Recent Personalities Commentaries

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Darkest Hour
“We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.” – Winston Churchill No, this is not about the Oscar-winning movie examining Winston Churchill’s hard choices that helped save the world. It’s about the darkest choices ever made by a U.S. president. Last week, National Security Agency Chief Admiral Mike Rogers told the Senate Armed...
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March 5, 2018
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More Than Just Thoughts and Prayers
Two weeks ago, I wrote about H.R. 38, The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017, (This is Who We’ve Become), which, if passed by the Senate, would effectively make it legal to carry a concealed weapon from state to state much like a driver’s license. In a statement from his office, California Congressman Salud Carbajal told me: “This shameful bill...
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March 2, 2018
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Why You Shouldn’t Trust Social Media*
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...
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February 28, 2018
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Project Trump
Last Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein laid out chapter and verse on how the Russians meddled in our 2016 election, detailing a series of indictments by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III. “The indictment charges 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies for committing federal crimes while seeking to interfere in the United States political system, including the 2016 presidential...
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February 21, 2018
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A. Lincoln: The Interview
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...
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February 19, 2018
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This is Who We’ve Become
17 Dead after a shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. “Oh my God! Oh my God!” one student shouted in a cell phone video. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel: “This is catastrophic!” Action Congress has taken since the Sandy Hook School shooting five years ago: Zero. I was already working on a commentary regarding gun...
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February 16, 2018
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Why I Continue to Write about Trump
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...
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February 12, 2018
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It’s About Time
A short series of stories about ethical minefields that have finally met their fate, maybe. Chief Wahoo Retires – Finally, the Cleveland Indians have announced that they will “retire” their “big-toothed, red-faced caricature” mascot “Chief Wahoo” used on uniforms, caps and other items. “The Indians have used the Chief Wahoo logo since 1947,” The Los Angeles Times reports (Jan. 29),...
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February 9, 2018
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Extraordinarily Reckless
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...
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February 5, 2018
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#HimToo
Woody Allen is a gifted writer and filmmaker with a unique style and voice who has, throughout decades, held up the mirror to our own shortcomings and pretensions. He is also an alleged child molester. Whether or not you believe Dylan Farrow — Allen’s adopted daughter at the time with his live-in partner, Mia Farrow — the issue was supposedly...
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February 2, 2018

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
When Political Identity Replaces Ethical Judgment
The political and cultural landscape has become a minefield of conflicting beliefs, many now rooted less in public policy than in personal identity. One of...
Principles Matter.
A few nights ago, I was watching The Way We Were, a film I’ve seen more times than I can count. This time, a single...
All the President’s Men 2.0
“Politics had infiltrated every corner of government—a strong-arm takeover of the agencies by the Nixon White House.” —Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, All the President’s...
The Threat to November Is Already Here
“Cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.”—George Washington’s...
Jon Ossoff and the Conscience of Atticus Finch
I’ve written about Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff before, but after watching his questioning of Jay Clayton, President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence (DNI),...
Hearts and Minds
There’s a moment in Cool Hand Luke when Luke, played by Paul Newman, is returned to a prison camp after escaping. Determined to break his...