Twelve days ago (June 15), I wrote “Without standards of courtesy, civility and decency, everyone is free to engage in a bickering brawl of incivility that only continues the cycle.” Last week confirmed that we are officially in the brawl. Most Americans are good, decent, honest people. They’re respectful and courteous. If they make a mistake, they usually make amends....

How do you handle an emergency? What do you if you’re in the middle of a stage performance, medical staff are treating an audience member who has fallen ill, and the audience may be getting a little restless? If you’re Tom Hanks, performing as the redoubtable rogue Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV, you grab your rapier wit and assault...

In January 1969, I was roaming around a local bookstore. My second year in college and I had to select a non-fiction book to read and write a report for a history class. History… what book am I going to find that’ll maintain my interest? I couldn’t finish reading the flyleaf of most history books much less think of writing...

Last Sunday’s Tony Awards show was debased by displays of indecency and disrespect. Actor Robert De Niro walked on stage to introduce Bruce Springsteen, but the first words out of his mouth were, “I’m going to say one thing: F#$k Trump!” The disrespect quickly followed when much of the 6,000-seat audience at Radio City Music Hall stood and cheered De...

On Tuesday’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Bill Clinton tried to explain his fumbled apology to Monica Lewinsky in response to a question by an NBC reporter the previous day. Colbert offers Clinton a “do-over.” “Here’s what I want to say: It wasn’t my finest hour, but the important thing is, that was a very painful thing, 20 years ago,...

“I have the absolute right to PARDON myself…” – Donald J. Trump, June 4, 2018 “The appointment of the Special Councel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!” – Trump, June 4, 2018 “I don’t know how you can indict while he’s in office. No matter what it is. [Even] If he shot James Comey…” – Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for President Trump,  » Read more...

On the same day the media was covering the fallout from Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet, something on a different but related track was taking place at 8,000 Starbucks stores across the country. Last month, two black men, waiting for a meeting with a third, were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks. The two men had asked to use the restroom but...

Rosanne Barr is funny, except when she’s not. Lately, she’s worse. Finally, a high-profile celebrity who receives their comeuppance after years of racist Twitter rages. Tuesday morning, actress-comedian Roseanne Barr posted the following tweet: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” The “vj” Barr is referencing is former Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett. Apparently, word got around...

During a 2008 presidential campaign town hall held for John McCain, a woman in the audience looked the senior senator from Arizona in the eye and said, ‘I can’t trust Obama. I have read about him, and he’s not, — he’s an Arab.” McCain respectfully took the microphone away from her, shook his head and responded, “No ma’am. He’s a...

“What really makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other kind of dictatorship to rule is that the people are not informed. If everyone always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but that no one believes anything at all anymore.” German-born American political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt spoke those words in a...