We did not know what the “Gadsden flag” was, but I sported it proudly on a button for the better part of a year.

   The two-day debate tournament was at Wisconsin State University at Oshkosh in the first semester of my third year at DePauw. Our first rounds were Friday afternoon going into the evening. Saturday morning’s rounds ended at lunch time, as I recall, with speaker awards and “e-lims”—the one-loss bracket format in which the eight or sixteen teams (I forget if the tournament…

   We can put into better perspective the demands of the NFL® upon a city that seeks to host the Super Bowl®.

   What if Lindsay Lohan were available to be a guest in someone’s house for a month? These would be possible demands of a contract for her stay:

   1) Of course, she would pay no rent. In fact, you would pay her for the privilege of playing “host” to a World-Class celebrity.

   2) She requires transportation, therefore you would be required to provide, 24/7, three…

   Outgoing Indiana State Treasurer gave a farewell speech yesterday to the Indiana Republican State Convention. Party leaders probably were too occupied with the battle over nomination of the Republican candidate for Mr. Mourdock’s replacement to consider the prudence of allowing the man who beat Richard Lugar in the 2012 Republican primary access to a microphone. After all, his comments on rape probably doomed his chances in the general election.

   At the blog “Hoosier Access,” Derek…

   In late 1973, Newsweek magazine—back then it was in print form and came out each week, after “news” was at best only a few days in the past—ran an issue with a special focus on impeachment. Richard Nixon was on the ropes in the second round, bloodied after only a relatively few months of disclosures from what now is known as Watergate.”

   One unfortunate outcome of Watergate was the addition of the suffix “-gate” to any purported scandal.

   Little was known, by the general…

   Each summer during college I worked for my old man’s construction company as a go-fer. Ours was a union sheet metal shop. Because I was immediat4e family of a shop owner, I could handle sheet metal, but basically I drove, delivered, beat holes through concrete walls, dug ditches, and even crawled around in the air ducts of a factory that used asbestos to manufacture brake linings.

   One guy with whom I worked was a veteran of the Korean Conflict. “War” never was declared by the…

   Any sports season now is over for me until September.

   Tax dollars funded the latest effort by YOUR Indiana Pacers to make yet another run at the NBA Finals. In 2000 the team finally made it to the Finals, only to be blown out by the Lakers. Maybe we shall have another stretch of five or six years before the Pacers lurch into the best-of-seven for the NBA Championship. By then the San Antonio Spurs will be so old, their starters will use walkers. The Pacers probably will loose four…

   Today “Civil Discourse Now” launches its own channel on “Live 365.” The past two weeks we have experienced technical difficulties we previously had not encountered. We are unable to get on the air for nearly an hour. We no longer will have such problems.

   But, I digress.

   In February, after one of its fracking sites blew up large sections of a Pennsylvania township, corporate honchos at Chevron gave residents of the area damaged “free” pizzas.

   In ancient Rome, the poet…

   Tomorrow, Saturday, May 31, “Civil Discourse Now” will stream live from the Indianapolis Convention Center, 100 South Capitol where we shall provide coverage of the Indiana State Democratic Party convention.

   Join us from 11 am to 1 pm as we interview candidates for State-wide office as well as delegates from all over Indiana. Matt Stone will join me. Kimann Schultz will provide her “Fashion News & Muse” segment. Plus, we shall feature a new episode of “Tail of the City,” with…

   Saturday we will stream live from the Indiana State Democratic Convention, from 11 am to 1 pm. We will have candidates for state-wide office, as well as delegates from all over Indiana, as guests.

   Another type of convention has been in the news the past few days. There has been a push to have a convention to address changes in the United States Constitution. A constitutional convention is a very bad idea.

   First, if large corporations dump money into specific Congressional…

   Next Saturday, May 31, “Civil Discourse Now” will stream live from the Indianapolis Convention Center, 100 South Capitol where we shall provide coverage of the Indiana State Democratic Party convention.

