In America, the desire for (more) money and material things is viewed as a positive quality. It drives the economy. It is the dynamic behind the free market. In the couple of weeks since the disaster at the State Fairs, plaintiffs' law firms have made an embarrassment of our profession in their efforts to be first to jump in and show themselves to be the champions of the downtrodden---the downtrodden being those who lost their lives or were injured when the stage collapsed before…

Amend the Indiana Constitution: no more 50-year contracts.

Politicians like to give the image of having successfully solved a problem, with little or no cost to the average citizen. The average citizen is happy with this fairy tale. After all, taxes are bad. Higher taxes are even worse. So if a mayor gets money into, for an example, his city, and shortfalls are met and little projects are built, things are marvy-poo for John Q. Public and his spouse Jane. Let us say, for our…

On September 4, "Civil Discourse Now" will premiere at 11 a.m. on the website civildiscoursenow.com. Indianapolis attorneys Mark Small and Paul Ogden will co-host panel discussion on local, state, national, and international political and social topics with different guests each week.

This panel show will be different in several ways. First, no one will talk over anyone else. The discourse, after all, will be civil. Second, the guests will not be quite what one may expect from an Indy…

   Amongst the articles The Indianapolis Star ran about the stage collapse at the State Fair, one centered on the wife of the governor and her daughter. The governor's wife was whisked out of the place by an alert State Trooper. The crowd should have had benefit of that decision-making.

   The line that caught my attention concerned the couple's daughter. The article stated the daughter was there photographing the show on a contract she has with the State Fair. On her website, the…

   I tap this into my lap top as I lounge on the fan tail of the 80 foot boat I purchased yesterday here in St. Lucia. I acted on my own advice for the past couple of weeks. Each time I wrote on this blog that people should sell short, I actually did so. One moment, please---ah, I had to pour a bit more champers into the wine flute. There is not as much noise out here as there is inside, what with the music and dancing. The boat is rocking a bit, but that's what life is about, I…

   George W. Bush was President of the United States for eight years. He was not elected but selected by a Supreme Court, the majority of the members of which had been nominated by his father, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. From 1969 to 2009, only one Democrat, Bill Clinton, held the office of President and nominated anyone to the Court. The Court ignored the law, issued a decsion it said would not be used as precedent, and let Bush move into the mansion on Pennsylvaia Avenue.…

  Oops! Michelle Bachmann got another historical "fact" wrong. This time she was talking about a topic more important than the history of the republic. She was talking about the King. Elvis Presley's birthday is January 8. The date of his death was Agust 16, 1977. I was in Greencastle, Indiana, that day, preparing for the start of my last year a DePauw. I had dined on a fried banana-and-peanut butter on whole wheat sandwich. Well, the part about the sand wich is not true. But the part about…

   There are several quotes about a foreign power's involvement in Iraq:

   "Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators."

   "Iraq could be a model for development and democracy for the entire region."

   "Our policy is actually working, and if 'prematurely curtailed, the result would be disastrous ... Withdrawal would lead inevitably to anarchy.'"

   "The only way to leave with honor would be to redefine the…

Corporations are not people.

Mit Romney, under pressure from Iowans on break from eating deep-fried Twinkies at their State Fair, said yesterday, "Corporations are people!" The rest of his brief comments seemed to indicate he meant since corporate profits go to people, that made corporations people.

Sorry, Mit, but giving an entity profits does not breathe life into it and confer on it the status of human. As I have written before, a corporation is not a living,…

   What is the deal? The cover of "Newsweek" carried a photo of Michelle Bachmann, eyes bugged out and quizzical expression on her face. She looked like somone just had goosed her. She frequentlyhas the same look. SHe also has a thing about looking off-camera. People make fun of politicians who use teleprompters, but get real---without that particular machine, Roald Reagan would have been lost. Of course, Nancy's astrologer always was in the wings.

   Bachmann's facial expression is a…

Stocks rallied today, across the pond, for the usual imagined reasons markets rally or fall. John Candy's character in "Stripes" played poker with a kid who was, well, slow. He taught the kid how to play poker. "Let me see your hand," Candy's character said. After looking at the cards, he said, "You know what I'd do? I'd bet it all. Bluff. Come on!" Of course the kid did, and lost.

History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. I read that on another blog to which Paul's blog is…

I am not a stock market analyst. I do not give advice about matters related to stocks. The opinion I express here is my own. But damn, I have been right in stating people should have sold short yesterday.

The market made another significant adjustment downward. Everyone should have sold short. I said as much last week. So those heeded my advce would have enjoyed significant gains.

Matters look bleak. The tea baggers rejoice, out of ignprance. Those with foresight aare happy. And the baggers rejoice in tanking the economy. They have taken glee over the destructon that have wrought. And the Koch brothers, and their ilk, rejoice. Theirs is nihilistic view. 

This was written in response to a person on a website in Kokomo.

1) I did not use a debate tactic to muddy any waters. A reasonable inference as to people who claim originalism as a jurisprudential philosophy is those people can state, with precision sufficient to guide us, what the Framers of the Constitution intended. A first, and I would think necessary, step is to say who the Framers were. The Convention itself was muddied. Compromises were reached, especially as to slavery, only…

I was right.

On August 1, I advised everyone to sell short: "So if you have any money to invest, wait for the right moment, then bet on the markets to slide. Things look to get worse." Someone sells short when that person bets the market will lose points. Perce Livermore, famously, sold short on the "Day the Bubble Burst" in October, 1929. He made millions. I knew a brilliant broker who figured out, on Friday, October 16, 1987, on a software program, that the market…

   A popular theory amongst those who would have us to return to the old times is that we should base interpretation of the Constitution on the Framers' intent. The theory is called "originalism."   

   However, there was no single theory of the Constitution held by the Framers. The Constitution was the product of compromises, many revolving around the issue of slavery. By the way, those who wanted to keep slavery won. Do we rely upon those individuals' vews to interpret our rights…

Birth control will be readily available to the poor

Beginning January 1, 2013, preventative measures, including birth control, will become available without co-pay under the overhaul of the nation’s health-care system.

In other words, amongst other aspects of health care available, finally, to the poor will be birth control.

One aspect of the argument against a woman’s right—let’s use a popular term for the matter, "sovereignty" over her body—to obtain an abortion…

My advice: sell short.

The deal that appears to have been approved whereby the debt ceiling will be lifted was negotiated in the same way as Vito Corleone used Luca Brazzi to negotiate contracts in "The Godfather." We do not need to cut spending nearly so much as we need more revenues. I agree with Bill Maher’s assessment that of the two political parties, one has no brains and the other has no balls.

The bobbed tail is wagging the clueless dog. Meanwhile, the Shih Tzu…