Media are silent about waves of violent crime at polling sites in the 2020 elections. A candidate for Michigan state Senate said ppl should “Show up armed” on election day to stop a recurrence of 2020. (Detroit Free Press, 1/31/22.) What happened in 2022? The GOP lost. 1/6

No credible evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 elections, in Indiana or anywhere, exists. If fraud occurred, people at polling sites w/guns wearing MAGA caps are meant only to intimidate voters likely to vote…

All 3 GOP candidates for Michigan Att’y Gen’l last evening chimed in on SCOTUS’s decision in Griswold v Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965). Good news? None recognized the case by name & 1 had to look it up on his phone. Bad news? All 3 want Griswold scrapped. 1/7

In Griswold, the Court held there is a right to privacy. If you say, “There’s no ‘right of privacy’ in The Constitution,” you do not understand The Constitution. This sentiment is why Alexander Hamilton, one of The Framers,…

More random points from my platform. 10) Voting rights. We should make it easier for people to register to vote & then to vote. Early voting, voting by mail and multiple polling sites facilitate voting. We need to pursue all three. Gerrymandering is a horrible practice. 1/6

Both major parties gerrymander to marginalize opponents. Redrawing district lines inherently is political, but should be insulated from partisans for any party. Non-partisan commissions are a step in the right…

Aside from matters related to baseball (e.g., that the DH sucks), I don’t often agree with my conservative friend, Paul Ogden. I disagree, in part, with his recent blog (Ogden on Politics) on the Justice Department’s Legal Challenge to Georgia’s Election Law.

He wrote: “The worst thing about the lawsuit is that it contributes to the Democratic delusion of focusing on the casting of votes when the Democrats should be focused on the counting of those votes.” Mr Ogden is correct when he…

5/18 (tomorrow), 9 pm: “Mouthwash,” John Schmitz’s FB podcast, features a debate between me and Indiana State Rep John Jacob on women’s reproductive rights. Among inflammatory bits on Rep Jacob’s campaign website is something meant to lay all doubt to rest.

Rep Jacob says: “It is an irrefutable scientific fact that human life begins at conception.” We need to define key words. 1) “conception”: “The union of the sperm and the ovum. Synonymous with fertilization.” Medinet; 2)…

Few stories end with all (ALL) the “bad guys” killed. The Book of Revelations, the last book of the New Testament, ends with the battle of Armageddon where good fights evil and the “righteous” walk away for a nifty eternity. Morality isn’t all about abortion.

God did not write any of the books of either of the testaments, but people who believe he did include the book of Revelations as divinely written. If pressed for proof their fall-back position is to say the books are divinely…

Many people are unaware that States can take a child away from parents, despite SCOTUS holding a parent’s interest in upbringing of her child is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by the courts. Traxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000).

Indiana has two procedures, that work in tandem. First is to ask a juvenile court to find a Child in Need of Services (“ChINS”). Second, after a child has been out of a parent’s custody for 15 of the most recent 22…

   Republican candidate for the United States Senate in Iowa, Joni Ernst—who has run a TV ad in which she fires a handgun in a practice range, a metaphor on how “tough” she would be if elected—has been the subject of a story on The Daily Beast.  There the candidate was shown speaing on September 13, 2013, at “a forum held by the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition” in which Ernst said, among other things, Congress should not pass laws “that the states would consider nullifying” and “we’ve…

   States do not have “rights.” States have powers.  Human beings have “rights.”

   This is an important distinction. When some people argue that the Federal government overreaches, often they do so in the context of an issue in which a violation of the rights of “States’ rights” is claimed.  “States rights” often was raised in regard to Federal legislation in the 1960s aimed at racial discrimination. More recently advocates of greater restrictions on reproductive rights and greater…

   Any red-blooded---as opposed to a green-blooded, perhaps someone related to a Vulcan---American citizen was raised to believe in the Olympics(r). Every four years, we were treated to the thrill of victory and the agony of competition in two sets of Olympics, summer and winter. In the 1990s, the Winter Olympics(r) were moved to the other set of even-numbered years instead of being staged, along with the Summer Games(r) every Leap Year. Perhaps the motive there were to give the viewers and…

   A boycott is a "concerted refusal to do business with a party in order to express disapproval of that party's practices." "Black's Law Dictionary/New Pocket Edition," 1996 ed., p. 73.

