All of us should be alarmed by Rick Santorum’s views. He is ignorant about history. For example, Thomas Jefferson argued for having the Feds in education during his 1806 State of the Union address. The public high school I attended took more of an interest in athletics than it did academics, but the skills I learned there enabled me to compete with others, and complete the degree requirements, at DePauw University.

   Santorum chose to home-school his children. Home-schooling might…

   I first became aware of the modern state of Israel during the Six Days War in 1967. The images that played on the evening news were of an underdog country engaged in a battle for survival with bully opponents. I was unaware of the societal guilt built up over two millennia of Western persecution of the Jewish people. Nor was I aware of the manner in which Jewish settlers, desperate to escape persecution sharpened in the 1920s and made even more acute in Germany with Hitler’s ascendancy to…

   Two weeks in a row on the same topic?

   Yes, we are doing that—but look at the topic: efficacy of third parties in American politics.

   Today our guests will be Chris Spangle of the Libertarian Party and Timothy Platt, Executive Director of the Socialist Central Committee, Ltd.

   Other local shows do not cover alternative parties. Most voters—look at the numbers in the elections—do not give alternative parties the benefit of thought enough to vote for a candidate…

   This week we continue our discussion of the efficacy of third parties in American politics. Joining Paul Ogden and me on the panel will be Timothy Platt of the Socialist Central Committee, Ltd., and Chris Spangle of the Libertarian Party.

    Saturday, February 18, "Civil Discourse Now" is the day and 11 a.m. is the time. As I said in regard to last week’s Show, certainly we shall discuss issues in the context of our guests’ respective parties’ platforms, but the focus of the…

   Come on! We have a Show. We have civil discourse. Watch the past ashows. We soon will be "live." In the meantime, we will have an audience--right there. We broadcast on the seond floor of Big Hat Books 6510 Cornell Avenue  in Broad Ripple. Do you want to enhance discourse? Get off your butts. Come out and shownup. There's no cover charges, unless the Batles appear. This week? Third pareties and thir efficacy in American Politics. Come on! Ask questions. Demand answers. If we do not do…

   Parties that have arisen as alternatives to the Democratic and Republican parties should not be called "third parties." First, that cedes ground to the two "major" parties and implies any new party merely is a stand-by. Second, as I previously have written on this blog, the two majors function as one party in significant respects. In each of the 46 states and four commonwealths, they have enacted legislation that limits access to ballots to "two" parties. They also derive monies from many…

   In the United States, health care costs twice as much per capita as in the second-most expensive country for health care, according to the National Center for Health Studies. Yet we rank 37^th in the World in health care quality and 42^nd in adult mortality rates.

   The people who profit from this system are the major shareholders in health insurance companies. In the meantime, the rest of us die sooner than we should. I pay nearly $1,000 per month for health…

   It has taken years, but finally I was able to sketch out a copy of the controls of the WABAC® machine, as used by Sherman and Mr. Peabody. Using a black Magic Marker®, I sketched out the controls on an interior panel of a corrugated, cardboard box.

   So please join me as we travel back in time to Philadelphia in the summer of 1787.

   The first thing to strike the sense is the smell of horse sh-----uh, manure. Even the cobble stone paved streets of the nicer sections of the…

   At the time of the Constitutional Convention, the issue of whether to continue the institution of slavery was critical. The States of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and, in particular, South Carolina, were greatly reliant for slave labor on their plantations. It was feared the delegates of those States would walk out of the convention were slavery to be abolished. At least 20 of the 53 delegates who attended the convention claimed ownership in other human beings as…

   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…