Richard Fisher, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, is fond of quoting the Biblical admonition: "Come, be serious and discipline yourselves." He could be speaking directly to Occupy Dallas and similar groups across the country whose members are fast throwing away a chance to do something significant for themselves and the nation.

Ethics is the order of the hour at SMU where soon all students will be required to choose among various courses that illustrate right and wrong, some based on religion and philosophy, others on how to live. Rita Kirk, director of the Cary Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility will run the effort. She says that it flows from the conviction that ethics should be a major pillar of a university.

Texans have long been in love with Mexico. While some here may have reservations about immigrants crossing the border, never have they indulged in the kind of vituperation that rocked California under Gov. Pete Wilson and Arizona, with Jan Brewer leading the charge. Indeed, Texas governors have made a point of friendship with Mexico, and none more than George W. Bush.

As the recession worsens it's easy, in our anxiety, to forget the corruption and corrosion in some circles of business life that brought us to an impasse both dangerous and disillusioning. It came home to me once again at a board meeting of a small foreign policy group in a city other than Dallas. We were discussing an additional benefit for the CEO that at first had seemed not to be taxable. But our attorney's opinion had changed. Now, apparently, it is taxable, and the board was incorporating that view into its plans.