Tag Archives: presidential election

Seeking Unbound Lives

Posted on November 12, 2012 by mhowgill

Republicans are frantically seeking someone to blame for their completely predictable election defeat last week. But all their carping and evasion hasn’t yet revealed the most obvious explanation. The United States in 2012 moved closer to its Founders’ vision of … Continue reading →

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Are We To Become a Nanny State?

Posted on October 9, 2012 by mhowgill

Governor Romney’s current campaign platform is that he knows how to create jobs. He asserts that President Obama has had four years to fix the economy and failed. The governor promises to succeed. The governor sees the private sector as … Continue reading →

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Without Integrity Nothing Else Matters

Posted on September 24, 2012 by mhowgill

Do I make myself more handsome by portraying others as ugly? Can I make my ideas sound better by distorting those of others? When we knowingly misrepresent facts, we’re lying. And lying is among the gravest of threats to our … Continue reading →

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Free Speech Can’t Live with Lies

Posted on September 13, 2012 by mhowgill

According to scholars Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, the bi-partisan duo who recently published It’s Even Worse than It Looks, “Viral emails and word-of-mouth campaigns are expanding sharply, mostly aimed at false facts about political adversaries”(p. 66). Last November, the … Continue reading →

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To Lie or Not to Lie?

Posted on September 1, 2012 by mhowgill

According to scholars, as living things evolved they developed deeply entrenched characteristics to avoid becoming victims and to succeed as predators. This impulse to deceive enables survival, and those that are unable to fool their predators or their victims die, … Continue reading →

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Confirmation Bias

Posted on August 31, 2012 by mhowgill

In legislative deliberations, Congress increasingly rejects scientific findings in favor of persuasive lobbying positions and political dogma. This behavior is reported in their most recent work, It’s Even Worse than It Looks by American Enterprise Institute’s Norman Ornstein and Brookings’ … Continue reading →

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Solutions Versus Slurs

Posted on August 22, 2012 by mhowgill

The United States, built by men and women from diverse cultural backgrounds, is among the most innovative nations in history. Our cultural narrative includes the conception that we’re a “melting pot,” folding different customs into a system of practices that … Continue reading →

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