I will have more to write about the details, but last year we covered the Indianapolis International Film Festival. "Civil Discourse Now" is honored to be allowed to cover the festival again. Joining me as a guest panelist will be Terry Jett, professor of political science at Butler University. The festival is probably one of the best entertainment expenditures to be made in Indy. For the money one pays, the films provide a different perspective than one usually obtains. There are a lot…

   That is not a partial recollection of my attendance of a concert in the 1970s.

   Yesterday we had an excellent Show. Guest panelists were Miah Akston, Andrew Kirch, and Jeff Cox at Claude & Annie's, 9351 East 141st Street, Fishers. If you did not catch The Show when it streamed "live," it will be re-aired this week on Indiana Talks dot com.

   We got home and I went out onto the deck to read, go on-line to check some things for The Show, and to smoke a cigar. The…

  Once more—the Mini-Marathon® is Saturday.  This is my personal account of why the Mini® is important to me.  This year will be my fifteenth consecutive. In 1994, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. By the second of nine days in the hospital, I completely had lost use of my legs. Thus walking the 13.1 miles of the Mini® is important to me.

   On what was supposed to be my last day in the hospital, I was dressed and ready to go at 7 a.m. The neuro didn’t arrive until 6 p.m. I…

   Taxpayers should not pay for improvements to a sports facility to increase its "curb appeal" for buyers.

   I am opposed to governmental subsidies for sports. I am a fan of several sports. I love Major League Baseball(r) (Chicago Cubs) and college basketball. Given recent reports of brain trauma to players, I have to reconsider my interest in football at the professional and college levels. As a native-born Hoosier, a part of my DNA predisposes me to follow hoops. At least I follow…

   Yesterday afternoon the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana-Indianapolis Division ruled against the plaintiffs in Goodpaster. et al v. City of Indianapolis, a lawsuit brought by bar 11 owners and a customer against the City over the ordinance, effective June 1, 2012, that bans smoking in most bars in Marion County. As many of you know, I am co-counsel for the plaintiffs in that lawsuit. At a later time I will write about the substantive issues of the case.…

   The costs of ownership of an automobile are significant. First, one faces the purchase price of the vehicle. Second, the car has to (should) be insured.  Third, there is a liquid to be poured into the tank on a regular basis. That liquid is not cheap. Fourth, if the car is bought new, in Indiana the plates are more expensive and sales tax higher. The "up" side is most repairs are covered by warranty. Fifth, one has to worry about where to park the vehicle. Work downtown? Parking can be…

   Construction contractors do not perform work for sheer fun. One may refer to the free market, incentives, or a similar term, but the notion that work is performed for pay is a constant.

   The past few Saturdays I have noticed construction workers active on the parking garage at the confluence of College and Broad Ripple Avenues and Westfield Boulevard. Several points need to be made, based on what I learned from my old man, who was a union sheet metal contractor:

   1) In…

   If you owned two blocks of highly valuable commercial land, would you borrow money to give to someone else to build on it and keep any profits in the hope some money would trickle down to you? Or would you sell the property to the highest bidder, confident the property taxes the development generates will come to you?  

   There area couple of blocks on Massachusetts ("Mass") Avenue on which a fire station, for years, has stood. The City—i.e., th Mayor and his…

   The week has been chaotic, fun, educational, and humbling. I also should say it was "mnd-blowing," but the limit of one gerund to a paragraph already has been reached.

   I had "pre-conceived notions" about what we would encounter at the Indianapolis International Film Festival. I worked in and around theater in college and for a short time after. There were great people in that world. However, there are only so many times one could bear to hear an actor describe how he prepared…

   We will shoot from the Indianapolis Museum of Art today at 4:30. We will not stream live, so there will be about a two-hour delay between videotaping and everything going on the internet.

   4:30. Matt Mays is the director of "The Greatest Return," a documentary about environmentalists who have attempted new approaches to deal with the way in which the world has changed and to save the species that are in danger of extinction.

