Civil Discourse Now

Where the far left and far right overlap for fun and enlightenment

All Blog Posts (1,683)

Dan Carpenter's "Indiana Out Loud" and Saturday's Show.

   Dan Carpenter has retired from "The Indianapolis Star" after a couple of decades as a reporter and then columnist. From what I understand from recent polls, I should believe reports of his retirement are damn lies, because a significant number of the American people hold the view that the media are untrustworthy. (Actually, the polling questions usually are something like, "Do you think the media is..." The word "media" is a plural. There is a bit of evidence that I took Latin in the…

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Added by Mark Small on December 20, 2013 at 6:56am — No Comments

Make Those Children in Poverty Work Because There's No "Free Lunch"! says a Congressman on a House Appropriations Subcommittee.

   U.S. Representative Jack Kingston, a Republican from Georgia, has said children from families in poverty, who qualify for free lunches at school, should be forced to work for those meals. He suggested the children sweep the cafeteria floor to understand what it means to work. He said children should learn there is no such thing as "a free lunch." State Senator Stacey Campfield of Tennessee has introduced legislation in the Volunteer State that would cut State welfare benefits to parents…

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Added by Mark Small on December 19, 2013 at 7:00am — No Comments

Urine screens scare off prospective employees? Imagine that!

   Yesterday evening I caught part of a statement made by a member of the House of Representatives to an audience of what appeared to be his constituents. The Congressman spoke of how people stay on unemployment benefits by choice. He then referred to comments several employers had made to him about people who would come to that employer, apply for a job, leave after the prospective employee learned the employer required employees to submit to urine screens, then have the audacity to include…

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Added by Mark Small on December 18, 2013 at 7:02am — No Comments

Melyssa Hubbard (formerly Donaghy), once-Dominatrix and now author of "Spanking City Hall," will be our guest 12/14, 11 am to 1 pm, from "All My Relations," in Avon.

   Melyssa Hubbard (known then by her birth name of Melyssa Donaghy), first garnered headlines several years ago for several matters. She helped organize what arguably was the precursor to the movement known by the rubric "Indiana tea party." She led demonstrations against then-Mayor Bart Peterson, who, shortly thereafter, lost re-election to Greg Ballard, the predecessor of the current mayor, Ryan Vaughn. Last, but not least, she was busted by the City of Indianapolis.

   The "bust"…

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Added by Mark Small on December 13, 2013 at 7:14am — No Comments

Suggestions to improve education.

   Public debate has increased recently in Indiana over the topic of education. Public discourse, as a general matter, is good. As Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in perhaps his most famous dissent: "But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas---that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get…

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Added by Mark Small on December 10, 2013 at 7:41am — 1 Comment

In defense of guano.

   As acrimony has overcome harmony in political discourse, so too have those who wield verbal cudgels sought to tweak otherwise vituperative rants with polite words.

   The words "batshit crazy" have been flung about to describe members of the opposition to that of a particular speaker's. Most often the phrase arises when an image of Michele Bachmann appears on the screen. The reaction is visceral and spontaneous amongst many people---except for a very thin majority of the registered…

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Added by Mark Small on December 8, 2013 at 7:43am — No Comments

Pearl Harbor: 72nd Anniversary of the attack and the focus of Saturday's Show.

   Prior to the Japanese attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, and the air bases at Hickam and Wheeler Fields, on December 7, 1941, there was strong sentiment against United States involvement in what would become called World War II. The Japanese attack muted much of the opposition in the United States. The following day, the United States Congress declared war on the Japanese Empire. Japan on September 27, 1940 had entered into the Tripartite Agreement with Germany and…

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Added by Mark Small on December 5, 2013 at 7:30am — No Comments

Blogs as sources of local news in Indianapolis: Welsh, Kennedy, Stone, Easter, and the Cincinnati Reds fan.

   Before The Show yesterday, I conversed with one of the artists at The Stutz Building---excellent place for artists and small businesses, and I really, really want an Auburn Boat-tail Speedster---about the nature of news media today. We discussed the absence of focus for the much greater amount of information available, thanks to the internet, compared to three decades ago. I mentioned that in the 1970s-1980s, national news primarily came through the three major networks. As the artist…

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Added by Mark Small on December 1, 2013 at 7:44am — 1 Comment

Stutz Bearcats and today's Show, live from Stutz I in Indy.

   Today we shall stream live, from 11 am to 1 pm, from the Stutz Building I, at 212 West 10th Street, Indianapolis. The Stutz Bearcat was manufactured in the complex, and even competed in the Indianapolis 500. The Stutz Artists Association is the largest association of working artists in Indiana. There are a lot of studios, but also spaces for other small- and mid-sized businesses in the two-building complex, refurbished, owned and managed by Indianapolis commercial developer Turned…

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Added by Mark Small on November 30, 2013 at 6:47am — No Comments

"Say No to TIFS in Broad Ripple"? NO! Say "no" to TIFs anywhere.

   Acronyms are handy. They short-hand complex topics. If a person, in a confident voice, throws three or four acronyms into a conversation, some people are more prone to accept the person's opinion as informed. If the person also quotes representatives of several prominent forces in a community, the person's statements on the given topic appear, on surface, validated.

