It began with an e-mail exchange with Senior Analyst Jamie O’Boyle of the Center for Cultural Studies & Analysis. “I assume you saw the Gallup report (Sept. 18) on Democrats driving economic confidence since the Democratic Convention,” O’Boyle’s message began. It was 6:30 a.m. yesterday when I received both the Gallupreport and Jamie’s e-mail. Gallup said that “Democrats and,  » Read more about: Is Perception Reality?...

I like Peggy Noonan, have for some time. As a former speechwriter to President Reagan, she’s not only smart but takes the necessary time to inform herself before writing her column that appears weekly in the Wall Street Journal . However, in her latest piece (The Age of Would-Be Princips, Sept. 15) about the killing of four Americans in Libya...

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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts, and evidence.” – John Adams I wonder how Adams would have responded to a local politician I recently spoke with who told me bluntly, “people don’t care about facts.” This same political leader went on...

In my book, What Do You Stand For?, Holocaust survivor Judy Meisel writes, “We cannot afford to say, ‘What can I do? – I’m only one person?’  One person can do a lot!” I was reminded of that again after reading actress Charlize Theron’s observations regarding Samira Ibrahim who was chosen as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People...

At the end of July, before two political conventions and, I’ve lost count of how many negative campaign ads and divisive comments about the current state of our Union, I wrote how Abraham Lincoln, on March 4, 1861, stood on the steps of a U.S. Capitol building still under construction and spoke words of reconciliation and hope. Lincoln was so hated by...

So, I had this whole follow-up to the Better Angels piece underway to my July 30th question using my own thoughts, as well as additional wisdom from Steven Pinker’s 2011 book,The Better Angels of Our Nature. On August 8, I received a message that Matt Sanchez, former gang leader, and good friend – who not only turned his own life around,  » Read more...

This will be my last commentary until September, but before I go, some final thoughts. While Congress and the country seem to be both divided and divisive, there is much that we should reflect on during this long, hot summer. The chaos and slaughter in the Middle East has come about due to a lack of freedom and basic human...

This story has been sitting on my desk since early May, and I confess that while it may not be the most vital ethical issue of the day, it’s an interesting one. I have several vegan friends who have made pretty persuasive arguments against meat. “To encourage omnivores to do some of the same hard thinking that vegetarians and vegans...

After having spoken with newly installed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, radical Islamists have announced, in the Egyptian magazine Rose el-Youssef, that the government will soon begin the process of demolishing the Great Pyramids. “The magazine quoted a prominent Bahraini sheik, Abdellatif al-Mahmoud,” The New York Times writes, “as demanding in a Twitter posting on June 24 that Mr. Morsi ‘accomplish what...