   5:00.  Ronald Short is a Hoosier and…

  As I wrote yesterday, "Civil Discourse Now" will cover the Indianapolis International Film Festival. The festival opened Thursday night and runs through Sunday, July 29^th.

  Today our guest will be Indianapolis native and director Adam Newell, whose film "Video Stop" will be shown Monday night. We shall be shooting "Civil Discourse Now" from the Indianapolis Museum of Art, from the Nourish Case just inside the entrance (to the right). We hope to shoot a couple of shows…

   "Civil Discourse Now" will cover the Indianapolis International Film Festival. The festival opened last night and runs through Sunday, July 29^th. This is a different direction for subjects of interest for The Show. We are not just about politics.

   The Festival’s website gives times of flicks and locations. Most of the movies will be shown at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, but also at the Earth House, 237 North East Street. You can check out details at…

   From the Recovery Room Lounge, 1868 Lafayette Road on Saturday, July 14, 2012, we shall shoot Civil Discourse Now. The starting time will be 2 p.m., a departure from our usual, as the location is host to a special event.

   The first segment of The Show will be "What’s Going On," 14 minutes of discussion of three or four headline items.

   The rest of The Show will be about the smoking ban Indianapolis put into effect on June 1. People who are opposed to the ban should come…

   In its June 15 editorial against the lawsuit brought against the City of Indianapolis over the recent increases in the smoking ban, The Indianapolis Star made inaccurate and false statements in support of its position.

   One of these false statements is: "Opponents of the smoking ban can’t argue credibly against the health risks of secondhand smoke.  Again, the evidence is simply overwhelming."

   A general statement such as that takes time to refute. First, one…

   Saturday, June 23, 2012, at 11 a.m. we will live stream The Show from Pitts Stop Bar & Grill, 1640 South Meridian Street in Indianapolis. (Kurt Lorey corrected my spelling of the first word in the name of the bar. I was born and grew up in Indiana, and so did not think of a possible nuance to the name of the establishment. For that, I apologize—and thank you, Kurt.)

   We shall discuss—in "town hall" format—the recent ban of smoking adopted and put into place by the…

"Civil Discourse No" will live-stream a town-meeting format Show on Saturday, June 23 at 11 a.m. from the Pit Stop Bar & Grills, 1640 South Meridian Street, Indianapolis. The topic is the recent smoking ban in Indy. All are welcome.

   On Saturday, June 23, at 11 a.m., "Civil Discourse Now" will return from hiatus. The format of The Show will a bit different from our usual format. Members of the public always have been welcome to watch. We have had audiences. The main audience to which The Show has been directed, however, has been through the internet—and this is not meant as a slight to Kurt, Art, Janice, Jeff, and others who have turned out to watch. When we first started, the aim was to gain access to audience…

   Indianapolis’s ordinance that bans smoking in most places is in place for the time being. I thought it would be interesting to visit a new establishment in Broad Ripple in which patrons may smoke tobacco consistent with the ordinance.

   The Village Cigar is located at 6513 North College Avenue, next door to the North Side Social.     The bar is small and comfortable. I liked the wicker bar seats—I do not consider them "stools" since they have backs—pulled up to the bar. Joe was…

   John Locke described liberty as property. One owns certain liberties. That might explain why certain rights are inalienable—they cannot be bartered away.

   One aspect of the debate over the recent smoking ban enacted by the City-County Council has been concern over businesses—particularly the taverns at which the legislation was aimed—might lose money if patrons are not allowed to smoke.

   Studies from Minnesota and Michigan indicate some bars gain customers, some see no…

   "Civil Discourse Now" streams "live" on the internet on Saturday mornings at 11.

   This week our guests will be Indianapolis blogger and media personality Abdul-Hakim Shabazz ( a cigar smoker) and Lindsay Grace, spokesperson for Smoke Free Indy. Paul Ogden and I will discuss Indy’s new smoking ban with them. We will shoot The Show at Indy Cigar Bar, 3357 East 86^th Street. 

   As of 6 a.m. on June 1, 2012, Indianapolis’s smoking ban goes into effect. No longer…