Recent Commentaries

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Ebola
There are two ways some people have reacted to the Ebola crisis: the Chicken Little approach, or the complacent approach. Neither is helpful or effective. “Think of this America, please think of this,” Glenn Beck told listeners. “Every time somebody new gets the Ebola virus, it mutates. It’s going to go aerosol.” “Fears of contagion spiked,” writes The New York...
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October 20, 2014
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The Antivax Parents
In 2009, The New York Times ran a story which renewed the debate some parents have over whether or not to allow doctors to vaccinate their children against the flu and childhood diseases. This particular story concerned a vaccination for the H1N1 flu. “Barbara Loe Fisher,” The Times writes (Oct. 16, 2009, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, an...
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October 3, 2014
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Class and Character
Watching the end-of-the-season games between the Sox of Boston and the Bronx Bombers, the TV cameras would frequently cut-away from the action to catch a glimpse of Yankee Captain Derek Jeter. The 40-year-old Jeter has amassed enough stats to easily make Baseball’s Hall of Fame on the first ballot. According to Baseball Reference, a website devoted to tracking stats of...
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September 29, 2014
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Boobs on the Ground
What’s your reputation worth? That’s the question Minnesota Vikings principal owner Zygi Wilf needs to ask himself. It’s also a question that every league owner needs to seriously consider in the face of public criticism concerning the escalation of players who have moved beyond thoughtless conduct to criminal behavior. After benching Adrian Peterson for just one game stemming from charges...
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September 17, 2014
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Education, Texas Style
Imagine that you’re the black parent of a 9th grade student opening a textbook on United States History and read that the slave trade is referenced as the “Atlantic Triangular Trade.” How about this one: that same parent is helping his son study for a history final and read that during the era of segregation only “sometimes” were schools for...
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September 15, 2014
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Are You Ready for Some Fooootballl?
Are you ready Are you ready Are you ready, ready Are you ready for some football? – Hank Williams, Jr. I don’t ever remember a time when football wasn’t King. Yes, there’s always been baseball (love it), basketball, hockey, and golf to a lesser extent, but football has always reigned supreme in the hearts of most Americans. In the past,...
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September 12, 2014
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The Punch and the Roll Back
Two football stories made the news yesterday, but the focus on one all but buried the other. Let’s begin with the obvious. By now, most people have seen the video circulated by celebrity news web site TMZ that shows what happened inside the elevator between Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Rice and then-fiancé-now wife Janay. Frankly, after watching it, Rice is lucky...
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September 10, 2014
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ISIS: The Assad Dilemma
Like many, I was sickened and repulsed by the single still images that came out of somewhere in Syria of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff before each was savagely beheaded by a member of ISIS, or ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), an extremist group so devoted to hate and heinous acts of terror that even...
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September 8, 2014
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The Ethical Take
Before my summer recess, The Take needs to acknowledge the Summer of Discontent – from the bizarre to the… bizzaro! A horse is a horse, of course of course… …except when the horse belongs to the queen of England. According to a report by The Associated Press (July 12), “[Estimate] A racehorse owned by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II that won...
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August 8, 2014
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Democrats in the Hot Seat
I sometimes get accused of liberal bias. So, I thought I’d take this commentary to focus on PolitiFact’s check on recent Democrat statements. Virginia Democrat Senator Mark Warner – Warner has represented Virginia in the U.S. Senate since 2009. He serves on the Banking, Budget, Commerce and Intelligence committees. He is the honorary co-chairman of the Forward Together PAC. Warner...
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August 6, 2014

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
When Political Identity Replaces Ethical Judgment
The political and cultural landscape has become a minefield of conflicting beliefs, many now rooted less in public policy than in personal identity. One of...
Principles Matter.
A few nights ago, I was watching The Way We Were, a film I’ve seen more times than I can count. This time, a single...
All the President’s Men 2.0
“Politics had infiltrated every corner of government—a strong-arm takeover of the agencies by the Nixon White House.” —Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, All the President’s...
The Threat to November Is Already Here
“Cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.”—George Washington’s...
Jon Ossoff and the Conscience of Atticus Finch
I’ve written about Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff before, but after watching his questioning of Jay Clayton, President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence (DNI),...
Hearts and Minds
There’s a moment in Cool Hand Luke when Luke, played by Paul Newman, is returned to a prison camp after escaping. Determined to break his...