It's Ethics, Stupid!
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Recent humor Commentaries

Featured image for “Because We Need It”
Because We Need It
From the man who invented The Tonight Show. What Steve Allen understood—long before humor became sharper and more performative—is that laughter can be light and still leave a mark. His humor was humane and light, an invitation, not an attack. In a moment when so much public conversation feels joyless, this feels less like nostalgia and more like a reminder...
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February 5, 2026
  • humor
Featured image for “Four More Presidents Who Took an Ethical Stand”
Four More Presidents Who Took an Ethical Stand
  What separates a good leader from a great one isn’t intelligence, charm, or even experience. It’s character—specifically, the willingness to do the right thing when it’s difficult, unpopular, or politically damaging. We’ve seen this quality in several U.S. presidents, but four in particular stand out—not for partisan wins, but for the ethical backbone they demonstrated when it mattered most....
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June 2, 2025
  • Character
  • Courage
  • Ethics
  • humor
  • Politics
Featured image for “The Political System Explained (from the opening of my doctoral thesis)”
The Political System Explained (from the opening of my doctoral thesis)
(Note: this is a rough draft and still undergoing revisions.) Welcome, esteemed colleagues, to a comprehensive exploration of one of the most perplexing and confounding systems known to mankind: the United States political system. Drawing from years a few a couple of weeks of research, and kind of rigorous analysis (a caffeine binge helped), this thesis aims to explain the...
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January 30, 2025
  • Ethics
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Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
Now, More Than Ever
In moments of national crisis, a nation discovers whether its founding principles are merely words on paper, or values worth defending. As the 150th anniversary...
  • Uncategorized
Peace Is Not an Elective
I had just learned of the passing of a good friend and colleague, Colman McCarthy when the memories began to return. Before I ever met...
  • Civic Responsibility
  • Conscience
  • Hope
  • Inspiration
  • Integrity
  • Personalities
  • Principle
Revelations
In 1927, Sinclair Lewis gave America a character it did not want to recognize in the mirror: Elmer Gantry. Gantry is loud, magnetic, insatiable —...
  • Civic Responsibility
  • Democracy
  • Extremism
  • Honesty
The Story of Chips, and The Cost of Looking Away
It’s just a photograph: a wartime dog sitting alert, ears up, wearing a military harness. But the story about a World War II sentry dog...
  • Courage
  • Heroes
  • History
  • Personalities
It’s Time to Talk About Respect
A cancer has been growing in our national life, so embedded in our culture that we’ve stopped acknowledging it. In the 1940s and the decades...
  • Respect
Adversity and Perseverance
“How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.”— Yvon Chouinard “Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem”—Eric Hoffer “Retreat, Hell!...
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It's Ethics, Stupid!
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