The slide began in September. Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, A.I.G., Fannie and Freddie, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Representatives Tim Mahoney and Charles Rangel, Senator Ted Stevens. Early yesterday we learned of the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges stemming from trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacated senate seat to the highest bidder.  » Read more about: The Winter of Our Discontent  »...

In 2007, author Richard Rosen had a Hollywood dream job – to write an authorized biography of Cheeta, the chimp used by MGM in the Tarzan movies of the ’30s and ’40s. According to Rosen’s own account in the Washington Post (Dec. 7), “When the agent for Cheeta and his owner, Dan Westfall, had first approached me about writing the biography, I...

Your son comes to you asking for a loan to help his struggling company. The company has been successful in the past, but due to the current economy, no bank is willing to loan him the necessary funds.  So, he now pleads his case with you in an effort to help him return to stability while the economy recovers. While...

On November 13, a 17-year-old grocery bagger, found a brown, canvas money bag in the bathroom of the supermarket where he works.  When he opened it, he found $10,000 in cash. According to McClatchy Newspapers, the bag was “Stuffed with 50- and hundred-dollar bills… the life savings of a Vancouver, Washington man who accidentally left it in the men’s bathroom at...

One of my earliest memories of school days was reading and working on reports from the World Book Encyclopedia. These hard-bound, red-covered books came in a 19-volume set produced by the Quarrie Corporation.  The copyright on my edition is 1941, but the copyright dates back to 1917! These highly-readable, illustrated books were the primary source for any and all questions and reports...

We’ve all heard the expression, “Let the punishment fit the crime”?  Well, for one Colorado judge it couldn’t be more apt! “After seeing so many people return for repeat noise offending,” Reuters news service reported, “Paul Sacco, a judge at Fort Lipton Municipal Court, will punish them by playing music they can’t stand for a full hour.” Who did judge...

The Gallup organization’s annual Honesty and Ethics poll gave nurses the highest ranking out of twenty-one professions for the seventh straight year! “Eighty-four percent of Americans,” Gallup reported, “call their honesty and ethical standards either ‘high’ or ‘very high.’…” This speaks directly to the issue of trust.  Clearly patients, doctors, administrators and others believe that nurses have the highest level...

Working with the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion and Public Life, and the help of pollster John Zogby, we put a three question, post-election survey into the field on November 5th and 6th: 1.  What one or two qualities do you think the country needs most from the new president? 2.  What one or two actions...

Everyone and their brother is giving advice to President-elect Barack Obama these days.  (Mine was put forth in a letter addressed to both candidates the day before the election.) Listening to NPR’s “Morning Edition” yesterday, correspondent Steve Inskeep reported that Phyllis Palmer’s kindergarten class (not pictured) in Essex Junction, Vermont wrote their own memo to President-elect Obama. Here’s the advice the Vermont kindergarteners had for...

Continuing my conversation with Rabbi Rami Shapiro. How do you get people to look for the deeper, ethical insight in their beliefs? “I usually pull up all the stuff in the Bible that makes no sense, ethically. “A lot of people like to talk about Joshua at the battle of Jericho, where they knock the walls down, and there’s this great miracle...