   There is a FaceBook page captioned "Say No to TIFs in Broad Ripple." TIFs are Tax-Increment Finance districts. As…

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Added by Mark Small on November 29, 2013 at 8:23am — No Comments

TIFs: we cannot develop WITHOUT them?

   Tax-Increment Financing districts ("TIFs") were developed in California in the 1950s. The idea was to infuse areas desperate for investment with public funds. A specific area would be designated as a TIF. By "specific," I mean specific blocks would be designated as within the boundaries of that TIF's "footprint." Projects would be designed for the TIF. Bonds would be floated by (most often) the municipal government of the place in which the TIF was to be created. Money from the bonds…

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Added by Mark Small on November 28, 2013 at 8:16am — No Comments

Today's Show from Ramada Inn-East: Gary Welsh on JFK; St. Louis psychic Demarus Harris; Matt Stone of "Indy Student"

We'll stream live, from 11 am to 1 pm from Ramada Inn Indy-East.

Added by Mark Small on November 23, 2013 at 7:40am — No Comments

3 Deaths on November 22, 1963.

   Fifty years ago on this date, as we all know from massive coverage of acknowledgment of the event, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The cliche is true for me: I remember where I was and what happened. Mrs. Coleford was our third-grade teacher at New London Elementary School. Early afternoon, Mr. Kincaid, the principal, entered our classroom. Mrs. Coleford was one of my favorite elementary school teachers. She was kind, patient and made school interesting. Mr.…

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Added by Mark Small on November 22, 2013 at 7:23am — No Comments

Why make a sequel to "It's a Wonderful Life"?

   An item on Yahoo reports "It's a Wonderful Life" will have a sequel. The 1946 film, directed by Frank Capra, starred Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. The American Film Institute named it one of the 100 Best Films made.

   There is no mention of Capra in the article. There is mention, however, of the way in which the producers want to capture the original spirit of the 1946 flick. Apparently George Bailey's children relive the concept of what the world would be like had one or more of…

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Added by Mark Small on November 19, 2013 at 7:45am — No Comments

Monon Bell Game: tomorrow's Show, streamed from Moore's Bar, 11 am to 1 pm.

   Tomorrow's Show will stream live from Moore's Bar, 17 South Indiana, in beautiful Greencastle, Indiana. DePauw University will host Wabash College, a school of cretinous misogynists located in Crawfordsville.

   Wabash has won the past four meetings. There use to be a debate each year, in a series known as the Monon Bell debates. Those debates were after my time. We debated Wabash, at tournaments and in audience settings, and won. I do not recall a loss to Wabash. The Monon Bell…

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Added by Mark Small on November 15, 2013 at 7:03am — No Comments

Trans-Pacific Partnership: one means by which we may lose still more jobs in the name of corporate profit.

   In Salt Lake City, from November 19 to 24, chief negotiators will meet for a summit on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, described by one observer as "the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing more than 40 per cent of the world's GDP."  "Pivotal Trans-Pacific Partnership Section Revealed," PopularResistance.org, 11/13/09. When one has to find out details of trade treaties from Wikileaks, one is left with a skeptical opinion of what the latest treaty holds.

  …

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Added by Mark Small on November 14, 2013 at 7:31am — 1 Comment

Alternative Monon Bell "stag" at Broad Ripple Tavern at 5 p.m.

   Alums of DePauw and alums of Wabash should gather at the Broad Ripple Tavern around 5 p.m. as a counter to the males-only "stag" held at about the same time at the Murat. DePauw alumnae and Wabash transgender alums are welcome to attend the informal gathering at 735 Broad Ripple Avenue. The same cannot be said about the "stag," an event that was on hiatus from the late 1980s until a couple of years ago. Wear your school colors, or not. Saturday the game will be played at Blackstock…

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Added by Mark Small on November 13, 2013 at 7:13am — No Comments

Part II: An alternative to The Monon Bell "stag" on November 13 at Broad Ripple Tavern..

   Private colleges have more latitude, in some respects, than public universities. Race is not part of that latitude. Bob Jones University originally did not accept African-Americans for enrollment. In 1970 BJU softened that position. Black students were accepted for enrollment, but interracial dating was prohibited. Students guilty of such conduct could be expelled. Even membership in an organization that espoused a belief that interracial dating should be allowed subjected a student to…

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Added by Mark Small on November 12, 2013 at 7:21am — No Comments

DePauw alums! Wabash alums! Heed the call for this Wednesday at BRT!

   This Saturday is the Monon Bell Game, the annual contest between the football teams of DePauw University and Wabash College. I graduated from DePauw. As I wrote last week, I received an e-mail invitation from the DePauw Alumni Association to the Monon Bell Stag, a party held, this year at the Murat, in which drinks are served, dinner had and humorous speakers speak. The "stag" did not occur for about a dozen years. Perhaps the notion of an all-male event for alumni of two schools, one of…

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Added by Mark Small on November 11, 2013 at 7:04am — No Comments

Cuts in military spending would save domestic programs, and would not jeopardize national defense.

   In a column in "The Washington Post," Fareed Zakaria quotes former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as saying there are more members of military marching bands than members of the United States foreign service. The United States spends more than the next seventeen countries most generous to their defense budgets.

   In the last couple years' debates on the national deficit, much has been made of cuts to "entitlements." Implicit in the label "entitlements" is the notion people are…

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Added by Mark Small on November 10, 2013 at 6:55am — 1 Comment

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