Recent Character Commentaries

Featured image for “The Spirit of Humanity”
The Spirit of Humanity
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.  – Mahatma Gandhi Olympic athletes train for years for events that, in some cases, are over in a matter of minutes. New Zealand’s Nikki Jane Hamblin is a middle distance runner who specializes in...
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September 14, 2016
Featured image for “Muhammad Ali – Legend, Activist, Leader”
Muhammad Ali – Legend, Activist, Leader
“I am the Greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.”   – Muhammad Ali Since his death last Friday in Arizona, words of praise for the life of Muhammad Ali have been making their way around the media. “He was arguably the greatest fighter of all time,” Ali biographer Thomas Hauser said. But Hauser was quick to add...
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June 6, 2016
Featured image for “A Bracelet, a War and Memories”
A Bracelet, a War and Memories
Maj. John Baldwin (Ret.) is a good friend, former vascular surgeon who served in Vietnam and frequent reader of this site. He submitted the following story to me about former classmate and Vietnam POW Maj. Glenn Wilson. It begins with finding a bracelet. When the Gator Harbor dredge operators pumping out Stevenson Creek near Tampa, Florida back in the spring...
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May 30, 2016
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Showdown at the D.C. Corral
Tomorrow is “T-Day”; the date presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump sits down with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to “hash out” some accommodation on policy and personality issues as Trump moves forward with his campaign. Last Sunday, Ryan was brutally honest in an interview when CNN host Jake Tapper asked if he would be willing to support...
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May 11, 2016
Featured image for “The Ethical Take – Two Updates and a “Bombshell””
The Ethical Take – Two Updates and a “Bombshell”
We’ll get to the “Shocking Details” in our “bombshell” in a moment, but first, a little housekeeping. Deflated Brady – First, football’s “greatest quarterback of all time,” Tom Brady is suspended for four games for being “generally aware” of a scheme to deflate – and thus make the ball easier to control – footballs in the 2015 A.F.C. championship game....
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April 27, 2016
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American Diogenes
Lately, a few readers have asked why I spend so much time writing about Donald Trump. It can be summed up in one word. Actually, Jon Stewart told us when he signed off for the final time on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show; a show that began seventeen years earlier as a comedy riff on the news of the day,...
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April 1, 2016
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Snake Pit
The Fortune Cookie is a desperately funny Billy Wilder film about an equally desperate con man by the name of “whiplash” Willy, a lawyer (brilliantly played by Walter Matthau), and his schnook brother-in-law, (the equally brilliant Jack Lemmon). Lemmon is a TV cameraman who is accidentally sidelined by a football player while covering a game. After Gingrich learns from his...
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March 14, 2016
Featured image for “Dear Cam, What Happened on Sunday?”
Dear Cam, What Happened on Sunday?
What does it take to get to the Super Bowl, Cam? A lot of hard work, time, sacrifice and… something else. However, during the post-game media interview following last Sunday’s Super Bowl, you were beyond stoic. You sat, for all of 7 minutes, with a hoodie pulled tight around your head, no eye contact, head down at times, barely answering...
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February 10, 2016
Featured image for “Don’t Mess with Mama”
Don’t Mess with Mama
The streets of Milwaukee can be tough. Fortunately, Mama’s on patrol. Martha Freeman is a 77-year old retired corrections officer who, by day tends to household chores like passing out donated bread to those in need. By night, however, she cruises her neighborhood looking for kids who might be getting into trouble. And she’s packin’… wisdom and kindness. In a...
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December 21, 2015
Featured image for “An Antidote to Fear and Hate”
An Antidote to Fear and Hate
In a political season that has seen far too much prejudice, fear and hate, David Swan, a U.S. Army soldier, reminds us all just what is important and why in an open letter he writes to Muslims. In response to a reporter asking why he wrote it, Swan said, “There is so much divisive rhetoric being shouted on social and...
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December 14, 2015