   Join us from 11 am to 1 pm as we interview candidates for State-wide office as well as delegates from all over Indiana. Matt Stone will join me. Kimann Schultz will provide her “Fashion News & Muse” segment. Plus, we shall feature a new episode of “Tail of the City,” with the…

   Today we will talk about the 500 with Rick Ward---whose racing team I once helped sponsor---and George Wilson, sports savant extraordinaire. We shall stream "live" from Good Earth in Broad Ripple. Matt Stone will provide his outlook on the Race and on current events. Kimann Schultz will give us her "Fashion News and Muse."

   Near Kokomo, outside the hamlet of West Middleton on Sunnybrook Farm, where I was raised, an annual event was the radio broadcast of the Indianapolis 500. Sid Collins, who started his radio career at Kokomo's WIOU, was the "Voice of the 500." After Tony Hulman announced, "Gentlemen, start your engines!" the excitement was "on." 

   During the parade lap, announcers from various posts around the track would describe each car in two or three rows. "We go to Howdie Bell in Turn Two!"…

   This morning brought another interesting take on capital punishment from the blog “ConservaTibbs” by Scott Tibbs. Last week, I responded to his contention governments here should abolish lethal injection and should take back up firing squads, hanging, or electrocution as means by which people “who deserve to die” are executed.

   Today, Mr. Tibbs, on his “Conservatibbs” blog, first set forth the philosophical foundation of his support for capital punishment—that it “is the clear…

   Corruption is rife in Indianapolis. The “pay-to-play” system is in place., Donors of large amounts of campaign dollars receive largesse in the form of lucrative contracts.  Those few who are lucky enough to own professional sports franchises sniff out and chomp onto extra dollars Indianapolis might have at any given time.

   Last night I decided to speak with an authority on corruption—Mayor Richard J. Daley, former Mayor of Chicago. If you think he still is alive, you are thinking of…

   The death penalty is an archaic means by which fewer societies attempt to address crime.

   There are several reasons advanced “for” the death penalty. I addressed several this week in two of my posts on this blog. Scott Tibbs, who blogs at ConservaTibbs, had posted his view that we, as a society through our government, should ban lethal injection as a method of execution. He advocates firing squad, hanging and electrocution. I stated my view that we should abolish all means of…

   “The disparity in wealth began around 1980" ... “We began to experience these problems in the early 1980s"... “Regulations were eased in the 1980s”...

   I noticed a constant in recent stories about our economic, domestic and foreign woes. The year 1980 is used vaguely as a bench mark. There is an actual, specific date when those woes began. The date was January 20, 1981, when the worst president of the Twentieth Century—Ronald Reagan—was sworn into office.

   Barely two months in…

   Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Judicial Circuit halted the planned execution of Robert James Campbell.  Prosecutors had failed to provide Campbell’s attorneys with the results of two intelligence (IQ) tests that indicated Campbell’s IQ was under 70. The United States Supreme Court has held a person who is mentally retarded cannot be executed. Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002). Also, the Court long ago held that the State is under an obligation to…

   In his “ConservaTibbs” blog yesterday, Scott Tibbs wrote that governments here should abolish lethal injection as a means of capital punishment. We, as a people, should employ firing squads, hanging, or electrocution as means by which people “who deserve to die” are killed.

   Mr. Tibbs perhaps has missed the past couple of hundred years of legal evolution.

   At the time the Framers met in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention, there were about 60 crimes, in the…

   "Hoosier School Heist," is a scathing analysis of the privatization of education in the United States, with a special focus on Indiana, written by Doug Martin. Mr.  Martin will be a guest on Civil Discourse Now today, streamed live from The Foundry at 236 East 16th Street, from 11 am to 1 pm.

   "Hoosier School Heist" portrays corporate greed and political corruption in a bipartisan light: the two "major" political parties have participated equally in the effort to dismantle this…

   Civil Discourse Now will stream live from The Foundry at 236 East 16th Street, Saturday, May 10, from 11 am to 1 pm. 

   On this week’s Show we shall discuss education with Doug Martin, author of “Hoosier School Heist.” Justin Oakley, host of “Just Let Me Teach” and former candidate for Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction also will join us. We may have one more guest panelist, but again, at this writing, I do not have confirmation.   

   The system of public education…