Recent Commentaries

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Lost
There’s a strange thing about real life stories that make them more compelling than fiction. The random chances of life intrude in such a way that we are left to make sense out of a cloud of unanswerable questions. Such has been the case with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. In 10 days we have gone from initial reports of massive...
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March 17, 2014
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Good News out of Washington, for a change
Last year, NBC News reported that America’s teenagers scoredbelow the international average in math, and only average in science based on a report from a 2012 Program for International Student Assessment. Fortunately, 1,700 science students from around the country did not have time to pay much attention to the study. Each year since 1998, Intel, the computer chip corporation sponsors the Intel Science...
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March 14, 2014
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What Will it Take?
Three stories appearing in last Friday’s (Mar. 7) New York Times grabbed my attention. “An Army judge on Thursday accepted guilty pleas from Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair to misconduct charges, including possession of pornography and inappropriate relationships with female soldiers. But the general, a former deputy commander of American forces in southern Afghanistan, still faces court-martial on charges that...
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March 12, 2014
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Who are the Koch Brothers? – Part 2
On January 5 of this year, The Washington Post wrote that “The political network spearheaded by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch has expanded into a far-reaching operation of unrivaled complexity, built around a maze of groups that cloaks its donors, according to an analysis of new tax returns and other documents.” So complex and far-reaching are the Koch’s political activities that Wikipedia devotes...
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March 10, 2014
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Who are the Koch Brothers? – Part 1
True story: I once asked someone at a social function their opinion of the Koch brothers. Their repy, “I don’t know them, but I’ve been drinking Coke for years!” David and Charles Koch are businessmen/owners of Koch Industries, the second largest privately owned company in the United States. The company was founded by Fred C. Koch, a chemical engineer, who...
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March 7, 2014
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Is Honesty the Best Policy in an Unjust World?
That’s the question a friend recently asked. I decided that it might make an interesting assignment for Professor Stephen Ambra and Sarah Hébert’s ethics class at The New Hampshire Technical Institute. Clearly the wording appears a bit cynical, suggesting that if we live in unfair surroundings we are somehow absolved from acting rightly, and many student responses reflected this idea....
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March 5, 2014
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Every day in life is beautiful
Every year at Oscar time, Hollywood’s best and brightest are acknowledged. And while the category of Best Documentary Short Subject is part of the annual ceremony, I’ve no doubt that most people rarely if ever, see any of the films in this category. Nonetheless, one remarkable 38-minute film has made this year’s list and needs to be seen by anyone and everyone...
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March 2, 2014
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Dark Money
That’s the term used to describe undisclosed funds that are used to help pay for an election campaign without the voter knowing who donated the money prior to an election. A report from The Center for Public Integrity (Feb. 27), a non-profit investigative journalism group revealed that “Two of the tightest races for U.S. Senate in 2012 were in Nevada and Arizona....
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February 28, 2014
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Hard Truth
“You CAN’T handle the truth!” Hands down, this is my favorite rationalization for lying offered up by Jack Nicholson in the movie, A Few Good Men. The film tells the story of Marine Colonel Nathan R. Jessup (Nicholson) a bigoted veteran officer who not only commands respect but lives by the creed: my way or the highway. The death of a...
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February 26, 2014
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In This Corner…
“I think this case will be remembered because it is the first case of this sort since we stopped trying people in America for witchcraft, because here we have done our best to turn back the tide that has sought to force itself upon this modern world, of testing every fact in science by a religious dictum.” That’s Clarence Darrow...
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February 24, 2014

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
Who Watches the Algorithm?
We are building machines that may soon judge, persuade, police, diagnose, hire, fire, and even help governments decide whom to trust. Yet we still have...
He Just Does His Job
I’ve been listening to and watching Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia for more than a year now: his speeches, his questions in Senate hearings,...
Why Donald Trump Has Pulled Me Back In—Again
Last August, I wrote that I was “stepping back from the chaos” of Donald Trump. I meant to write about his presidency only when his...
Scott Pelley Responds
During a contentious staff meeting at 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley spoke out sharply, criticizing the judgment and decision-making of CBS News editor in chief Bari...
The Clock is Still Ticking. But Now It’s Ticking for CBS
I began watching 60 Minutes when it premiered on September 24, 1968, when Harry Reasoner and Mike Wallace introduced a new kind of television journalism:...
God Has Chosen Donald Trump
At a Trump-backed Christian prayer rally on the National Mall in Washington on May 17, officially called Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise...