Early in 1995 I was working for a motivational speaker who needed a talk on ethics. I had just finished writing a magazine article on the creation of the Lone Ranger and, in the course of the article, revealed that the character had been created around a set of ethical values in order to teach young radio listeners the importance...

Episode 6: Sex and Stupidity. “Will someone prove to me not all [Craig’s List] men look like toads?” “Hi, hope I’m not a toad.” (see pic) “I’m a very fit, fun, classy guy…divorced, one child… Live in Cap Hill area. 6ft., 190lb blond/blue… 39…lobbyist. I promise not to disappoint.” “Are you sure that’s not a photo from a JCPenny ad?” “…Here…I...

Amanda Yost is a frequent visitor to this site as well as a student at Santa Monica College currently studying cultural anthropology, with an eye toward cultural ethnography. (Yeah, I had to look that one up, too.) “I’m hoping,” Amanda says, “to focus on the ethnographic side of anthropology as another way to give a voice to the voiceless. Ethnography takes into...

Tributes to Ronald Reagan occupied much of this past weekend on what would have been the 100th birthday of the 40th President. It’s always interesting to observe that the longer a 20th century president has been out of office, the more glowing the tributes.  While many such tributes seem forced, such is not the case with Reagan. Ronald Reagan was...

I know I’ve been a little absent here for the last few days and planning to be absent a few more. However, it’s all for a good cause. I’m in the home stretch of finalizing the new book regarding an ethical examination of Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. (If you have not done so already, you can read...

In my book, What Do You Stand For?, holocaust survivor Judy Meisel writes, “The statement, ‘What can I do, I’m only one person?’ upsets me. One person can do a lot!” That phrase came to mind while I was reading a paper from one of my New Hampshire students. “I have done some good things for people, but I have done more...

“Why do we study ethics? What does it mean to be a person of character, integrity, honor?” Those were the questions I posed to students at the beginning of a week-long class at the New Hampshire Technical Institute on ethics. “Most people want to do the right thing,” I said. “They want to be worthy of the respect and admiration...

To begin with… it was cold. The kind of cold that makes a New Hampshire apple snap with juicy flavor. Unfortunately January is not apple time, and I was not there to enjoy the fruit of the state but the fruit of knowledge.  (I know… I know. This explains why I’m not Robert Frost.) I arrived at the New Hampshire Technical...

January 20, 1961, I sat in my seventh grade homeroom class while the teacher rolled in a big, black & white television and announced that we would all be watching history today. What I was unprepared for was how quiet and engaged everyone in class would be in watching John Fitzgerald Kennedy take the oath of office as the 35th...

Last Wednesday, President Obama spoke in words elegiac at the memorial for the shooting victims in Tucson, Arizona.  Four days later, John McCain wrote a great op-ed that appeared in The Washington Post. “President Obama gave a terrific speech Wednesday night,” the Republican Senator wrote. “He encouraged every American who participates in our political debates – whether we are on the...