Skimming Huffington Post, something jumped out at me. “My company is more likely to be a success because of me!” There it was, on the Business page of HuffP just belowBreaking News about Warren Buffett buying Heinz, (he must love the ketchup). “According to the hard numbers – as presented in a new study by researchers at Dow Jones VentureSource (Women at the Wheel: Do...

The president’s State of the Union speech officially marks the beginning of a new federal cycle. What will that new beginning look like? How will those few, elected to represent the many, lead? Here are a few words for both Congress and the president to reflect on. At the end of Mr. Jefferson’s great Declaration are these words:“…we mutually pledge...

Another story under the media radar, but represents a continuing effort by some lawmakers to improve conditions in Washington in spite of obstacles. On January 23, Republican Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and David Vitter of Louisiana re-introduced legislation calling for term limits on members of Congress. “Congress should not be a body of career politicians who have forgotten why they...

“Because of the principle that a calm sea and a prosperous voyage do not make news but a shipwreck does, most circulated news is bad news.” This piece of observational wisdom comes from writer, producer, director Norman Corwin in a story he shared in my book, What Do You Stand For? Owing to that insight, I found this story buried in...

There is a sixth dimension, well-known to man. It is a delusion as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is as unsubstantiated as myth and as unreasonable as deceit, and it lies between the depths of man’s passion and the intensity of his anxiety. It is a dimension of fear; a well-charted area of the mind which...

The first seat belt law was established in 1970 in Victoria, Australia, making the wearing of a seat belt mandatory for both drivers and front-seat passengers. In 1981, Mercedes-Benz introduced the airbag as an option on its S-Class cars. On July 11 1984, the United States government amended Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to require cars produced after April 1,...

Our greatest influences come from those closest to us. Here is a story that speaks, not only of the influence a parent can have on a child, but to a community as well. “In my thirty-three years of life, I can say that I have always had this one constant in my life leading me in the right direction and...

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 lying to talk show host Katie Couric. I had already received several e-mails from John, good friend...

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 me of just some of the many ethical issues faced by our military in combat situations. “I joined the military at...

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 drugs to achieve his victories. In listening to Armstrong’s confessional, I wasn’t so much interested in...