Debate has been my life, since before the first high school tournament. It led to enlightenment. Our teams did pretty well. I learned how to work with others, because usually there are two people - not a ventriloquist and a dummy - on a debate team.

College debate was a blast. DePauw’s coach, Dr Weiss, was a great person and a mentor. He stressed values, but did not protest the trophies that fill shelves or plaques that hang on the walls of the trophy room in Greencastle.

I…

   A coward is “one who lacks courage to meet danger or difficulty.”

   In a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Petitioners ask the results of the 2016 election be declared void, in part, as “To the extent that Donald Trump obtained the Office of President of the United States with the assistance and interference of actors or agents of the government of Russia, has acted in office in such a way as to benefit Russia, and thus has adhered to the government of Russia, Mr. Trump obtained…

   If I were made head of the GOP, there are several moves I would push.

   Please realize I am not registered as a person who has voted Republican in any elections. I have voted for some candidates from the “R” party, but the number of those is relatively small. I have found the Democratic Party to have some bad candidates. In some races, in the general election, I have left blank the vote for a particular office. If the candidate of another party is on the ballot, I seriously consider…

   I was born a fan of the Chicago Bears. I grew up watching Lindsey Nelson and CBS's broadcasts from Wrigley Field and its seemingly (perhaps actually) too-short end zones. The Bears did not win any championships during those years. Individual players were fun to watch. Gayle Sayers was awesome. The Chicago Tribune ran a front page photograph Dick Butkus as the middle linebacker sacked a quarterback and, fingers inserted through the guy's face mask, attempted to gouge at least one…

   George Zimmerman is innocent.

   In this country our rights are recognized by the Federal Constitution, and the constitutions of the 50 states. One basic premise of criminal law is that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Until Zimmerman is charged, tried, and convicted, officially he is innocent. This premise was recognized by the United States Supreme Court in Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S. 432 (1895).

   One problem in the case is the initial reluctance of…

   Donald Trump should not be considered a successful businessman. He has milked money out of ventures under the protection of the corporate veil. He has received government subsidies for his businesses. The businesses failed and he filed corporate—not personal—bankruptcy. Taxpayers footed the bill for the subsidies. Creditors stood empty-handed. Well, they nearly were empty-handed. They could hold their "Notice of Discharge of Debt." They also could frame the single-page notices if they…

   Let's say the so-called Fair Tax is enacted. As I understand the Fair Tax, new goods are subject to taxation. Used goods are not.

   What constitutes a "new good"? Let's look at automobiles. One new tire on a used car does not a new car make. On the other extreme, one used tire on a car fresh off the assembly line, I think most people would agree, does not make the car "used." What about "refurbished" cars? The State---and I use the word in the general sense of sovereign---would…

   Members of the legal profession are reputed to gouge clients for fees. There is the joke about the lawyer who died, went to the hereafter, and was told he was overdue because, from his billing records, he was indicated as being nearly one thousand years old. A lawyer cannot bill for work not performed, however. A "retainer" must be billed against by the hour. Also, the methods of billing, be they by the tenth of an hour or a quarter of an hour, must be by some fraction. As an example, a…

   At about 5:00 in the afternoon of the 2008 election, I told my wife I either could go to the basement and smoke a cigar (where I have an air purifier to dissipate the smoke from my Churchill) and come up for the returns, or wait until 7:00 or so and (maybe) be too hammered to appreciate several things, amongst them the outcome of the vote. She told me to enjoy my cigar.

   The cigar took about two hours to smoke. I walked into the living room as the first states’ tallies were…

   The economy is in shambles because (1) Bush II helped his frat brothers at the Yale chapter of Deke and gave them and their peers huge tax breaks in 2001 and (2) took us into one-and-a-half unnecessary wars. I say one-and-a-half because after 9/11 Osama bin Laden was in Afghanistan. We were justified to seek him out and capture or kill him. Other than that, our experience there has been the same as that of the British in the 1920s and the Soviets in the 1980s. Those who fail to study…