Our Civics textbook freshman year of high school had a right-wing slant. It had to have been the most right-wing textbook available, given our teacher’s views. He did not "lean" right-wing. He fully fell over the railing and down into the abyss.

   One section of the textbook really angered me. Four or five paragraphs, blocked-off on a page  with gray background, explained the "folly" of third parties. I took issue with the book and argued there have been successful third parties…

   Everyone seems happy about the Super Bowl®. We have projected the image of a "world class city." (I don’t know if that phrase is trademarked or copyrighted. One day maybe all words and phrases will be copyrighted and/or trademarked and one will require a license to speak.) The concept expressed by more than one person is that Indianapolis has thrown such a good Super Bowl®, the NFL® will want to return here for another or more.

   First, I doubt—really, truly, honestly doubt—the…

   Of the two, I do not know what I find more distressing: 1) That a Marion County Superior Court judge granted blanket powers to three corporations—the NFL®, the New York Giants®, and the New England Patriots®—to seize any item their agents or employees deem an infringement of copyright/trademark, or that the story about the issuance of the order granting that injunctive relief that appeared yesterday morning on the Indiana Law Blog was gone by last evening.

   There are procedures…

   Was George Washington a great president? Let’s see—he was a slaveholder, lost more battles than he fought, bought a lot of land via his access as President of the United States. Was Abraham Lincoln a great President? He suspended the writ of habeas corpus, stifled protest and dissent to the point that riots against the draft occurred in New York City, and all this after he was alleged to have snuck into Washington, D.C., prior to his inaugural, so as not to be seen.

   What…

   Red Lion Grog House is located at 1043 Virginia Avenue, in Fountain Square. Red Lion has set a sandwich board outside its front entrance for over two years. Last Friday evening, an individual from City Code Enforcement advised the proprietor that the sign was in violation of an ordinance, adopted in August by The City of Consolidated Indianapolis and Marion County, through the City Council and the Mayor, to cater (more accurately kow-tow) to the NFL®. The ordinance was passed to assuage…

   Mitt Romney has bragged about his abilities as a business person. He has pushed his record in the private sector, as a corporate executive, in the course of touting how he would address problems in the economy in a way superior to President Obama’s.

   1) Realize Romney jokingly referred to himself has having been unemployed for over ten years. But that is not a joke in the sense that he has been out of the private sector, operating a business, for that period.

   2)…

   Saturday’s Show will consider matters somewhat related to the current round of primaries.

   Whom would you rank as the best president of all time? Whom would you say was the worst? Whom would you say was (here comes a phrase that is perhaps an oxymoron) the most mediocre president? I refer here to POTUS. The President of the United States. For sake of clarity, we would not count those individuals who served as president under the Articles of Confederation, as the nature of the job…

   Because the Super Bowl® has occupied Indianapolis, the NFL® flew in (at City expense, of course) a special photographer for book-ins at the Marion County Jail. Actually, the effort was to make sure one person was not available to take those head shots. The NFL had sought to hire the photographer responsible for the most famous head shot of all time. Long after Nick Nolte has retired, and 48 Hours is mentioned more frequently in trivia contents than discussions of really cool…

   And the day has arrived. We begin shooting at 11 a.m. at Big Hat Books. Big Hat is located at 6510 Cornell Avenue, immediately north of the Brewpub, just north of 65^th. Cornell runs parallel to the Monon Trail. For those of you who might not be familiar with Broad Ripple, Google®  the address (as I presume you are on a computer if you are reading this blog).

   The City of Consolidated Indianapolis and Marion County has, in place, a silly ordinance meant to cater (more…

   Who will make the money from Indianapolis’s hosting of the Super Bowl®?

