The intersection of two stories this week caused me to examine the media’s appetite to pander under the guise of “coming clean.” After weeks of rumor and speculation, former seven-time Tour de France winning cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs to achieve his victories. In listening to Armstrong’s confessional, I wasn’t so much interested in...

Earl J. Hickey is a shiftless, ne’er-do-well, who, after a near-fatal accident, sees the burning bush of Karma and wants to lead a better life, or as one NHTI student so eloquently summarizes: “If you give crap, you will get crap in return.” In the part comedy-part philosophy series, My Name is Earl, Hickey sets out to reform his ways by...

The “better angels of our nature” are not always present during times of disaster. Among the hero stories throughout Hurricane Sandy, one account stands in stark contrast. During the height of the storm, with water rushing into her home on New York’s Staten Island, Glenda Moore gathered her two sons, 4-year-old Connor and 2-year-old Brendan, strapped them into the backseat...

The fall of a leader is always tragic, and in David Petraeus’ case, much unexpected. In the immediacy of the moment, there is an understandable shock, and, within the ranks, it is not uncommon for those closest to him to feel a sense of betrayal. I was in the process of writing-up General Petraeus’ 12 Rules of Leadership when it was announced...

Jack Welch is “one of America’s all-time great CEOs.” Jack Welch is “one of America’s all-time dumbest former CEOs.” Q: Which statement is true? A: Both. That first quote comes from CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper; the second from me. Last Friday (Oct. 5), the Department of Labor released its monthly unemployment report. Based on data from the Bureau of Labor...

For months the Democrats have painted Mitt Romney as out-of-touch, elite, and uncaring about the middle class. In conversations, I’ve defended him against many of those generalizations. While that was before his Libya statements, I kept thinking, he’ll bounce back. All that went out of the window with a video we shall now euphemistically call The 47% speech: . “There are 47...

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...

“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...

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...