THE WASHINGTON TIMES

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Pamela Geller leading the charge

Pamela Geller, who is president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, took the leading role in sponsoring the recent exhibit which displayed in a contest caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Such caricatures are prohibited in Islam and on several instances radicals of the Islamic faith have murdered those who have created and displayed such depictions. Ms. Geller's organization has been labeled a "hate group" by the liberal-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center.

May 5, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Democrats punish fortunate for success

Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont independent, will contest for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination as an unabashed class warrior. He will rail against the wealthy, notwithstanding that the majority of Americans, including those who pay no income tax at all, are opposed to punishing financial success by taxing income at confiscatory rates. Mr. Sanders is the leader of our progressive friends who insist on venting their enmity against the acquisition of wealth as if it were somehow un-American. I'm waiting for them to take on the Clintons on that score.

May 5, 2015

Financial and Legal Issues

Military and veteran caregivers who contributed to the Elizabeth Dole Foundation's RAND study acknowledge that long-term financial planning has been a complex and often overwhelming responsibility. The consequences of not planning ahead can be severe, but thinking through their futures forces caregivers to confront difficult and unknown possibilities.

May 4, 2015

Wounded Warrior Caregiving Hero: Meet Ora Freeman

Ora Freeman has served as the caregiver for her husband, Harold Freeman, Jr. (Butch), for more than ten years.

May 4, 2015

EDITORIAL: In Baltimore, armed with ignorance

The reputation of the police in Baltimore has taken a beating in the wake of the rioting. Six policemen have been charged with crimes, though it is important to remember that they are charged — not indicted, and not yet convicted of anything. Nevertheless, some people with nothing better to do are eager to dispatch the Word Police to make further arrests.

May 4, 2015

EDITORIAL: North Korea collapse leaves uncertain hand on nuclear weapons

The world's attention is focused on the chaos of the Middle East, but a time bomb is ticking in northeast Asia. Mysterious, heavily armed North Korea is a threat that at the moment seems out of sight, but it cannot be out of mind.

May 4, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Hillary Clinton, Lois Lerner apologize? Hardly

Hillary Clinton and Lois Lerner must have attended the same school of political etiquette and situational ethics ("IRS still targeting tea party," Page I, May 1). Deleted e-mails, the modern equivalent of dragging a branch to erase footprints in the dust, has ill-served both women because modern technology can follow their nefarious tracks.

May 4, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Floyd Mayweather should donate funds

There's no doubt that Floyd Mayweather fought a great fight last weekend, but some of the best fights can be fought without pay-per-view. It's obvious Mr. Mayweather has an image problem.

May 4, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Root of Baltimore’s problems

How can a city that once served as the U.S. capital and was the backdrop inspiration of our national anthem dissolve into riots ("How to run a great city into the ground," Web, May 4)? Baltimore boasts the 11th busiest port in the United States and the 22nd busiest airport, and it is home to very successful Major League Baseball and National Football League teams. It has the showcase Inner Harbor with all its trappings to entertain tourists, visitors and residents. I can only imagine that countless U.S. cities would be giddy with these economic attributes. So what's not to like? I can only point to the failed school system as the root of the problem.

May 4, 2015

Wounded Warrior Caregiving Hero: Meet Ariana Del Negro

Ariana Del Negro is wife and caregiver to her husband, Char Gatlin, a retired Army Infantry Captain who was wounded in 2006 by a vehicle-borne IED while dismounted in Iraq.

May 3, 2015

EDITORIAL: Scottish voters hold key to British elections

Voters in Britain go to the polls again next week, and our correspondents say the race is too close to call. Scotland, which rejected independence in a bitterly fought referendum only six months ago, may hold the key to whether the Labor Party replaces the Conservatives to govern the United Kingdom.

May 3, 2015

EDITORIAL: FDA attempts to regulate premium cigars

The only surviving trace of Thomas Riley Marshall, the vice president of the United States under Woodrow Wilson, is his observation that "what this country really needs is a good five-cent cigar." A nickel of 1916 would buy a lot more tobacco than a nickel would buy in 2015, but a cigar would still be a stogie. The bureaucrats at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who never let opportunity to nag and scold go to waste, are eagerly plotting to seize cigars of any price.

May 3, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Want change? Vote it in

I am a white, non-racist male. One of my closest friends and next-door neighbor, a black man who was a retired Army lieutenant colonel, a successful, good father and a contributor to our community, passed away last month as the result of a massive stroke. It was one of those "sad-but-glad" events in life: I was selfishly sad that a close friend had passed, but it was a good day because I knew his devout Christian faith would lead him onward.

May 3, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Cinco de Mayo no excuse for immorality

"Cinco de Mayo" is Spanish for "Fifth of May." The date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's victory over French forces at the battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It has nothing to do with the United States, but everything to do with Mexico. However, there are some Americans who use Cinco de Mayo as an excuse to become intoxicated and rowdy.

May 3, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Recent killings by police not so clear-cut

The problem with people demonstrating against the deaths, often at the hands of whites in positions of authority, of Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and other black men is that the protesters jump to often-erroneous conclusions before all the facts are in ("Freddie Gray was intentionally trying to injure himself, witness says," Web, April 29). Even many of their slogans, such as "Hands up, don't shoot," have proven to be faulty.

April 30, 2015

EDITORIAL: China cracks down on its spitting natives traveling abroad

In times more innocent than these, Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer wrote a best-seller, "The Ugly American," circa 1958, about a well-meaning American bureaucrat who set out to repeat the success of the Marshall Plan in what were accurately called, with no intention of hurting anyone's feelings, "the undeveloped countries." Good intentions were not enough. The new plan didn't work, foiled by hubris and pretension in the new class of American bureaucrats. The unattractive hero understood, but couldn't turn the tide. He was dismissed as "the Ugly American" of his book.

April 30, 2015

EDITORIAL: Iran moves to dominate Middle East

The cat and mouse game playing out in the waters of the Middle East has profound consequences, not only for the United States, but for the rest of the world. It's part of the clash of civilizations, whether the West likes it or not — the mullahs in Tehran against the Katzenjammer Kids in the White House. It's not yet clear who's the cat, and who's the mouse, but the mullahs think they know.

April 30, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Food fads, not fat, unhealthy

There is no doubt that "non-GMO" has become an advertising campaign. Lumping GMO technology into the "all-bad" bucket is just as much a scientific mistake as lumping fat, saturated fat, cholesterol or salt into this same bucket and then designing food products based on those exaggerated falsehoods.

April 30, 2015

EDITORIAL: Fracking is America’s energy miracle

You wouldn't know it from all the hot air from the government, but American entrepreneurs, with little help from Washington, have ignited a worldwide energy revolution. They have done it despite of the efforts of the ideologues who prescribe an altogether different energy strategy.

April 29, 2015

EDITORIAL: Collapse of black culture in Baltimore

Barack Obama is a symbol of black pride, and why wouldn't he be? He was elected president of the United States twice. But as a president who has not done very much for black America, he has been a disaster. The riots that have ripped through Baltimore in recent days are more an indictment of his willfully failed leadership than as a marker of the state of race relations in the United States.

April 29, 2015