I was in line at the grocery checkout. A few feet in front of me, a mother guided her toddler ahead, anchored her baby on her hip, and elbowed her checkbook open to pay the clerk. In what seemed like one single gesture, she retrieved her toddler's hand from the candy rack, tore the check from her book and offered it to the clerk while placing a comforting smooch atop her baby's head. The baby drooled ...

The Waltons was a popular television series in the 1970s that told the story of a large family living in Virginia during the Depression era. In this particular episode, one of the Walton children, John-Boy, aspires to publish his own county newspaper—The Blue Ridge Chronicle. He enlists the help of his younger brother, Ben, and they soon stumble upon their first headline story. The county judge, ...

Resurrecting the Champ is based on the true story of up-and-coming sports reporter Eric Kerman (Josh Hartnett). After rescuing a homeless man (Samuel L. Jackson) from a dangerous fight with some rowdy teens, Kerman discovers that "Champ," as everyone calls him, might be boxing legend Bob Satterfield. Most people in the world of sports had long believed Satterfield had quietly passed away. After Kerman ...

In their book Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner explain how a simple change to U. S. tax rules in 1987 exposed the depth of the public's willingness to deceive for financial gain:

In the 1980s, an I.R.S. research officer in Washington named John Szilagyi had seen enough random audits to know that some taxpayers were incorrectly claiming dependants for the sake of exemption. Sometimes ...

The patience of Alexander Kuzmin, mayor of Megion in western Russia, has worn thin. In September 2007, Kuzmin published a list of 27 excuses he will no longer tolerate. Civil servants who use such excuses as "I don't know," "It's lunchtime," or "I was on sick leave at the time," will lose their jobs. Other banned excuses include "I can't," "It's impossible," or "It's not my job."

The reason for Kuzmin's ...

In his Focus on the Family magazine article entitled "The Problem with Nice Guys," Paul Coughlin insists Christians must avoid passive and aggressive extremes, opting instead for assertiveness. He offers the following example from pop culture to illustrate what Christian assertiveness looks like:

Three major personality types are found among the judges of the popular reality TV show American Idol. ...

Michael Mohr, 51, recently confessed to the murder of Myrna Gonzales, resolving a 3-year-old cold case. Mohr might have gotten away with the slaying, but after a religious conversion, he realized Jesus wanted him to do the right thing. Mohr immediately walked into the local precinct and announced he had strangled a woman to death in 2004, and that Jesus Christ wanted him to turn himself in.

"We wish ...

Parked on the side of the road, waiting to catch speeding drivers, a state trooper sees a car puttering along at 22 mph. Thinking the driver is as dangerous as a speeder, the state trooper turns on his lights and pulls the car over.

...

The driver, obviously confused, says, "Officer, I don't understand. I was going the exact speed limit. What seems to be the problem?"

The trooper, trying to contain ...

Freakonomics is a fascinating book by economist Steven Levitt that turns conventional wisdom on its head. On the subject of cheating, Levitt calls it "a prominent feature in just about every human endeavor." Although he doesn't declare it part of human nature, Levitt notes the prevalence of cheating among ordinary schoolteachers, wait staff, and payroll managers. While evidence for cheating is often ...

I lived for a time with my friend and mentor John MacMurray, where the first rule is to always tell the truth. John and I were sitting in the family room one night when he asked about my new cell phone.

"I got it free," I told him.

"How did you get it for free?" he asked.

"Well, my other one broke, so I took it in to see if they could replace it. They had this new computer system at the store and they ...