Archive

Social conservatives like to use the phrase “moral relativism” to describe their liberal counterparts, perhaps because absolutes are simple and easy to remember, if not to live by. Our judicial… Read More

Life is a balancing act. Complex truths are easily overwhelmed by simplistic ideologies and yes-no answers. The currently popular debate that pits free-market capitalism against shared responsibility for our community’s… Read More

The most expensive service our government provides to its citizens, other than heroic healthcare in Medicare, Medicaid and the VA, is to lock them up. According to the Bureau of… Read More

I was what conservative business interests would have you believe is a “job creator.” I, and several very smart managers ran, and some still do, a company that worked with… Read More

 I recently read an editorial juxtaposing two disparate yet related visions that have haunted me, as any good op-ed should. The writer alluded to the crowds in Cairo’s Tahrir Square… Read More

Labor Day is the last, long weekend of summer and a signal that it’s time to get back to work….that is if one has work, which takes us to the… Read More

Question… should political candidates take ideological pledges? If they do, don’t they then compromise their future leadership options? Leadership, after all, is about the agility of decision-making in real time… Read More

My libertarian and conservative friends love to cite the purifying qualities of the free market, operating like a natural stream-bed filter, removing weak business models, compressing economic fluctuations, and obviating… Read More

The battle in Washington is not over a balanced budget. It is not between the rich and the poor. It’s not between business and consumers. It’s not about the environment.… Read More

The current political rhetoric surrounding the bill to muffle NPR and to limit the ability of its affiliate network to survive, much less prosper, misses the important philosophical question of… Read More

Capitals around the country are rife with facile rants about cutting government, when the real task is balancing budgets. Will leaders do the hard work of applying shared principles to… Read More

Recently, the Vermont Community Foundation published a status report on Vermont’s non-profit sector. In a straightforward, data-driven report, it dispelled certain myths and quantified how significant the sector is in… Read More