Tributes to Ronald Reagan occupied much of this past weekend on what would have been the 100th birthday of the 40th President. It’s always interesting to observe that the longer a 20th century president has been out of office, the more glowing the tributes.  While many such tributes seem forced, such is not the case with Reagan. Ronald Reagan was...

Last Wednesday, President Obama spoke in words elegiac at the memorial for the shooting victims in Tucson, Arizona.  Four days later, John McCain wrote a great op-ed that appeared in The Washington Post. “President Obama gave a terrific speech Wednesday night,” the Republican Senator wrote. “He encouraged every American who participates in our political debates – whether we are on the...

The following, written by David Krieger, gives us a closer examination of President Eisenhower’s final thoughts before leaving office, regarding the growth of military budgets. It’s interesting to look at in light of today’s continuing build-up of nuclear weapons in particular. Yesterday, January 17, 2011 was the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address to the nation in which he...

After closely following these commentaries and reading the results of the survey, Discordant Voices, I’m sure you’re all asking… “So, where’s the promised book, Jim?” While I was hoping the e-book– an ethical examination of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter – would be ready this past fall, I’m now looking at a March release date. Besides making sure that all...

In their annual roundup of factually incorrect stories of 2010, Politifact.com, the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning project set-up by the St. Petersburg Times, offered this example from Fox News’ Glenn Beck. “On his Nov. 22 radio show,” Politifact reports, “Beck told the story of Wilmington, a town of 13,000 people in Southwest Ohio that lost about 8,600 jobs when DHL Express, its largest employer,  » Read...

This idea of self-restraint and the press is a debate that often comes up. The last several weeks has seen hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents made public by founder Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. To Assange “all transactions between nations and leaders should be transparent,” Time magazine wrote in a recent profile. It’s interesting to note that contrary to...

In 1994, while doing research on the creation of the Lone Ranger for my first book, I spent four days with Fran Striker, Jr., the son of the creator. It still surprises me how few people know that an unassuming, imaginative writer from Buffalo, New York created, developed, and wrote the Lone Ranger,Green Hornet, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, and many others.  » Read more about:...

I say this with all due respect for his service above and beyondthe call of duty to this country: I am deeply disappointed in the senior United States Senator from Arizona, John McCain. For the John McCain who served his country with distinction in the Vietnam War, nearly lost his life in a fire aboard the U.S.S. Forrestal, was captured and...

On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated. Nearly every American who is old enough can remember where he was when he heard the news of Kennedy’s death. In my case, I was on a train platform in Japan when I was told of the assassination. A Japanese man came up to...

Monday morning I posted a commentary (They Shoot Mules, Don’t They?) about MSNBCs Keith Olbermann. I talked about how loud and offensive Olbermann can be, particularly when he engages in counterattacks against Fox News and Bill O’Reilly. Not long after I posted that piece on Huffington Post, (Sunday evening) I received an e-mail from an editor at the site which read,  » Read more about: Apologies  »...