Recent Personalities Commentaries

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Entertainment vs. News
Who do you believe – entertainment or news? That’s not a trick question. Last Thursday, CNBC’s lead financial reporter and host of Mad Money Jim Cramer paid a visit to Jon Stewart’s Daily Show on Comedy Central.  It was a showdown of sorts. Stewart had been running video clips of CNBC gaffs like Rick Santelli’s rant against an Obama policy announcement and Jim Cramer’s videos showing him...
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March 17, 2009
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Fat on a Hot Tin Roof
I don’t think Rush Limbaugh really likes being called an entertainer. What’s wrong with being an entertainer, Rush?  Jay Leno’s an entertainer.  He entertains millions and makes a lot of money doing it, too.  Jerry Seinfeld’s an entertainer and makes a lotmore money doing it! The problem is that Rush thinks he’s something else.  He thinks he’s Big Daddy from Cat on a Hot...
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March 9, 2009
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And the Winner is…
Nixon had Watergate, Clinton had Lewinsky, Cheney his “Scooter” Libby.  Now, we have Rod Blagojevich who seems determined to turn hubris into a new category at the Academy Awards. For your consideration:  “They’re just hanging me… [They’re] trampling the constitution… The good guy is up against the establishment.” However, when Illinois state senators begin their impeachment trial today based on the governor’s...
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January 26, 2009
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Two Things Americans Can Do
Heavy snow fell the night before the inauguration. On Friday, January 20, 1961, I sat in my seventh grade homeroom class while the teacher rolled in a black and white television and announced that we would all be watching history take place today.  (Me, I always liked a good excuse to watch TV.) What I was unprepared for was how...
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January 19, 2009
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Change Has Come!
No, not that change.  We already know that in 11 days, former Illinois Senator Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States. I’m talking about a few other changes taking place in Washington. Former Idaho Senator Larry Craig has (finally!) given up efforts “to withdraw his guilty plea stemming from his 2007 arrest in a Minneapolis airport bathroom,” the Washington...
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January 9, 2009
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The Nature of Fear
Looking at two recent films, I was struck not only by the similarities in deception but how the underlying aspect of fear transports individuals to act in unethical ways. Frost-Nixon is about the final disintegration of a man’s character. (For some, that would be assuming Nixon had any character to begin with.) But what the film shows us is how easy it is...
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January 5, 2009
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The Twinkle in Her Eye
Continuing my conversation with Bradley James and his time spent with Mother Teresa.  Bradley talks about a side of Mother that most people never saw. “People always ask me what she was like. “We know her as this Nobel Laureate, but what she did as a woman, a Western, European woman in Calcutta, India by creating that religious order in that...
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December 31, 2008
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My Time With Mother
Although faith is not an ethical value, its importance in driving ethical conduct should not be underestimated. In fact, the word faith comes from the Latin fidere meaning ‘to trust.’ According to the Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion, “Faith is an attitude or belief which goes beyond the available evidence.” Bradley James is a composer, pianist, singer and public speaker.  In 1987, his...
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December 29, 2008
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A Christmas Story
Much of the time we tend to think of compassion in terms of the extraordinary moments, events which seem removed from our daily perspective. The Dalai Lama’s story of a Tibetan monk’s compassion towards his Chinese jailers is one example. However, not long ago, I experienced a simple, yet powerful example of everyday compassion. My neighbor, Sue Adams, is funny, wise...
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December 24, 2008
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How to Improve the World
Tenzin Gyatso is the fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet. He is both head of state (in exile) and the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He is admired and esteemed worldwide as a man who has championed policies of nonviolence. His consistent compassionate nonviolence, even in the face of great aggression, led to his receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace in...
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December 22, 2008

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The Purpose and Course of Our Lives
About once a year, the American Film Institute invites filmgoers to vote on the greatest heroes in cinema. Indiana Jones, James Bond, and Superman typically...
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They spot Donald Trump holding court. Curious, they approach and begin a conversation. Socrates: Tell me, sir, what is the nature of leadership? Is it...
Dispatches From the Front
Let me get this straight: … the Senate will vote to approve a woman with ties to authoritarian leaders, a man who has pushed vaccine...
Godfather, Part Now
“I don’t feel I have to wipe everyone out, Tom, just my enemies.”—Michael Corleone, The Godfather Note: I must pause my earlier commentary suggesting how...
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...
Something Like a War
I’ve been revisiting Ken Burns’ series on the history of baseball, and it sparked some interesting comparisons to a subject that headlines the news daily....