Recent Commentaries

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Right Message, Wrong Moment
Last Saturday’s U.S. Open Women’s final should have been an incredible moment for Japan’s Naomi Osaka. It wasn’t, thanks to some excessive anger by a professional who should know better. The 20-year old Osaka, soft-spoken and shy, was in tears after winning the match on what Williams and others have labeled a double-standard by chair umpire Carlos Ramos when he...
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September 14, 2018
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Thou Shalt Not…
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” – the 8th commandment of God, “The Baltimore Catechism,” page 100 “A person who has sinned,” The Catechism declares, “by detraction or calumny, or who has told a secret he is bound to keep, must repair the harm he has done to his neighbor, as far as he is able.” For...
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September 12, 2018
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Dear Speaker Ryan
When President Trump addressed a group of evangelical leaders at the White House recently, he offered this stark warning: “This November 6 election is very much a referendum on not only me, it’s a referendum on your religion, it’s a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment. … “It’s not a question of like or dislike, it’s a question...
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September 10, 2018
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Who is Deep Throat?
For years, during and after Watergate, that was the singular political question that many were interested in knowing the answer. Deep Throat was the secret and anonymous source in the Executive Branch who pointed Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the right direction to uncover the covert and illegal operations that were taking place in the Nixon...
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September 7, 2018
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Last Man Standing… Tall
Halfway through the comedy City Slickers, Curly – the irascible, tougher-than-leather cowboy played by tough guy Jack Palance – unexpectedly dies on the trail. At his burial, the cook offers this short admonition to the Almighty: “Lord, we give you Curly. Try not to piss him off.” Given Senator John McCain’s somewhat regular bouts of anger, the Almighty would be...
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September 4, 2018
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Ethical Hero – Alene Duerk
After leaving her nursing job in an Ohio department store to join the Navy Nurse Corps in World War II, Alene Duerk (pronounced “Dirk”) planned on a short term of duty to her country. “I didn’t go into the Navy for a lifetime, I went in for six months,” Alene B. Duerk told an interviewer in 2016, when she was...
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September 4, 2018
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Let’s Be Honest – Truth Isn’t Truth Edition
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September 4, 2018
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In Treatment
As Mr. Lichtman’s recovery specialist, he asked if I would I apprise his readers as to his health and welfare. As many of you who have followed Jim’s commentaries over the past eighteen months know, he has spent an ungodly amount of time examining and writing about President Trump. It became obvious, to both Jim and treatment specialists at The...
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July 30, 2018
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The Ethical Take: The Truth is Out There Edition
The words and actions of this unprecedented president, and his cronies continue to chip away at our most fundamental values. Carter Page – After the release of a 400-page FBI document, Page, a “campaign advisor” to the Trump campaign, declared that he was not an “informal advisor” to the Kremlin. According to the document, the FBI believed Page was “the...
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July 27, 2018
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Impeachment: Bluff or Worse?
In an unprecedented move against the second-highest-ranking official at The Department of Justice, two House conservatives, Representatives Mark Meadows (N.C.) and Jim Jordan (OH), have filed articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. I wrote about the incivility demonstrated by Mr. Jordan in his relentless questioning of Mr. Rosenstein last month, (This is Not Who We Are –...
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July 26, 2018

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...