A Case Study in Ruthless Ambition

For a picture of ruthless ambition, you could look no further than Richard Owen, the gifted scientist who coined the term dinosaur in 1841. Owen wrote ...

Empty Success

Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.

"Groundhog Day": Consequences

In this insightful comedy, an egocentric TV weatherman named Phil (Bill Murray) is assigned to cover the festivities of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, ...

Expensive Makeovers Are Only Skin Deep

Extreme makeovers are in. According to PlasticSurgery.org, in 2020 (the latest year for which statistics are available) there were 15.6 million cosmetic ...

"Emperor's Club": Ambition Without Contribution Is Insignificant

In the movie Emperor's Club Kevin Cline portrays an instructor of Western civilization in a prestigious private school. It is the first day of class, ...

Representative Barber Conable on False Principles

"Hell hath no fury like a vested interest masquerading as a moral principle."

—Representative Barber Conable

Sticking with the Pokey Little Church

For all of its foibles—lousy preaching, political infighting, self-centered focus, stagnation, a gaggle of special interest groups—the pokey ...

To Love Is to Be Vulnerable

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to be sure of keeping your heart ...

Hardball Takes Over Public Life

At the beginning of the 21st century, reasoned discourse [is imperiled]. Reasoned discourse is increasingly giving way to in-your-face sound bites….Hardball ...

Our Tendency to Exclude

Our fallenness makes us want to be a part of not just any group, but an exclusive group. By definition, every society includes people who connect, who ...