Recent Commentaries

Featured image for “Why do People Ignore Facts? – Part 2”
Why do People Ignore Facts? – Part 2
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain In their 2010 report, When Corrections Fail: The Persistence of Political Misperceptions, Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler write, “To date, the study of citizens’ knowledge of politics has tended to focus on questions like veto override...
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January 29, 2016
Featured image for “Why do People Ignore Facts? – Part 1”
Why do People Ignore Facts? – Part 1
According to the most recent CNN/ORC poll, billionaire Donald J. Trump is leading the field of Republican candidates for president with 41 percent. Texas Senator Ted Cruz is a little more than 20 points behind. This, in spite of the fact, that when it comes to the facts, Mr. Trump has the most appalling record all candidates, Republican and Democratic....
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January 27, 2016
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Even Tennis?
Yup! Even the great sport of tennis has been affected by sports gambling (as if gambling were a sport). The BBC reports (Jan. 18), “Over the last decade, 16 players who have ranked in the top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) over suspicions they have thrown matches. “All of the players, including winners of...
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January 25, 2016
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Inconvenient Facts
Spoiler Alert: This commentary may just come as a shock to gun rights advocates… maybe. Regular readers already know that I’m a fussbudget about facts and statistics. They also know that I’ve spoken out against assault-style weapons, and the need to do more when it comes to the epidemic of mass shootings in the country. Nonetheless, from an ethical standpoint,...
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January 22, 2016
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Fact-Checking a Reader
(Note: This commentary was written and posted in January, 2016. It was based on then-candidate Trump’s statement of December 7, 2015, calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” as pointed out in the 12th paragraph, below. Comments to this post are now closed.)...
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January 20, 2016
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How important is the truth?
13 Hours, a feature-length movie about the 2012 terrorist incident in Benghazi, Libya begins with a title card: “This is the true story you were never told…” Movies are different from documentaries. While a documentary aspires to offer the most accurate account possible of people and events, a movie works to tell the essential truth in a format that allows...
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January 18, 2016
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The Shirt Off His Back
Last Friday, on a New York subway, a simple act of compassion was captured on a phone which has been viewed by millions. A young man is seen literally taking the shirt off his back and helping a shirtless and shivering homeless man. Joey Resto is the 23-year-old man on the left. Interviewed by a Fox News affiliate in New...
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January 15, 2016
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That Interview
“Mission accomplished: We have him.” No sooner had Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto tweeted that message to Mexico’s citizens announcing the recapture of Joaquin Guzmán Loera, than the other shoe dropped… Rolling Stone magazine published an interview with “El Chapo,” The El Chapo, the notorious drug kingpin of the Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel. Getting an interview like this is akin...
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January 13, 2016
Featured image for “Should Germany publish Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”?”
Should Germany publish Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”?
In 1925 and ’26, Adolf Hitler published (in two parts, no less) an autobiography of sorts. While the title translates as “My Struggle,” the real substance behind the work has more to do with Hitler’s political ideology than anything else. His central thesis being “the Jewish peril,” Hitler believed in a Jewish conspiracy to expand global leadership. While the question...
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January 11, 2016
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The Ethical Take
In this first month of a new year, The Take examines a few stories from the sane… to the inane. Where’s Colin!? — Former Joint Chiefs Chairman and Secretary of State Colin Powell has been conspicuously absent from all the activities surrounding the GOP presidential candidates. I kept wondering, what’s his take on all this. Wonder no more. According to...
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January 8, 2016