Recent Commentaries

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How Illegal?
Some students today are getting so good at rationalizing it’s scary. “You could study for two hours and get an 80, or you could take a risk and get a 90.” “When it came to French class, where the teacher had literally taught me nothing all year, and during the final the students around me were openly discussing the answers,...
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September 28, 2012
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Is Honesty the Best Policy?
To begin with, I searched the internet with the question. The first link that showed up… no joke: “Honesty Is Still The Best Policy Free Essays 1-20 www.OpPapers.com/…/honesty-is-still-the-best-policy-page1.html 20+ items – Free Essays on Honesty Is Still The Best Policy for students.” Notice the lack of any pretense: “for students” While there are plenty of polls (and rationalizations) that examine the question,...
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September 26, 2012
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A Cheat for All Seasons
A Man for All Seasons was an Academy Award winning film about a principled man standing up against the king of England.A Man for All Semesters – a review of a book which has won no awards, but received plenty of attention – is about an unprincipled hack who writes papers for students too lazy, ignorant or both for money then brags...
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September 24, 2012
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Perception Just Became Reality
For months the Democrats have painted Mitt Romney as out-of-touch, elite, and uncaring about the middle class. In conversations, I’ve defended him against many of those generalizations. While that was before his Libya statements, I kept thinking, he’ll bounce back. All that went out of the window with a video we shall now euphemistically call The 47% speech: . “There are 47...
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September 20, 2012
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Is Perception Reality?
It began with an e-mail exchange with Senior Analyst Jamie O’Boyle of the Center for Cultural Studies & Analysis. “I assume you saw the Gallup report (Sept. 18) on Democrats driving economic confidence since the Democratic Convention,” O’Boyle’s message began. It was 6:30 a.m. yesterday when I received both the Gallupreport and Jamie’s e-mail. Gallup said that “Democrats and,  » Read more about: Is Perception Reality?...
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September 19, 2012
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The Age of the “Dullest Beanbag”
I like Peggy Noonan, have for some time. As a former speechwriter to President Reagan, she’s not only smart but takes the necessary time to inform herself before writing her column that appears weekly in the Wall Street Journal . However, in her latest piece (The Age of Would-Be Princips, Sept. 15) about the killing of four Americans in Libya...
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September 17, 2012
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Let’s Be Honest – Return of the Jedi Edition
 » Read more about: Let’s Be Honest – Return of the Jedi Edition  »...
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September 14, 2012
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Do Facts Matter?
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts, and evidence.” – John Adams I wonder how Adams would have responded to a local politician I recently spoke with who told me bluntly, “people don’t care about facts.” This same political leader went on...
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September 14, 2012
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September 2012 Ethical Hero – Samira Ibrahim
In my book, What Do You Stand For?, Holocaust survivor Judy Meisel writes, “We cannot afford to say, ‘What can I do? – I’m only one person?’  One person can do a lot!” I was reminded of that again after reading actress Charlize Theron’s observations regarding Samira Ibrahim who was chosen as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People...
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September 12, 2012
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Better Angels, Part II
At the end of July, before two political conventions and, I’ve lost count of how many negative campaign ads and divisive comments about the current state of our Union, I wrote how Abraham Lincoln, on March 4, 1861, stood on the steps of a U.S. Capitol building still under construction and spoke words of reconciliation and hope. Lincoln was so hated by...
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September 12, 2012