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
  • Honesty
  • humor
  • Integrity
  • Personalities
  • Politics
  • Truth

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican”
Question: How low can Donald Trump go?Answer: Low enough to attack the head of the Catholic Church and, by extension, 1.4 billion Catholics. His latest...
  • Civic Responsibility
  • Conscience
  • Cynicism
  • Extremism
  • Leadership
  • Personalities
  • Religion
We
What will define us at 250 years—not our disagreements, but what we are willing to believe about one another, and about the truth itself? As...
  • Civic Responsibility
  • Democracy
  • Responsibility
An Easter Message That Matters
On Thursday, three days before Easter Sunday, Pope Leo XIV delivered a message that went straight to the point. “Leadership is not measured by authority,...
  • Accountability
  • Compassion
  • Conscience
  • Golden Rule
  • Inspiration
  • Personalities
  • Religion
  • Responsibility
The Man Who Feared What We Might Become
Since my dinner with Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, I’ve been reading more about James Madison, who’s often called the father of the Constitution. What struck...
  • Character
  • Civic Responsibility
  • Democracy
Same Price. Same War. Different Truth
In the winter of 1863, as the Civil War dragged into its third year, prices in the North rose sharply. Coffee, flour, and coal steadily...
  • Civic Responsibility
  • Democracy
  • Ethics
  • Truth
Who Writes This Stuff: Jim or A.I.?
With the incredible rise of artificial intelligence comes a set of questions, among them: Did the writer write the text, or did A.I.? Or… maybe...
  • A.I.

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It's Ethics, Stupid!
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