There’s a moment during the first act of Orson Welles’s classic film, The Magnificent Ambersons – a period story about the rise and fall of a local family – where Welles, as narrator, points out what a terror young, self-centered George Amberson Minafer is to all the local citizens. “Someday,” a neighbor angrily remarks, “that boy is going to get...

Ten years ago, March 8, I launched this website with two goals: “First, I hope to generate a greater awareness of the importance of ethics in our lives; second, I want to foster a dialog with others about the affect ethical principles, or lack thereof, have on our decision making. It’s a dialog that will include politics, sports, entertainment, immigration,...

Social media and video-sharing sites have become the new weapon of choice by activists. The problem is the lack of responsibility shown by some users and readers of information that is used to exploit fears and biases with false theories and propaganda. E.g. David Hogg – The New York Times reports (Feb. 21), “…for a brief time, the No. 1...

During a conversation with a friend about the Parkland school shooting, I was struck by something she said: “I’m not a Republican or a Democrat; I’m an American.” Wednesday’s news was consumed with the aftershock of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. The first half of the day was occupied with a listening session held by President Trump, attended...

I was told by White House Press Secretary John G. Nicolay, that “Mr. Lincoln needed a little respite after recent news of a loss in our great civil war.” “John, I’ve been waiting months for this interview.” “He’s at Murphy’s Bar next door to the theater.” It was a bleak and rainy night when I walked through the front door...

In her weekly column for The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 10), former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan shares some thoughts from Trump supporters and non-supporters, along with her own observations. One veteran remarked, “People who are for Trump always say, ‘look, he’s got an unfortunate character and temperament, but he’s good on regulation, good on the courts.’ “The problem, the veteran...

Those aren’t my words. Those words come from the Justice Department in a letter before the release of a Republican memo critical of judgment and investigative practices of both Justice and the FBI concerning their investigation of Trump associate Carter Page. (What follows is a condensed version of this story. To fully understand the memo’s context, you many want to...

The use of social media has grown exponentially in the last several years. It’s become an ideal, and in some cases, vital source for reporting everything from emergencies to political uprisings; from coordinating protest marches to connecting with friends and family. That’s social media’s positive side. There is, however, a much darker side where bullies, predators and terrorists live. It’s...

Ethics is not about what we say or what we intend, it’s about what we do. This is the heart of integrity – demonstrating a consistency between ethical principle and practice. While I wrote this commentary more than eight years ago, it’s a story worth repeating and a moral reminder to me. Who we are is never more clearly revealed than...

Volkswagen Executive Oliver Schmidt just found out the cost of his dishonesty: 7 years in prison. “Schmidt, a citizen of Germany,” The New York Times writes (Dec. 6), “is the highest-ranking Volkswagen employee to be convicted in [a scheme to defraud U.S. consumers and regulators by participating in] the company’s efforts to rig pollution tests on hundreds of thousands of...