January 2013

Well… that was quick. No sooner had I written about the importance of giving college linebacker Manti Te’o a break regarding what he said or knew about his “Internet girlfriend” hoax, then boom, in less than a week, the Notre Dame star admits to … Read More

The recent controversy over scenes of torture in Zero Dark Thirty, a film dramatizing the hunt for terrorist Osama bin Laden, caused me to revisit a student paper from Steve Ambra’sContemporary Ethical Issues class. The student, a former U.S. soldier deployed to Iraq, reminded … Read More

The intersection of two stories this week caused me to examine the media’s appetite to pander under the guise of “coming clean.” After weeks of rumor and speculation, former seven-time Tour de France winning cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing … Read More

Students displayed a wide range of topics during final presentations in this year’s Contemporary Ethical Issues class at the New Hampshire Technical Institute. Among the issues selected: capital punishment, patient confidentiality, stealing, bullying, and assisted suicide.

Sports ethics offered two students as media commentators interviewing … Read More

Earl J. Hickey is a shiftless, ne’er-do-well, who, after a near-fatal accident, sees the burning bush of Karma and wants to lead a better life, or as one NHTI student so eloquently summarizes: “If you give crap, you will get crap in return.”

In the … Read More

After reviewing the PBS Frontline documentary, A Class Divided, Professor Stephen Ambra led a class discussion on bigotry and intolerance. However, it was a conversation I had at the break with one of the students that led to a special written assignment.

Sitting in … Read More

One of the aspects that comes from walking into a class of total strangers for the first time is expectations. I expect that because most of them are young, that they have relatively normal lives absent any grave or impactful issues. I could not be … Read More

The New Hampshire Technical Institute is a small community college tucked into the historic town of Concord. NHTI is also the home of the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center – a remarkable resource for both students and visitors.

This is the third year I have had the … Read More

Second, in a series of two profiles, is about former U.S. Representative, Senator and 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern. This first appeared in the National Catholic Reporter December 31, 2012.
On the Wednesday afternoon in early November 1972 after his defeat the day before by … Read More