42 Articles

Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Honorable and Faithful Service
(3 comments) The honorable discharge certificate given servicemen and women when they return to civilian life says simply, "...awarded as a testimonial of Honest and Faithful Service." On Veteran's Day it behooves us all to consider what is required of our military as "Honest and Faithful" service. We honor each and every one of them for stepping forward.

Sunday, October 25, 2009
Hate Crimes Bill Passes
(2 comments) It took Congress 11 years, but it finally made hate crimes a Federal criminal offense.

Thursday, October 22, 2009
Making the Headlines
(3 comments) Want to see your article featured in the headlines? Want to go to the front of the line for quick publication? OEN Senior Editor Richmond Shreve reveals the secrets.

Sunday, October 18, 2009
Are You an Owner or a Trespasser?
(9 comments) Writer Richmond Shreve explores individual private ownership, a fundamental right the western world holds sacrosanct.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Skepticism Triggers -- Signs of Poor or Deceptive Arguments
(4 comments) Senior Editor Richmond Shreve offers a collections of signs and signals that herald deceptive arguments in the media. If you surf the internet for your information, or if you watch MSNBC, Fox News, and other such news-as-entertainment sources, you will find these tools useful in thinking critically and forming your own opinions.

Monday, October 12, 2009
Dangerous Skepticism
(6 comments) Ill-informed skepticism about the need for vaccination may be hazardous to your health and to the health of those you love.

Sunday, October 11, 2009
Verizon -- Too Big to Serve
When enterprises grow large they too often grow impersonal and unresponsive, much like government agencies. But competition can and does punish the enterprise that neglects customer service. Verizon faces just this situation.

Friday, September 18, 2009
The Marines Got it Right - Almost
(12 comments) The US Marine Corps changes its recruiting messages to depict the rigors of becoming a Marine challenging prospective enlistees to step up and see if they can cut it.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
What is "The Army Experience?"
The Army Experience Center, the target of anti-war activists, does not have a secret agenda -- it unabashedly seeks to present the Army as an attractive career to young people. Its creators hope to make the Army's attractions accessible to the public. But when does good marketing cross over into unethical promotion. Are children appropriate visitors? Should there be full disclosure of the risks? See for yourself.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Environmental Scientists Join the "mob."
(2 comments) The "mob" takes on our lack of progress with the global environmental crisis.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Real Food at School?
Slow Food USA, and organization that promotes the desirability of locally grown, minimally processed foods, organized an National Day of Action in which tens of thousands across the us gathered to support better food in schools.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009
News after Newspapers
(8 comments) With the crisis of shrinking advertising revenues and dwindling profits that is facing our major newspapers, innovative new revenue ideas are emerging that promise to reinvent journalism in the age of the internet.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Follow the Risk
(11 comments) In the past when we tried to sort out causes and motivations, a good rule was "follow the money." But in our present circumstances it works better to follow the risk. A fundamental notion of capitalism is that profit is the reward for accepting the risk of entrepreneurship. Today's CEO is well separated from the risks of business, to the detriment of us all.

Monday, June 15, 2009
Protest draws Death Threats - Will Shame Alone Deter?
(1 comments) Equality Now, a women's rights advocacy group, published an action email opposing distribution of the video game RapeLay that has brought angry reactions including "an unprecedented amount of hate mail, including death and bomb threats." Should games that simulate criminal acts of violence be illegal?

Thursday, June 11, 2009
Nobody has an Unrestrained Right of Self Expression
(4 comments) Producing and distributing any sort of media that fosters hate, violence, and pathological behavior is not a legitimate exercise of free expression.

Sunday, June 7, 2009
The Tower [Fiction]
The author's big mouth, and bigger ego, send him climbing heavenward -- in more ways than he expects. [fiction]

Saturday, June 6, 2009
How I Became a "Bestselling" Author
(5 comments) Richmond Shreve describes how his wife Marguerite made him a bestselling author and explains how self-publishing gives authors a path to profit and recognition where it most feeds the spirit -- among those we are closest to.

Thursday, March 5, 2009
Advocacy for Legalizing Drugs goes Mainstream
The Economist says, "Our solution is a messy one," but argues that legalizing and taxing recreational drugs, and the attendant social and health problems, would be far cheaper and more humane than our presently ineffective and expensive efforts.

