Recent Commentaries

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This One’s for Amanda
I have this friend, Amanda.  She’s smart, funny, young and passionate about a great many things, but… at the top of the list would have to be human rights. Amanda is so fervent about the rights of others that she started her own non-profit devoted to creating an awareness of, connection to and action for a variety of human rights issues.  » Read more about: This One’s...
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April 30, 2010
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Cups and Balls, Part II
You’d look like this too, if you had to sit before Chairman Carl Levin and the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations looking into alleged improprieties of investments and investment procedures by Wall Street banking and investment giant Goldman Sachs.  Get a load of the document bundle sitting in front of (self-named) “Fabulous Fab” Fabrice Tourre, the architect of the investment vehicle under SEC...
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April 28, 2010
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“Let me see your papers.”
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  – Matthew 7:12, (King James) The Bible “I won’t tolerate racial profiling… We must enforce the law evenly, and without regard to skin color, accent, or social status. We must prove the alarmists and the cynics wrong.”  – Jan Brewer, Arizona state governor Since signing Senate Bill 1070 into law last...
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April 26, 2010
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Still Riding High
No, those aren’t the Cartwrights and we’re not on the Ponderosa. This is what I wrote concerning Honesty and Trust in America on March 28, 2008: When it comes to corruption, the Four Horsemen of the Ethical Apocalypse remain:  Money, Power, Influence and Arrogance. In a 2006 survey that I conducted with Zogby International and the Center for Cultural Studies and Analysis,  » Read more about: Still Riding High...
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April 23, 2010
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A Network of Anger
There’s a signature moment in the 1976 film Network in which a drunk and dispirited Howard Beale who – after losing his news anchor job – abandons his script, looks straight into the camera and, in an astounding bit of prescience, begins his sermon from the mount. “I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. …It’s like...
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April 21, 2010
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The Last Angry Man?
It’s interesting to note that the recent incarnation of the Tea Party bears little similarity to the original activists of 1773 and that supporters who carry the flag, “Don’t Tread on Me,” are using it in an historically, inaccurate context. The original Tea Party was a first response protest by Boston colonists protesting Britain’s Tea Act – a tax levied...
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April 19, 2010
Featured image for “The One Where Jim Goes Back in Time”
The One Where Jim Goes Back in Time
Tuesday night I was transported back to the 60s via the concert, RAIN – A Tribute to the Beatles.  It was a spectacular hard day’s night! In addition to the live music performed with look-a-likes and sound-incredibly-alikes, the stage work included multiple images from the decade – Ed Sullivan, shampoo commercials, car commercials, even the Flintstones… smoking Winston cigarettes! In the magical...
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April 16, 2010
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Cups and Balls
When Hieronymus Bosch painted The Conjurer, in the 1500s, I’m sure he never imagined that the cups and balls routine he rendered would morph into a variety of schemes, scandals and shell games. Here’s just a few that make this month’s list. The Eric Massa mess – Among the newly uncovered allegations: “Beginning in March 2009,” the New York Times reports, “male staffers...
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April 14, 2010
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Let’s Be Honest – “Invincible” Athlete Edition
 » Read more about: Let’s Be Honest – “Invincible” Athlete Edition  »...
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April 14, 2010
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Deliverance
“Within yourself, deliverance must be searched for, because each man makes his own prison.”– Edwin Arnold, English poet Take a look at this picture.  It’s a point of view directly behind Tiger Woods on his first day at The U.S. The Masters, golf’s golden crown. Imagine the pressure. Look at the background, the crowd, the cameras, the media – most of which...
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April 12, 2010