live-stream from DePauw University. We have the equipment. Yesterday I just did not know how to use it.

  We will shoot at 11 a.m. from 1915 Broad Ripple Avenue.

   Today’s Show: we discuss what the Bill of Rights means. Our guests will be Jeff Cox and Adam Lenkowsky. We stream "live" at 11 a.m.

   There are false beliefs that have been spread and accepted for a long time. One of the most prominent—and false—is that the United States of America is "the land of the free."

   How does one measure freedom?

   The United States has roughly five percent (5%) of the world’s population, but twenty-five percent of the world’s population…

   Yesterday, my colleague and co-host of "Civil Discourse Now," Paul Ogden responded to my blog about means by which people can attempt to comply with Indiana’s restrictive Voter ID law.

   First, Paul is mistaken in his statement that I am a Democrat. I always have voted in the Democratic Party primary. Usually the candidates for whom I vote are Democrats. Amongst those candidates have been people whom I believe were the best for the particular office in question. In other…

   There is a concerted effort to block people, legally entitled to vote, from exercising that right. One manifestation of that effort has been Voter ID laws. Indiana took the first dubious steps in enacting such statutes. A challenge of the statutes to the United States Supreme Court was unsuccessful.

   How, then, do we defeat the effort to disenfranchise so many voters? Mine is a proposal that would fight, at least to some degree, this effort.

The Problems:

   1)…

   The videos of robots on the Toyota assembly line are fascinating. Or switch over to the show "How Things Are Made" on cable or satellite. Huge mechanical arms pivot, drop, weld, swing, lift, pivot back, and wait for the next piece to come to it. One’s first thought, maybe, is: "That’s really cool!"

   Those tasks used to be performed by human beings. The piece of metal destined to be a fender on a Pontiac, Plymouth or Mercury (I chose those brands for a reason, obviously) would…

   TODAY’S SHOW: THE ECONOMY, BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

   This morning, May 26, our guests will be James Nease and, according to James in an e-mail from last night, Dan Forrestal. The topic will be the economy. Perhaps I should say The Economy.

   We also shall premiere a new segment of The Show: "What’s Goin’ On?" Paul Ogden and I will discuss—in quick-time—five or six current topics. The first topic up will be the possible new round of largesse the City of Indianapolis seems ready…

   The economy either sucks or it does not or, if a person is sufficiently wealthy as to be insulated from its effects, the economy is a meaningless hum in the background as one enjoys life.

   For the rest of us, the economy is a daily—what? Is it a fact of our existence? Is it a constant struggle? Is it a quasi-mechanical entity that operates consistent with rules of what seem like physics? Can we tell "how" the economy is doing by any means? If so, what are those means? Why does…

   Until 1983 I knew the Race—THE Race, the Indianapolis 500—only through radio. We lived on a farm a few miles west of Kokomo. The 500 was not broadcast "live" until 1986, according to one report I read on the internet, on network TV. It was available, on what was called "closed circuit TV" for a fee, across the country. Our area was "blacked out" for TV coverage even after the 500 went on TV. the air.

   My first recollection of a specific Indianapolis 500 was of the 1963 race.…

   The image from the 1977 flick still is with me. The economic lesson of the cooper and his amputated feet is one that would have served as guidance a few years back when Indiana’s governor and legislature saw fit to lease—for seventy-five (75) years—the Indiana Toll Road. The notion, as one popular blogger has said, was to pay for Indiana’s backed-up road projects that were sorely in need of money.

   The problem with the solution—the 75-year lease of the Indiana Toll Road to a…

   The European economy has been in turmoil for months. Much has been made of the effects of economic systems there in which much of the expenditures are made for social programs, such as retirement and universal health care.

   Great Britain’s prime minister decided to launch austerity programs to avoid such chaos. Unfortunately, it would appear that austerity programs have caused more economic woes than the social programs they would cut.

   On next Saturday’s Show we shall…

When I read the story about the Arsenal Tech High School student, Darnell Young, who was expelled for carrying to school and firing into the air a Taser for self-defense, I wondered about what school officials knew before the incident in which he was surrounded and attacked. I also wondered how many of the students involved were jocks.

   I ran track (slowly) my freshman year of high school. At the start of that track season, I weight 98 pounds—seriously; the 98-pound weakling,…

   Saturday at 11 a.m. we will podcast from "10-01," a restaurant and pub located in Broad Ripple at the southeast corner of Broad Ripple Avenue and—those familiar with Broad Ripple will understand—what could be called Winthrop Avenue or Westfield Boulevard. Actually it is Winthrop, but Winthrop changes a block north to the better-known Westfield Boulevard. The address of the establishment is 1001 Broad Ripple Avenue, hence the name.

   Most weeks we have podcast "Civil Discourse Now"…

   I do not believe students (grade school, junior high, high school, or college) should carry firearms in classes, on campus, etc. There are some high school kids mature enough to handle the responsibilities of carrying a deadly weapon, but that is a time when hormones run high, education is not advanced, and tempers can flare. Of course, we allow kids to drive at age 16 (and the statistics—auto crashes form the leading cause of death for kids age 13-19; 16-year-olds have higher crash rates…

   Much has been said about the Romney campaign worker who said something to the effect that his candidate could adapt to the general election, once nominated, and change from right-wing extremist to a more main-stream conservative, just like an "Etch-A--Sketch"®.

   For those of you too young to remember, Etch-A-Sketch® was a toy usually given when a kid was about 11 or 12 years old in the 1960s and into the 1970s. It was a lot like an iPad in shape, only thicker. It had a gray…