Saturday, January 3, 2009
Obama's Health-Care Community Discussions – Update 2
Obama's transition team confirms that grass-roots input will form "a central pillar" of major health-care reform. Here is a report of one of the meetings posted by a transition team writer.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Obama's Health-Care Community Discussions – Update 1
(2 comments)

Monday, December 29, 2008
Transition Team Trying Varied Approaches
Obama transition team asks for questions and offers answers at Change.gov.

Sunday, December 28, 2008
Obama's Health-Care Community Discussions
(7 comments) Will these grass-roots meetings organized by the Obama transition team make a difference in the eventual legislation? ... and how?

Saturday, December 27, 2008
Can Indigenous Peoples Teach Us to Survive?
(5 comments) A grass-roots organization, mostly volunteer, offers to show us how to bring about environmental sustainability starting at home, by changing our own attitudes and behaviors.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Just a Little Good Tea
(1 comments) Sometimes it doesn't take very much to make a Merry Christmas.

Sunday, December 21, 2008
"I Didn't see it coming" -- Saddest Words in Business
(3 comments) A collection of video clips shows various pundits trying to shout down Peter Schiff, who we now know got it right. How could we have known who to listen to back then?

Sunday, December 21, 2008
"Sweetheart, give me rewrite."
(1 comments) Citizen journalists face tough competition for reader attention. We have to be good to communicate.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Let's Fight for Freedom
(2 comments) A "patriotic" story circulating on the internet teaches important lessons. It is a caricature of the unexamined paradoxes in some American's sense of self-righteousness.

Monday, December 8, 2008
Attacking Terrorism
(7 comments) Terrorism expert Richard Clarke illustrate how we need to attack terrorists to prevail against them.

Friday, December 5, 2008
Roots of Conspiracy Exposed
(56 comments) The conspiracy theories that abound on the internet are produced by a malfunction of a basic process in human thinking: patternicity. The buzz about a 9/11 conspiracy is a classic example.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Obama: Join the Conversation
(5 comments) Obama's transition team adds two-way communication to the change.gov website. Check it our and comment here.

Monday, December 1, 2008
News, Opinion, or Advocacy?
(7 comments) There are boundaries between straight reporting and opinion for good reason. Too often, especially on the internet, they disappear.

Thursday, November 27, 2008
A Reason for Thanks...
(2 comments) As the Bush era ends, and we embark on a new and more hopeful direction for national affairs, despite the looming economic crisis, we have much for which to be thankful.

Thursday, November 27, 2008
Negativism, Skepticism, Cynicism, Dissent ... Despair
(3 comments) Advocating for responsible journalism, light over heat, and for making a positive contribution with our postings.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Will Obama Reform Education?
(14 comments) It looks like Obama's policy will be heavily influenced by professional educators-people who are affiliated with teacher's unions, and academics from schools that teach education. What's wrong with that? Nothing, provided these folks are able to break with the beliefs and traditions that are not presently producing the results we expect-the results we require to be competitive as a nation.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
It's Up to US
(1 comments) How the new tools of democracy make it possible, even necessary, for us to rescue ourselves from the threats that face America.

Friday, November 7, 2008
Take Heed My Progressive Friends
(7 comments) Conservative editors of the Wall Street Journal warn of exploiting control of the executive and congress.

Monday, November 3, 2008
Test Your "BS" Meter -- Obama and Wright
(11 comments) In Pennsylvania the GOP is running an attack ad that seeks to smear Obama for his association with Rev. J Wright -- Is your BS meter working? Test it here.

Sunday, November 2, 2008
Take Heart My Republican Friends
(10 comments) The downside for conservatives is much less dire that most think.

Monday, October 27, 2008
Look at the Base
(1 comments) Time to look beyond the political personalities at their organizations and the base of their power to achieve the change they promise.

Thursday, October 23, 2008
It's About Trust (An open letter to my granddaughter.)
An open letter to my granddaughter about the election process.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Follow the Money
(1 comments) About taxes, spending, debt and what's possible.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Who's Really Presidential?
Sizing up the candidates by how their campaign organization runs.