Civil Discourse Now

Where the far left and far right overlap for fun and enlightenment

All Blog Posts (1,859)

Another day will mean more gun deaths to protect the 2A

Another day in America & more people dead from guns. How many deaths did the latest spate of shootings prevent? Gun people get highly technical (e.g., “‘AR’ don’t stand for no ‘assault rifle’, dumbass”) & you’d think they’d have calculated a coefficient. But Jethro’s School 1/4

of Brain Surgery, Double-Ought Spyin’ & Fry Cookery (a/k/a 3rd grade) is tough. In undergrad I stalled guns. During a meeting of faculty chairs, deans & student leaders at DePauw University in…

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Added by Mark Small on May 5, 2023 at 6:05am — No Comments

The math of gun violence is one-sided

It’s near the start of a speech barely five minutes long. In 8th grade it seemed every night our “regular programming” was interrupted by a “Special Report” or “Bulletin.” Tonight I made sure the line was correct & tweeted, then watched all of Robert Kennedy’s speech in Indy. 1/5

In a park around 22nd & Central, he told a crowd that Martin Luther King had been shot & killed. The tweet to which I’d replied (“The mathematician?”) struck me. People who say “guns made this…

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Added by Mark Small on May 4, 2023 at 8:15pm — No Comments

They don't report bennies from buddies or testify truthfully. I present to you the Roberts Court

Some say this U.S. Supreme Court has no clear identity w/John Roberts, its Chief Justice, as past Courts. I disagree. The integrity is consistent. E.g., Justice Clarence Thomas is the latest: his billionaire buddy Harlan Crow pd tuition 4 Thomas’s grand nephew, raised by Thomas as 1/7

a son. Crow dissed any who question his largesse, saying he’s long attempted to help “at-risk youth.” A youth in Thomas’s household is “at-risk” if s/he fails to learn only a SCOTUS justice can enjoy…

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Added by Mark Small on May 4, 2023 at 4:57pm — No Comments

WIBC's "Gun Guy" should be specific: how many lives are saved by each little corpse in a mass shooting?

Epidemiology can determine if A causes B & deals w/“incidence, distribution & possible control of diseases & other factors relating to health.” Gun makers’ focus on humanitarian goal of killing more people more quickly neglects sales. E.g., causes of death usually are determined only 1/5

by autopsy but a 1964 Surgeon General’s report linked mainstream smoke (MSM) to cancer. Adult smokers went from 42% to 19%. (2014). Big Tobacco, for yrs, knew from their own studies that…

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Added by Mark Small on May 3, 2023 at 8:03am — No Comments

We need to end TIFs and handouts & realize my opponents platform is at best empty

I have an opponent in tomorrow’s primary for City-County Council Distr 2, here in Indy. I’m running in the GOP to fight forces of bigotry & ignorance. From fliers put out by Matt Hills, you can’t tell he’s GOP in a blue district in the bluest of counties. His #1 priority,“keeping our 1/7

Neighborhoods safe,” is ducky but his proposals suck, e.g., permanently re-establishing office of Director of Public Safety.” That adds, or re-labels. an office in the bureaucracy. (Taste great?…

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Added by Mark Small on May 1, 2023 at 5:34pm — No Comments

GOP policies of denial of reproductive rights & of discrimination scare away "talent"

Tomorrow, May 2, is the primary election. Here in Indy/Marion County, the office of Mayor and the 25 seats on the City-County Council are up for grabs. We can’t allow one of the two “major” political parties to be run by forces of bigotry & ignorance. After a lifetime of voting, & 1/5

sometimes volunteering to work, for the Democratic Party, I’m running in the GOP primary for City-County Council District 2, a very blue district. Matt Hills, my opponent, in the mailers I’ve…

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Added by Mark Small on May 1, 2023 at 8:03am — No Comments

Sorry but I have to give a shout-out to those who foster gun violence!

