THE WASHINGTON TIMES

EDITORIAL: Confronting the temperature taboo

The New York Times has discovered peril in the Arctic. "Explorers and fishermen find climate moderating about Spitzbergen and the Eastern Arctic," the newspaper reports, and seal hunters and explorers who sail those icy seas "point to a radical change in climactic conditions, and hitherto unheard of temperatures in that part of the earth."

July 12, 2017

EDITORIAL: Arsonists to put out the fire

Barack Obama is back at last from his new career of hanging out with the 1-percenters, eager to headline a big-dollar fundraiser for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee at a private home in Washington. The Democratic Party has all but disappeared in many state capitols, but where's there's a pulse, there's wan hope.

July 12, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Health reform about money, power

Through the years, various iterations of Congress and numerous presidents have developed a power grab through the two-party adversarial system, which provides a lifestyle of comfort for the political class. America has gone from a representative republic to a government of self-proclaimed, all-knowing, tin gods whose only interest is the self-preservation of their power and lifestyle.

July 12, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Consider new kind of budget

While members of the Republican majority are competing to see who can make the deepest cuts, there is a budget proposal before Congress that would boost the economy for all of us while cutting the number of people in poverty by half. It's the People's Budget, proposed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The People's Budget invests in safe and productive infrastructure, education, affordable housing, health care and nutrition, child-care and working-family tax credits. It also calls for increasing the minimum wage.

July 11, 2017

EDITORIAL: When the wolf is at the door

In a normal, minimally competently run state, the adoption of the state's budget is news among the ads for toenail fungus cures on Page 12, along with the usual items about dog biting man. Setting budgets, after all, is a routine responsibility of the state, like building roads and keeping the public schools open. Alas, that's more than residents of Illinois can expect.

July 11, 2017

EDITORIAL: Treason, anyone?

Hysteria is never a substitute for argument, even when the prey is Donald Trump. This is a caution lost on the hysterics who, try as they might, cannot dispatch the president to the island of lost presidents. So they keep raising the ante of speech and fantasy.

July 11, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Will we stand up to Russia?

When former KGB apparatchik Vladimir Putin became the capo di tutti capi of the Russian Federation, we should have expected some less than friendly back-and-forth. Then President Barack Obama, urbane and dignified, went all servile in a vain attempt to ingratiate himself with 'Vlad the Bad,' and canceled the anti-missile defense system so patiently negotiated with Eastern European nations by his rough-and-tumble predecessor, cowboy George W. Bush.

July 11, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: No ‘right’ to other people’s money

It seems a day does not go by without liberal Democrats proclaiming everyone has a "right" to health care. Their vitriol runs on high octane anytime a proposal is made to bring about a more market-based, patient-friendly system. Changes, they always claim, infringe on this "right."

July 10, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: War prevented?

When the recent Trump-Putin meeting ran overtime, first lady Melania Trump, at the request of "U.S. officials," tried to break it up and failed. The two men enjoyed a full exchange of views. Perhaps this will be conducive to world peace.

July 10, 2017

EDITORIAL: Resisting election integrity

One verity that all Americans, even in Washington, can agree on is that the integrity of elections is essential to the prosperity and survival of the republic. The point has been hammered home by an endless stream of charges that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election that put Donald Trump in the White House and sent Hillary Clinton into the wilderness.

July 10, 2017

EDITORIAL: The one-state solution

For a half century, negotiating a relationship between the Jews of Israel and the Muslim and Christian Arabs of Palestine has been a major diplomatic preoccupation. But without finding the formula, reality is wiping away the concept of two states in the old British definition of Palestine.

July 10, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Media needs reform now

Has journalism lost its North Star? It certainly seemed so when, in late 2016, The New York Times' publisher had to write to readers vowing to rededicate the paper to reporting "America and the world honestly, without fear or favor." This, Sharyl Attkisson's new book about shady political operatives and fake news, and polls revealing public distrust of media all call for long-overdue media reform ("New book: Sharyl Attkisson reveals the ghastly world of political smears, fake news," Web, July 4).

July 9, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: To left, some illegal voting OK

Since the day after the 2016 election, the Democrats and the mainstream media have overwhelmed us with charges that the Russians interfered with the election, the result of Trump-Putin collusion. The fact that no evidence exists to even confirm Russian involvement of any kind -- let alone evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with the Russians -- does not deter them. They are indignant about how important it is to protect the sanctity of our election process.

July 9, 2017

EDITORIAL: Trump in Europe

For all his angry tweets and occasional bluster, Donald Trump can rise to the occasion, and say important things that millions want to hear but other "leaders" are too timid, too soft, or too intimidated to say.

July 9, 2017

EDITORIAL: Marching to the poorhouse

Money makes the world go 'round, and the lack of it usually brings everything to a halt. Congress is grappling with long-promised tax reform and the naysayers warn against getting in the way of the tsunami of revenue to the Treasury, urging legislators to stay the course. Some might call it staying the curse. Only if there really is a free lunch is there nothing to worry about.

July 9, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Time for action on North Korea

It is high time we did something other than talk to confront North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and his threats to obliterate the United States and our Pacific allies. Any effort of President Trump to have China rein in North Korea's missile and nuclear programs is too little, too late.

July 6, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Time to downsize?

Over the past 90 years, from about 1926 until recently, the U.S. population has increased from 117 million to 320-plus million. As I understand it, during approximately the same period, from about 1927 until today, the world population has increased from two billion to an estimated 7.5 billion.

July 6, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: No more cherry-picked climate data

Is climate change really caused by human activities? The truth is that we don't know. What we do know is that there is a "consensus" among the advocates for man-made global warming based on studies using cherry-picked and manipulated data. We know from the University of East Anglia emails that the data is manipulated. These notes revealed that a "trick" was used to have the data support the conclusion of global warming. We also know from reporting on NOAA studies that the results were manipulated by the biased selection of the data used in the study.

July 6, 2017

EDITORIAL: Sounding off overseas

Squeezing out one last burst of applause is risky for any entertainer, as any old vaudevillian could have told Barack Obama. The idea is to leave the fans in the cheap seats yelling for more. But Mr. Obama, the original snowflake -- always at risk of melting and dead certain that he's unique in history — scorns the tradition of a president expected to go home after his time is done.

July 6, 2017

EDITORIAL: Mysteries of sex at the DMV

Members of the D.C. Council are sometimes puzzled by why the rest of the country doesn't take seriously their schemes to make Washington the 51st state. As city-states go, the District of Columbia is neither Florence nor Venice.

July 6, 2017