In 7^th grade I weighed 68 pounds. I credit that, in part, to my mother’s cooking. When I reached DePauw, and everyone else complained about the food in the dorm (Freshman year I was in the dorm), I was happy. For the first time I was not plagued by stomach cramps.

   Of slight stature, on occasion I confronted a bully. The situation in our school maybe was different from what I read about bullying in school’s today. Usually the bullies in our high school dropped out, got…

   On Saturday morning, I received a "notification" from my internet service provider that someone had accessed at least one of my computers from a location inconsistent with my past user locations. I pulled up the info, found out that two ISPs—one in the Czech Republic and the other in Texas—were listed as having (1) taken over my browser and (2) accessed my mail.

   I have a security system on my computers. Also, having been "accessed" on a prior occasion, I had changed passwords on…

   Weddings and funerals can be events of joy—a wedding is supposed to be a celebration of love and the beginning of a yellow brick road for two people skipping off to Oz; a funeral can be the celebration of a life of someone well-loved who brought happiness to others—mourning—a wedding can pair two people whose lives together can be foreseen by all assembled, on both sides of the aisle (real bipartisanship) as a train wreck; a funeral, especially of someone young or who died under horrible…

   I never understood why people oppose marriage by people who are of the same gender. I have heard several arguments posed:

   1) It complicates insurance coverage for dependents. I have a solution to that: single-payer; Medicare-for-All.

   2) Various religions do not recognize marriage between members of the same sex as valid. I have a response to that: the First Amendment Establishment Clause. This is not a "Christian" country. There is a separation of religion and…

Tomorrow we shall discuss marriage equality. This issue has become prominent this week with President Obama's announcement of his support for equal rights of people to marry, despite their sexual preference. We live-stream at 11. And yay! The website is slowly returning. Thanks Marg!

  Change is constant---ah! That is ironic or self-contradictory or whatever.

   Senator Richard Lugar lost last night. Mitch Daniels only can serve two terms in office and probably will work for a "think" tank come January 2. Peyton Manning will suit up for the Denver Broncos this fall. Oh---and your Indiana Pacers are in the playoffs legitimately.

   This website will undergo reconstruction over the next couple of days. I erred in contracting someone to do the work on The Show…

   Here are my own, somewhat different predictions for today’s primary elections:

   1) The race for the Republican Party nomination for United States Senate will not be very close. Senator Richard Lugar has distanced himself from this State and its people. State Treasurer Richard Mourdock. (as I prefer to pronounce it "Mor-dock" as in "Mordor; if you do not catch the allusion, read The Hobbit then the trilogy.) This will cause the Democratic National Committee to sit up and…

   We had a great Show yesterday with Jon Easter and Karl Scharnberg about primary election predictions. The Show streamed live and shot well. Unfortunately, there is a glitch in uploading the recorded version of the Show. Please check back later today. And if anyone knows how to convert Ustream to YouTube, give me a call—PLEASE!  

   The Mini® was the hottest of the 13 I previously had walked. The track was brutal. 

   I had hoped to "live-stream" yesterday’s Mini®. Even when I blogged at 6 a.m., I was fully confident we would do it.

   I was proud of the notion that we would "live-stream" the Mini®. Three weeks previously, on the advice of the techie who was working with us, I had acquired the specific gear he said would do the job. I had set a goal of Saturday, April 28, to do a run-through. He had not…

WATCH "MINI" STREAMED LIVE AT CIVIL DISCOURSE NOW!

   A lot is happening in the Universe—and in Marion County—this weekend.

   The Show will live stream Sunday at 1---PREDICTIONS FOR THE PRIMARY!

   Tomorrow morning is the Mini-Marathon®. At about this time tomorrow I shall be in my "stall"—the term used for the roped-off section to which a person in the Mini® is assigned by seeding/time—probably shivering. Sarah is in the 5K. For whatever reason, someone in management of the events decided this year to start the 5K before the…

   By my second year at DePauw, I had learned a valuable lesson about law and the State of Indiana. One could not buy carry-out in the Hoosier State. By that, I mean one could not walk into a grocery or liquor store and purchase a 12-pack or a case of beer—or a bottle of wine or whatever. I began a practice that has lasted to the present day. On Saturday, I always stock upon my favorite beverage. (At present I prefer Bud Select®—fewer calories and the same taste as Bud Lite.) 

   When…

   Joe Donnelly currently represents Indiana’s Second Congressional District. The Republican Party, with a majority in both houses of the General Assembly and the office of Governor, redrew Congressional District lines—as is required of each state after the decennial census. The Republicans did what the Democrats have done in the past. The Republicans redrew district lines to maximize the number of Congressional District likely to vote Republican. The Republicans’ goal was to isolate Lake…

   Where are you going to watch the Mini? Do you know what it is like to approach the start line, in duck-walk fashion? Have you seen the discarded sweats strewn about the area just across the start line? Heard garage band after garage band play every couple of hundred of feet?

   Technology is amazing—especially for a person who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science (misnomer; always used to be called "government") in 1978. When I was in college, if someone had told…

   People purport to hate negative political ads on TV.  By "negative ads" I mean ads aimed mainly at trashing one candidate.  Polls that I have read consistently indicate over 60 percent (60%) of respondents do not like negative ads. Yet research and personal observation indicate negative political ads "work." They motivate some people to move, not so much "for" one candidate, but "against" the candidate at whom the ad is aimed (thereby helping the candidate in whose interest the ad was…

   Our schedule will change next week.

   Next Sunday will be Primary Predictions! "Civil Discourse Now" will features predictions of the outcomes of the May 8 primaries. Our new format, the past three weeks, has been live streaming on the internet, with a recorded version of The Show later that afternoon or the next morning.

   The following is not sponsored in any way by the people/corporations who organize or otherwise operate the event described. These are my…

   "I think I’ll have a drink."—Elliott Ness’s alleged comment on being told Prohibition had ended.

   Is a discussion of Indy’s smoking ban, set to take effect on June 1, necessary? After all, as I was told by one person yesterday, any debate is "over because we won." Some would call such a claim hubris. Others, less polite, would characterize the claim as something else.

   The Volstead Act—the Nineteenth Amendment, Prohibition—banned sales of alcohol in the United States.…

For some reason I cannot post a response to your posts except via new blog. Kurt: Yes this is an audience event. Come on out.

  Mr. Wheeler: Excellent question. That is a topic I shall try to raise to the panel during The Show.

   John Locke described liberty as property. One owns certain liberties. That might explain why certain rights are inalienable—they cannot be bartered away.

   One aspect of the debate over the recent smoking ban enacted by the City-County Council has been concern over businesses—particularly the taverns at which the legislation was aimed—might lose money if patrons are not allowed to smoke.

   Studies from Minnesota and Michigan indicate some bars gain customers, some see no…

   "Civil Discourse Now" streams "live" on the internet on Saturday mornings at 11.

   This week our guests will be Indianapolis blogger and media personality Abdul-Hakim Shabazz ( a cigar smoker) and Lindsay Grace, spokesperson for Smoke Free Indy. Paul Ogden and I will discuss Indy’s new smoking ban with them. We will shoot The Show at Indy Cigar Bar, 3357 East 86^th Street. 

   As of 6 a.m. on June 1, 2012, Indianapolis’s smoking ban goes into effect. No longer…