While there is no photographic evidence, Paul Ryan continues to suffer the results of his deal with the devil. Once the House Speaker walked onto the stage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, his fate was sealed. “Democracy is a series of choices,” Ryan told the GOP faithful. “We Republicans have made our choice. Have we had our arguments...

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...

George Clooney’s compelling 2003 film, Good Night, and Good Luck, is about character assassination and the two men taking a principled stand against such tactics: CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow, and producing partner, Fred Friendly. After publicaly exposing U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy for destroying careers and lives through rumor and innuendo – usually claiming guilt by association – the...

Since the attacks in Paris last Friday, like many, I have been struggling to understand why some people are so consumed by hate that it leads them to commit monstrous acts. I remembered a book I’ve had since college, Man’s Search for Meaning, by psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. In the book’s preface, psychologist Gordon Allport writes, “As a longtime prisoner in...

That’s the Japanese word for survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The word translates as “explosion-affected people.” Rarely have I listened to such a compelling personal story. It’s the story of Setsuko Thurlow, a hibakusha, who, at just 13-years-old became a victim of war. Today, she is a Peace Ambassador of the United Nations University of Peace...

Why is it that so many good stories – the ones where some impending tragedy is prevented – rarely make broadcast news? I could be sitting here writing about another school shooting if not for the intervention of some alert students who didn’t hesitate to act. This story began with an email from friend and former San Francisco vascular surgeon...

In a moving and meaningful message to Congress last Thursday, Pope Francis said, “Politics is… an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good… Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. Let us help others to grow, as we would like to be...

On Monday, The Boy Scouts of America officially ended its ban on openly gay adult leaders. “But,” The New York Times writes (July 27), “the new policy allows church-sponsored units to choose local unit leaders who share their precepts, even if that means restricting such positions to heterosexual men.” “ ‘There are differences of opinion, and we need to be...

Dear Editor, Several of my friends say that news reports claim that Harper Lee’s new book portrays moral hero Atticus Finch as a racist. Someone told me that if you see it on ItsEthicsStupid.com, it is so. Please tell me the truth, is Atticus Finch a racist? Signed, Virginia Every-Reader Virginia, Your friends are wrong. Although reporters claim that the...

The Take was amazed and gratified by three positive events that demonstrated the best we can be. Forgiveness – At the bail hearing for the murder suspect in the Charleston Church shooting this past week, a remarkable and noble spirit spoke. As reported by the Christian Science Monitor (June 20), “ ‘We already forgive him for what he’s done, and...