As an author, social scientist and lawyer, Riane Eisler has been a pioneer in showing how women’s rights (and therefore human rights) are the building blocks of world peace. Eisler’s international bestseller, The Chalice and the Blade, outlines the need for a cultural transformation, moving from the politics of dominance to the practice of partnership.  The Chalice and the Blade...

“There are two kinds of celebrity crash,” Time Magazine’s James Poniewozik writes (Dec.14). “The first, like Tiger Woods’ on Nov. 27, is accidental… The second is intentional.  You crash a President’s State dinner…” Due respect, Jim, you missed a third: when the mainstream media drives us to distraction with non-stop coverage of notorious, celebrity events. In describing the White House State Dinner crashers,...

There’s a scene early in the film Bull Durham where the Kevin Costner character is being sized up by the Susan Sarandon character. She’s making a choice between two minor league ball players as to whom she’ll guide and girlfriend throughout the season. Up to this point, Sarandon – by virtue of her charismatic charm, not to mention an incredible body –...

“It is in everybody’s interest to seek those [actions] that lead to happiness and avoid those which lead to suffering. And because our interests are inextricably linked, we are compelled to accept ethics as the indispensable interface between my desire to be happy and yours.” – His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama What is clear from the writings of the...

If you watched the opening of Good Morning, AmericaThursday you found stories covering President Obama’s Afghanistan speech, unemployment, health care, Salahi-Gate; and then there was this: Golf Superstar Tiger Woods apology for his “transgressions.” The Today Show, Early Show, same thing. All this in the first half hour of what used to be reserved for serious news of the world and the nation.  » Read more...

Okay folks, without cheating, how many “hits” do you get when you type the word “cheating,” into a search engine? I discovered almost six-million sites listed on Google that covers everything from poker to academic to relationship cheating.  (Here’s a bouncy little do-it-yourself I found on YouTube). To be fair, some of these sites discuss the problems and consequences of cheating.   » Read more...

The House of Mirth is a dark and depressing Edith Wharton novel about a self-absorbed young woman obsessed with fitting into the upper-crust of wealth and society in turn of the century New York. Lily Bart is a striking woman “to the manner born.” Although she’s been ready for her close-up since she was 18, her perennial talent seems to be putting...

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. – Benjamin Franklin When he was a mere 26 years of age, Benjamin Franklin conceived of writing a book about living rightly.  Always a student of new ideas, Franklin was constantly examining codes of behavior and how each of us might better understand our place and purpose in...

Some people think that the only way you can teach college athletes and build a winning basketball season is to intimidate, bully and demean. It’s a good thing John Wooden and his students never paid much attention to that kind of “conventional” wisdom. Always there to support, encourage, and congratulate, Coach Wooden directed his UCLA Basketball teams to 10 NCAA...

Are my guiding principles healthy and robust? On this hangs everything.   – Marcus Aurelius In writing these commentaries, it’s interesting to see how one topic will lead to another. Last Friday’s discussion revolved around the ethical question of whether the end justifies the means, a theme from the filmThe Emperor’s Club. In browsing my bookshelf, The Emperor’s Handbook, a 2002 translation...