   1) The number of locally-owned businesses downtown (or anyplace, for that matter) has declined significantly over the past decade. The hotels are national chains—Marriott, Hilton, Westin, or spin-offs. The bellpeople, housekeeping staff, and other personnel will earn their paychecks and maybe receive some well-deserved tips. The Slippery Noodle Inn and St. Elmo’s, the last I checked, are locally-owned. The…

   Bernard P. Fife was a lawman. He wore a badge—issued to him by Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry. On the lot where they shot "The Andy Griffith Show," Barney Fife was a lawman—so long as the cameras were rolling, he was acting within the script, and all the other actors stayed in character. In other words, he was a fictional lawman. Barney Fife also is the first example of whom people think of an overly-zealous, authoritative person who should not have even one bullet on his…

I finished Alfred Lilienthal's book What Price Israel? recently. A very interesting thesis, especially in light of other knowledge that I previously possessed concerning some of the author's assertations.

Several things stuck in my mind. This book was written in the early 1960s, yet most of the author's comments concerning the influence of well-heeled minority special interests upon the U. S. Congress and Presidency are as accurate today as they were…

   Would this person be in her/his right mind?

   Mr. League, a wealthy person, announces he wants to throw a party, in a private residence, for a lot of his wealthy friends. He has certain requirements, but insists he pay—nothing. He receives several responses. He picks Mr. Indy (I’m trying to make identities vague here), because Mr. Indy not only will not charge Mr. League any rent, but will pay all the costs—security, food, beverages (and Mr. League’s pals like to drink), and…

   One would think a small shop would be the kind of local business politicians (of either major party) would want to benefit from a publicly-subsidized event. After all, each election cycle "small business" is an often-used phrase to extol candidates’ virtues. I never have heard a politician speak ill of "small business" as a concept.

   Let’s say a locally-owned sandwich shop, within one mile of Lucas Oil Stadium (or in Broad Ripple, on Mass Ave, or in Fountain Square) displays a…

   The First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads, in relevant part:

  "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech..."

   Article I, sec. 9 of the Indiana Constitution (Article I is our State’s Bill of Rights) reads:

      "No law shall be passed, restraining the free interchange of thought and opinion, or restricting the right to speak,    write, or print, freely on any subject whatever: but for the abuse of that right, every person…

   Next Saturday, January 28, 2012, at 11:00 a.m., "Civil Discourse Now" will film one or more acts of civil disobedience. What is "civil disobedience"? Black’s Law Dctionary: "A deliberate but nonviolent act of lawbreaking to call attention to a particular law or set of laws of questionable legitimacy or morality."

   This is real, folks. This is as real as it gets. The conduct will address corporate greed and oppression as well as efforts to quash free speech.

  …

   I lived in Wisconsin for three-and-a-half weeks. In April, 1979, I was recently graduated from college and unemployed. I had dubbed the place in which I lived, on Home Avenue in Kokomo, "The Slum." If the movie "Stripes" had been out, maybe I would have enlisted. Instead, I decided to go to Madison, Wisconsin. A fraternity brother and his future wife had transferred to the University of Wisconsin. I had visited once, and the place seemed ultra-cool.

   Unfortunately, a lot of other…

   Bob Dylan sang, "You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." The Weathermen, later changed to Weather Underground, named themselves after that lyric. The on-line forecast for tday shows: (1) a predicted high temperature of 56 degrees, (2) a current temperature of 57, (3) a seventy percent (70%) chance of rain, (4) current conditions include rain, and (5) I hear rain beating against the walls of the house.

   This disconnect (current popular word) was played out…

   The Indiana General Assembly is comprised of he House of Representatives (100 members) and the Senate (50 members). Members of the House serve two-year terms. Members of the Senate serve four-year terms. Every two years all of the seats of the House and half of the seats of the Senate are on the ballot.

   That means all of the current members of the House and half of the members of the Senate (absent a member here or there who resigned because of scandal; such is politics) ran for…

   Until the mid-1960s, as I recall from growing up, there only were two bookstores in Kokomo. One was on the town square. The place was closed-in, shelves floor-to-ceiling, with the feel of a book shoppe in a 1930s movie about London. I only went into the place once or twice. As was frequently the case, the old man had a grudge against the owner or one of the counter people for a slight, real or imagined, from long before. Only after I had graduated from college and stopped there on a whim…