If you missed Dr. Laura’s rant on her radio show, and the resulting fall out you’re lucky. For the uninitiated, she decided to use the N word a dozen times in response to an African-American listener’s question about how to get her white in-laws to stop using the word.

Dr. Laura used the popular argument that “Black guys use it all the time.” Citing black comics and HBO as apparent role models, she pointed out that they use the word and that somehow makes it okay for white people to indulge.

Well of course, I could have predicted it. Yet another CEO with an alleged zipper problem resigns amid allegations of sexual harassment.

Backed by celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, both Hurd (Hewlett-Packard CEO) and Fisher deny that there was any sexual relationship. (Does this remind us of I did not have sex with that woman?) The internal company report found that there was no violation of its sexual harassment policy but that Hurd broke HP rules of conduct and irreparably harmed his credibility and integrity.

Unless you’ve been under a rock this month you know that Angelina Jolie opened last week in the new spy thriller Salt. You may also know that she earned over $20 million for the role.

Perhaps you think that no one could be worth that much just for acting in one movie but what you may not know is what else she did to earn that money. (No, it’s not appearing on the cover of People with Brad Pitt and the kids).

The airwaves and blogosphere have been buzzing the past week, of course, over the firing of Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod. Just in case you missed the debacle, her boss, Agriculture Secretary Tom Valsack, fired her (or ordered her to immediately type her resignation over her BlackBerry, depending on whom you believe) over a speech she made this year to the NAACP. In a two-minute clip that went viral on conservative blogs and Fox News, Sherrod, an African American whose father was murdered as part of a hate crime, implied that she wasn’t inclined to help white farmers who needed her help.

Hey everybody! Turn off your computers and think for a change. (Okay, after you’ve read this post.) I’ve written about this before but the problem is only getting worse so I feel the need to beret you again.

All of our interconnectivity has lead social scientists to coin a new symptom: FOMO, or “fear of missing out.” For those of you who are wired 18 hours a day–with cell phones, email and Facebook connected directly to your veins–you may be damaging not only your personal relationships but also your brain.

Public opinion surveys consistently show that the #1 fear of most people — greater than drowning — is the fear of public speaking. Obviously, Ann Coulter has no such fear. While I hate to write about her for fear of giving her more publicity than I think she deserves, I have to mention the recent Ottawa debacle. It’s not that I don’t want to give credit to credible conservative commentators’, I do. George Will, for example, is both reasoned and readable — two things that Coulter is not.

Why can’t we all grow up? That’s the thought that comes to me while watching the kvetching, screaming and tantrum throwing that’s surrounded the health care vote. For some time, both sides have been like four year-olds, squabbling over buckets and rakes in the sandbox. My disgust turned to horror this week when the brawl turned truly ugly by the degenerating into racial slurs and escalating into violence. Unfortunately, I see the same kind of escalation in the workplace.

The biggest news this week, of course, is that American Idol starts up again with a new parade of star wannabes. I have to confess I’m a fan because it’s something I can watch with my fifteen and a half (as they’re fond of reminding me) year old twins. We watch, dis and discuss and it’s one of those rare times we’re all hooked into the same electronic media. But this year’s big news of course is that Paula is leaving and Ellen is arriving. As in Ellen DeGeneres.

Denver lives and dies by the Broncos. Thus it has ever been and probably always will be. Because of the collective sports fever, ending a season that started out with a bang of 6-0 and ended up a whimper of 8-8 sent the city into a collective funk. But in the midst of all that a very public squabble arose between the young Turk coach Josh McDaniels and two of his star players: wide receiver Brandon Marshall and tight end Tony Scheffler. McDaniels announced two days before the season finale that he was benching these two players. In addition, just before that he had publicly questioned Marshall’s ankle injury. Not nice to imply that one of your players is a wimp!

There’s been much ado and tisk-tisking about the Salahis’ –now infamous White House gate crashers. Most people seem to assume that the Secret Service royally messed up and of course that’s perhaps true. But the reality is many of those same people who are aghast at that breach couldn’t defend their own security systems.

If you’re in corporate America, you’re probably used to key cards, sign-in sheets and the like but how safe are these systems? Do you test for leaks?