Last week I wrote a piece called, "Diversity ... Obama are you listening." I wanted to take the topic of diversity and stretch it past just physical attributes; race, gender, ethnic origin and sexual persuasion. I wanted to bring attention to what I think its true definition is ... diversity of the mind. While race, gender and ethnicity definitely contribute to one's world view ... there's a lot more…

Well it's 2013 and the "Insane Clown Posse" masquerading as our elected officials almost succeeded in hurling themselves, and us included, off the proverbial "fiscal cliff." Fortunately sanity showed its face, however briefly, long enough to avert the plunge into the abyss. You have to give the clowns credit though ... with each day they seem reach new level of lunatic performance, with the "tea baggers" refusing to relent the headlining role. But we haven't seen anything yet. February will…

Fifteen years ago, I ran across a book, "100 Most Influential People in History," during one of my dalliances to my local Marin County bookstore. "Influential People" was one man's assessment on exactly that. But how he determined his rankings was the interesting part. They weren't always the reasons you would think. But after thinking about it, they made complete sense. For example:

George Washington was ranked in the top 40 of all time. Understandable. But the reason why…