THE WASHINGTON TIMES

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Obama foreign policy on crash course

America is battling radical Islamic terrorists and needs to declare war on the Islamic State. Yet, despite national security being the top worry of Americans following the murder of 14 and the injuring of 21 in San Bernardino, Calif., there has been no shift in policy by President Obama.

December 16, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Sports-betting double standard

Three-time National League batting champion Pete Rose has fallen irrevocably from grace because, as a player and as a manager, he placed bets on the outcome of Major League Baseball games ("Pete Rose's plea for reinstatement rejected by Rob Manfred," Web, Dec. 14). Pete Rose remains unforgiven because, as your story states, he "continued to gamble even while trying to end his lifetime ban and would be a risk to the sport's integrity if allowed back in the game."

December 16, 2015

EDITORIAL: Obama’s Bowe Bergdahl blunder

Honor is a virtue that stands apart; dishonor is more recognizable still. President Obama and his aides tried to cover Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in glory, even receiving his parents at the White House. But contradictions in his story of captivity in Afghanistan have overturned the narrative. Sgt. Bergdahl now faces a general court martial and similarly, Mr. Obama's exchange of terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for his return is weighed in the court of public opinion.

December 16, 2015

EDITORIAL: Republicans cave on spending

This is the Christmas season and nobody decorates a Christmas tree like Congress. The Republicans can get as deep into the Washington spirit of Christmas as any Democrat. House Speaker Paul Ryan and his negotiators will ask their Republican colleagues to vote Friday on a spending bill that will cost billions and run through the end of 2016.

December 16, 2015

EDITORIAL: Dunning the drones

They soar overhead by the thousands, without regard for the safety of anyone on the ground or in the air. They climb among the clouds and describe death-defying dives toward the earth. Sometimes they crash into houses and cars, and harass and "bomb" unsuspecting pedestrians. (No offense meant.)

December 15, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Accountable civil servants needed

Police misconduct in Chicago is a serious problem that doesn't appear to be going away.

December 15, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Disenfranchised seek moral guidance

World leaders are looking for and achieving a global consensus on the quality of our natural surroundings, but they are overlooking much more immediate needs.

December 15, 2015

EDITORIAL: Obama’s blindness to Christian persecution

The official and public indifference to the continued persecution and murder of Christians in the Middle East is a scandal of enormous proportions. Only a few Internet websites are devoted to the rescue of persecuted Christians. The media, like the president, is blind to outrage.

December 15, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Skepticism needed in climate reporting

Politicians from 200 countries got together to pretend they could establish policies capable of controlling the climate and sea levels ("Obama: Climate change deal forged in Paris is 'best chance' to save the planet," Web, Dec. 12). Last weekend they celebrated signing a non-binding agreement that begins in 2020 and which would supposedly lower temperatures by less than one degree by the year 2100.

December 14, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Don’t put lives in politicians’ hands

Honduras now has the highest homicide rate in the world, with approximately 90.4 killings per 100,000 people. The international average for killings, according to the April 13, 2015, report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, is 6.2 per 100,000. In 2008, Honduran bureaucrats enacted strict regulations on gun ownership, thinking it would curb gang activitiy and drug-related homicides.

December 14, 2015

EDITORIAL: A romance in Asia

For the dreamers in Foggy Bottom, always on the scout for match-making, Japan and India have seemed natural candidates for a romance. Japan's highly industrialized economy needs markets and raw materials, and a slowly industrializing India has the resources in abundance.

December 14, 2015

EDITORIAL: The figment of affordable health care

Buying something without knowing the price is foolish. President Obama sold Obamacare to America by hiding the price tag, and five years later it's clear that there's still no such thing as a free lunch, or free health-care insurance, either.

December 14, 2015

EDITORIAL: Middle East more dangerous than ever

There's fundamental change afoot in the Middle East, and it's obscured by the behavior of the Obama administration, which is suspended between contradiction and confusion. Barack Obama has one strategy of telling everyone that the American military option is "off the table" while a second strategy incrementally increases U.S. special forces on the ground and more bombing from the air.

December 13, 2015

EDITORIAL: The Vatican’s global warming guru

Environmentalist hysteria has put some strange combinations in bed together. Pope Francis is obviously a good man armed with good intentions, but, however worthy he may be as a leader of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, he's in over his head as a scientific doomcrier trying to render global warming into something more theological than scientific.

December 13, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Eastern Europe can make up own minds

The article "Lithuanian foreign minister says Russian propaganda fills void from West" (Web, Dec. 8) quotes Linas Linkevicius as saying that spending more on media aimed at Eastern Europe will make the content more believable to Russian speakers in the region. On the one hand, he is right, as "the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard" (Ecclesiastes 9-16). On the other, even being a rich, monopolistic broadcaster isn't a panacea.

December 13, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Undeserved advancement a disservice

The Supreme Court is just another bunch of pinheads who cannot see the forest for the trees ("Affirmative action hangs in balance as Supreme Court hears U. of Texas case," Web, Dec. 9). For some perverse reason everyone assumes that every kid with a less than perfect upbringing is dumb as a stump and incapable of learning. Be they black, white or plaid, we just fix their grades, dumb down their curriculum and smilingly hand them a diploma — even when they are apparently incapable of walking and chewing bubble gum at the same time.

December 13, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Gun control blather a time waster

I, for one, take President Obama's speech to protect us from terrorists as just more empty words coming from an empty head, showing total disregard for the safety of this country.

December 10, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Donald Trump’s ban would make us safer

Banning people who threaten our lives is exactly what we used to do and what we should be doing now. The 1924 Immigration Act was put in place for two reasons. First, it limited the influx of immigrants from Western Europe into America by setting quotas for people from each county.

December 10, 2015

EDITORIAL: A new partnership with Singapore

The Obama government will sign a new military cooperation agreement this week with Singapore, and that's important for several good reasons. It's an upgrading of one of the most important American logistics and surveillance operations. Singapore is essential to the U.S. Navy's forward positions in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

December 10, 2015

EDITORIAL: No room for reason at the White House

On the day the president's Rasputin, Valerie Jarrett, announced that her boss would by executive order require universal background checks for all gun buyers, despite congressional rejection of such a scheme, the White House called any Republican presidential candidate who refuses to denounce Donald Trump as unfit to be president.

December 10, 2015