   The original Olympic Games were held in Greece a couple of thousand years ago. The games were not called "summer" games. The Olympics did not have "winter" events as counterpoints to running, equestrian events and the throwing of objects that made up the games of the time. Winter sports were…

   Our Show today will focus on the efforts by some in the Indiana General Assembly to amend the Indiana Constitution to define marriage as between "one man" and "one woman." This week I have advanced arguments against the amendment, also opposed, amongst others, by major corporations (e.g., Eli Lilly, Cummins) that do business here. Earlier in the week, I invited several proponents of the measure to be guests today. Unfortunately, those folks ether are out of town on vacation, out of town…

   The IRS has announced that same-sex married couples will be treated as married for income tax purposes even if the State in which a couple resides does not recognize marriage equality. As our friend Gary Welsh points out at "Advance Indiana," this presents a problem for Governor Pence and the General Assembly. Indiana generally follows Federal income tax procedures. If the "marriage is only between one man and one woman" is adopted by the Indiana General Assembly, filing of income tax…

   When local mega-businesses like Eli Lilly and Cummins support a progressive position on an issue, one tends to take notice. This is not an ALEC pose on a matter of social issues. 

   The word "progress" and derivations of that word have been given pejorative connotations in recent years. As a noun, "progress" means "a proceeding to a further or higher stage, or through such stages progressively."  American College Dictionary, 1962 ed., p. 967.

   Why would large corporations…

   The existence of an Indiana State constitution was mentioned vaguely in my high school Indiana History class. The United States Supreme Court was in the headlines a lot back then, in the 1960s. Of course, the Court is in the headlines (or blogosphere or other appropriate parallel to "headlines") today. In the 1960s, and early 1970s, the headlines usually seemed to indicate a Court that advanced rights. I knew when "Dragnet" aired any given week, Jack Webb would highlight a new criminal…

   A panel show that aired Friday night took an interesting twist near the end of the broadcast. The host mentioned, in passing, that all three members of the panel were gay. In years past---maybe only as recently as five---an entire panel of lesbian and gay guests would at least have received some promo. There might have been commentary in a few newspapers or on some blogs. This occurred with little fanfare.

   This is an example of how members of the LGBT community have been…

   A couple of years ago I happened to find a web page, via a link on The Kokomo Tribune (pronounced "TRIB-une" for those native to Howard County), to the Peter Heck Show. The image on the link was of an old-fashioned radio microphone. What I discovered surprised me, in a few ways. First, I found it difficult to believe people still rejected such matters of science as evolution or that homosexuals exist. Second, I questioned the propriety of a photograph that supposedly depicts a pile of…

   Today, Saturday, February 2, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., we will stream "live" from Aesop’s Tables, 600 East Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis. Our topic will by LGBT rights. You can listen to The Show on "Indiana Talks" by going to their website. Or you can go to Live365 and pick up the feed there. Our video live-stream is on this website and UStream.

   There are several aspects to this topic. The most obvious, and what grabs the most headlines, is marriage equality. At present, a…

   Saturday, February 2, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., we will stream "live" from Aesop’s Tables, 600 East Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis. Our topic will by LGBT rights.

Civil Discourse Now will stream (how'd I dodge the obvious verb?) from the Indiana State Fairgrounds on January 19 at 11 a.m. to discuss ramifications of the Second Amendment. So far one panelist we have confirmed is Andrew Kirch. Co-host Mark Small (me) will advocate that the Second Amendment should be repealed. There's no need to talk about slippery slopes with me on this topic. Andrew will argue (vehemently I am sure) against the position I favor. Paul Ogden probably also will favor…