I congratulate Guy Relford, host of “The Gun Guy” (spiffy play on words) on WIBC, where he advocates a culture of concealed-carry & a 2nd Amendment the 1st Congress never intended. For every mass shooting in the U.S., Mr Relford should feel good. 5 more are dead in Texas. 1/5

Laughs & chuckles abound on his show & in ads for gun shows, like the pooka (seven-foot-tall imaginary rabbit) from the movie “Harvey” getting shot & a one-liner about the Brady Bill (named for…

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Added by Mark Small on April 30, 2023 at 8:04pm — No Comments

Military mind sets are not good for municipal government

Tuesday, May 2, are primary elections. Indy voters can request a Democratic or Republican party ballot. I’m a candidate in the GOP primary for City-County Council District 2. Matt Hills is my opponent, but his mailers omit mention of party, unlike Brienne Delaney, also running for 1/5

District 2, who clearly notes her Democratic Party affiliation. District 2 is extremely “blue,” i.e., Democratic. Perhaps Mr Hills believes it better to mislead progressives so that in the general…

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Added by Mark Small on April 30, 2023 at 11:54am — No Comments

In a country awash w/war surplus available for cops, what tech don't they have?

Tuesday May 2: primary elections! Armed idiots at polling places have been used to scare ppl away from voting. Prior to the May, 1925, primary, the Chief of the Indianapolis P.D. issued orders to keep members of the Horse Thief Detective Ass’n from all public polling places. 1/6

The association was the KKK’s “enforcement,” sought to intimidate voters who were hostile to the Klan & members drove through black neighborhoods & displayed their guns as a warning for blacks “to stay…

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Added by Mark Small on April 29, 2023 at 4:25pm — No Comments

Abortion's legality, drop in violent crime rates & City-County Council

At the foundation of our government are lies and contradictions. My opponent in next Tuesday’s GOP primary repeated one of those lies. MAGA people validate Santayana’s warning that those who fail to study history are condemned to repeat6 it. The 1/6

Constitution of the “Land of the Free” protected slavery. Now, by total number and %, we incarcerate more people than any nation. In 1991 rates of violent crime in the USA were cut in half. Neither women’s reproductive rights nor USA’s…

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Added by Mark Small on April 29, 2023 at 12:40pm — No Comments

City-County Council District 2: Matt Hills would have our police act as an occupying army

Matt Hills, my opponent in the GOP primary next Tuesday for City-County Council District 2, has said keeping our neighborhoods safe is his “number one priority.” Unfortunately suggestions he makes in pursuit of that goal are platitudes that originate in the Land of Failed Policies.” 1/5

Example: “Invest in technology to better fight crime and keep our officers safe.” This approach pits the police against ... citizens. Hills has experience as an officer in the Army. Strategies of an…

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Added by Mark Small on April 28, 2023 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Suspended for a year yet the justice who denied an extension lacks the integrity to be on The Court

“What does Russia have to do with the suspension of your law license?” a friend asked after she read my last 2 blogs/tweets. In 2017 I represented Clients in Blumstein, et al v Pence, et al, 16-907, and Bailey et al. v. United States, 16-1464, & challenged validity of the 2016 election, 1/9

in part, on violation of the Invasion Clause of the Constitution, Art. IV, sec. 4: The United States shall protect each of the States against “Invasion.” Allegations we raised have not been…

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Added by Mark Small on April 28, 2023 at 10:45am — No Comments

Scriveners errors & hyper technicalities

6/6/2022 Caller ID sd Indiana’s PD #. who for years had appointed me to appeals. My cheerful Hi! was met w/ ... very ... slowly ... asked ... questions. Her tone & pace + reference to Russia’s invasion of the USA as grounds I’d cited for an extension, threw me off. Then the clacking 1/7

of her fingers on a computer keyboard came through. I quickly denied those were the grounds I’d cited for an extension and ended the call. I pulled up the emergency motion I’d filed. Nowhere is…

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Added by Mark Small on April 26, 2023 at 10:08am — No Comments

Order of Suspension from Indiana's Supreme Court ... say what?

