“Facts are stubborn things…” – John Adams On March 5, 1770, the Boston Massacre began as a flash mob of citizens who surrounded and heckled British soldiers quartered in the city. With the local citizenry up in arms about the incursion of British troops by England’s King George, the growing crowd of Americans-to-be threw snowballs, sticks and ultimately stones at...

According to a survey by the Gallup organization (Aug. 2013), “Most Americans (80 percent) believe that today’s schools should teach… critical thinking… to children.” “Critical thinking,” as defined by The Critical Thinking Community, “is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide...

In search of ratings gold, television networks always seem willing to go to most any length to degrade the state of the medium; (I still can’t get past NBC’s cable-owned Bravo’s Real Housewives series); but television news shows are supposed to be different, right? Just when you think bad programming cannot get any worse, MSNBC jumps the shark … big time! On Monday,...

My opportunity to give a little advice (some ethical, some not), short and sweet. Memo to: Adam Silver (NBA President) CC: All other sports franchises Kudos on your handling of the Donald Sterling crisis: from first reaction to investigation to decision… in three days! Now, don’t let him or the owners off the hook. Continue to press and use this event to broaden race...

Since the death of four Americans in the 2012 attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, so many stories have been spun, exaggerated, and misrepresented that the whole issue has left us with a great lack of clarity. Through all the partisan clutter, the central question appears to be this: did the White House deliberately mislead Americans through statements...

All of us live with a devil and an angel. The path before us is to limit temptations from the one while striving to live out the virtues of the other. In view of the decision handed down yesterday by the National Basketball Association’s Commissioner Adam Silver, it seems clear that Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been spending far too much time...

Over the ricky ticky tinkle of a honky-tonk piano banging out “Buffalo Gals,” Georgia Governor Nathan “what-a” Deal sits down at his desk to sign a new piece of legislation into law. Watching the proceedings, a tall man with a steely-eyed gaze, dressed in black with matching hat quietly watches. “Well, boys,” Deal says, handing out souvenir pens, “Here she is, the Safe...

Looking for a more rewarding job? Good with people? Good with numbers? We’re looking for a few thousand upwardly mobile individuals capable of enjoying perks like a company credit card, bonuses and absolutely no accountability. If you’re that kind of individual, you might just be our kind of employee! The IRS is hiring! That’s right, the Internal Revenue Service, our nation’s “finest” tax administrator,...

What is your word worth? “Step by step I moved on. I kept telling me ‘Just fight, just fight,’ again and again. When I reached the summit ridge I could hardly believe it. With my altimeter I checked everything very carefully, I followed the ridge and I know I was on highest point.” That’s Swiss climber Ueli Steck, considered by...

Why do I call Dan Piraro the Pope of Pop Culture? He doesn’t just “draw funny cartoons,” he creates visual essays that perfectly capture the zeitgeist of the moment. In that sense, he’s a contemporary Socrates, walking through our modern life questioning the status quo. The Vlad and Ed Show – For those of you who believe that reality shows...