“A lawyer shall not make a statement [ ] the lawyer knows to be false or w/reckless disregard as to its” truth/falsity concerning qual’ns/integrity “of a judge.” Rule Prof Conduct 8.2. IN lawyers’ speech, especially about judges, is protected by fed & State constitutions, because: 1/6

to express honest/candid opinions re judges helps to improve admin of justice. (Comment RPC 8.2.) Hoosier lawyers’ speech may be chilled, but law licenses are safe if lawyers make no statements about…

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Added by Mark Small on April 25, 2023 at 6:33pm — No Comments

Last weekend GOP people were caught up in religious fervor...

Last weekend, internet posts from various Republican officials might have been mistaken as messages for posts by the more extreme strains of evangelical Christianity. People at the fore of this iteration of the GOP seem intent upon taking this State & this country into theocracy. 1/5

The Framers of The Constitution never intended a theocracy. In the 234 years since The Constitution was ratified, beliefs about religion and in specific religions gained protection. That’s why I would…

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Added by Mark Small on April 11, 2023 at 12:30pm — 1 Comment

Not Coming soon: trump condoms

My response to photo of trump/woman: “Does Prep work for exposure to trump? And this isn't a matter of saying to her: ‘You could get an STD.’ She might expose others. And: trump doesn't use condoms or else he'd have marketed his own brand.” Brand? Possibly trump who 1/7

started undergrad at Fordham, 1964, just post-Pill, definitely pre-Roe & very pre-AIDS, hasn’t a clue what a condom is. In upper-middle-class sets like trump’s, bc was (& often still is) woman’s responsibility.…

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Added by Mark Small on April 9, 2023 at 8:07pm — No Comments

Gun makers don't want to see red ... ink. Any other red's okay

One reasonable restriction on guns is to limit the number of firearms one person may own. If a person has too many guns to keep track of or use, that would mean “bad people” can more easily get a gun. But gun manufacturers need markets in which to sell their gadgets of death. 1/5

Guns are durable & can last 100 years or more. Harvard public health researcher Deborah Azrael, who surveyed gun owners in 2016, says the annual attrition rate of guns in the U.S.is about 1%. Gun makers…

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Added by Mark Small on April 8, 2023 at 3:42pm — No Comments

The NRA Convention here Apr 14-16. We shouldn't have them here

NRA’s annual fete is in Indy 4/14-4/16/23. U.S. civilians hold an average of 120.5 guns/100 ppl, “the highest rate in the world by a factor of more than two.” U.S. News & WR, 1/20/23. We are the only country w/more civilian-held guns than citizens. Guns did not make us free. 1/6

After mass shootings, ppl “for” gun control (as favored by GOP Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I and II) are told stfu, that guns won “us” freedom fr England & that we should thank guns & the…

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Added by Mark Small on April 7, 2023 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Learning to walk again after a diagnosis then different neurologists

I wouldn’t let MS “beat” me. I was pro-active: walks got longer, fr half-an-hour each morning to well over an hour. Dr. Guru seemed mildly amused by my efforts at exercise. But during one of my appointments, he said a study by French researchers indicated exercise helps to fight MS. 1/8

Over several years I went from walking about half-an-hour each morning to over an hour. The Indianapolis 500 Festival has a half-marathon called The Mini Marathon, at the beginning of each May. A lot…

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Added by Mark Small on April 7, 2023 at 12:51pm — No Comments

And now a short break to consider misdiagnoses of life-altering conditions

June, 2015, on the morning of my birthday, I had an apptmt w/a neurologist at IU North. A too-long drive was one of several reasons I decided to switch neurologists. My reality has been shaped, significantly, since January, 1994, when I was diagnosed w/multiple sclerosis. 1/8

1994: By 2nd of what became 9 days in the hospital, I was paralyzed waist down. Neurologist who diagnosed had: (1) results of 4 MRIs & an LP (lumbar puncture or spinal tap); (2) labs fr numerous vials of…

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Added by Mark Small on April 6, 2023 at 5:17pm — No Comments

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