THE WASHINGTON TIMES

EDITORIAL: Obesity, global warming and a weight loss tax

This season the two things the nanny state fears most are global warming and obesity. However, a study published in the British Medical Journal puts panicky progressives — as liberals now want to be called — between a rock and a hard place.

December 25, 2014

EDITORIAL: Keystone pipeline approval long overdue in weak economy

America's 629,000 unemployed construction workers face a grim new year. The recession brutalized their sector of the economy, and the recovery remains weak and uncertain. President Obama could help these struggling Americans — as well as the rest of us — by approving the Keystone XL pipeline.

December 25, 2014

EDITORIAL: George H.W. Bush, a hero, hospitalized

A man who jumps out of an airplane at 90, just for the fun of it, is a man to inspire the Walter Mitty in all of us earthbound creatures. George H.W. Bush has been an inspiration and an example since he put on his country's uniform after Pearl Harbor and went cheerfully off to war.

December 24, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Eric Holder race policy sets back decades of progress

I agree with Rob Arnold's assessment that Eric Holder and this administration have set back race relations by decades ("Al Sharpton, Eric Holder, Louis Farrakhan set back race relations progress," Web, Dec. 11). In my 65 years as a white male, I have seen a major leap forward in racial harmony among all races. Interracial marriages were virtually unheard of when I was a teenager in southeastern Pennsylvania in the 1960s. Today, such a thing is not only common but is accepted by most people, regardless of race, ethnicity or cultural background.

December 23, 2014

EDITORIAL: Dwight Eisenhower’s Christmas Eve prayer to Prince of Peace

My Fellow Americans - here in Washington, in your homes across the nation and abroad - and in our country's service around the world:

December 23, 2014

EDITORIAL: ‘Christmas Bells’ poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas DayTheir old, familiar carols play, And wild and sweet The words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

December 23, 2014

EDITORIAL: First Christmas story, from Gospel of Matthew

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him."

December 23, 2014

EDITORIAL: Becket Fund Scrooge award this Christmas goes to Sioux Falls, South Dakota

As predictable as tinsel and toys, the Christmas season brings forth a sackful of holiday haters with their vows of folly. These modern-day Ebenezer Scrooges find endless ways to pronounce, "Bah, humbug," but like Charles Dickens' quintessential character, they are no match for the Christmas spirit. Giving has a way of warming the uncharitable.

December 22, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Al Sharpton, Eric Holder, Bill de Blasio share blame in N.Y. police killings

There is a huge pushback against statements of the many who have assigned New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Attorney Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and even President Obama with culpability in the deaths of two New York police officers ("Al Sharpton says he's the victim, plays audio of death threat during press conference," Web, Dec. 21).

December 22, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: KKK, other violent radicals on Democratic left

For a Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz is quite misguided indeed ("Frat house vandals use 'argument the terrorists make,' Dershowitz warns," Web, Dec. 21). Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan extended into almost every Southern state and by 1870 became a vehicle for white Southern resistance to the Republican Party's Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. KKK members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders.

December 22, 2014

EDITORIAL: Larry Hogan, next Maryland governor, inherits financial mess of Martin O’Malley

Larry Hogan, the incoming Republican governor of Maryland who understands the value of a nickel (and dollars counted in the billions) will inherit some expensive baggage when he takes the oath on Jan. 19. It's the state budget, including a $1.2 billion deficit, the price of expensive goodies from the eight years that Martin O'Malley was the governor and the CEO of the state.

December 22, 2014

EDITORIAL: New technology preserves property rights

The key to economic growth isn't culture, access to the just exploitation of natural resources or even religion. Property rights trump all. The recognition and respect for property rights, and the expansion of property rights to the poor and unprivileged, is crucial to improving the living standard in developing countries.

December 21, 2014

EDITORIAL: Sony Pictures ‘The Interview’ terrorist debacle

Terrorists can only defeat America if Americans let themselves be terrorized. With an otherwise meaningless movie in play — wit and humor at the level of "The Three Stooges" — the terrorists have won. Well, Hollywood was built on hyperbole like that. It's important to keep in mind, however, that America was not a combatant in this war, though it took collateral damage.

December 21, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Effect change, don’t loot and riot

As a second-generation law enforcement officer on total, permanent disability from a combination of war wounds received in Vietnam and job-related injuries, I believe there has been a serious injustice perpetrated against the police of this country by our president and his cohort, Attorney General Eric Holder.

December 21, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Christmas not especially Christian?

Every year as Christmas approaches we see the same two teams going at it again. Quite frankly it is getting a little old. Anti-religious zealots often go too far trying to expunge Jesus and nativity scenes from the public square. People have been so cowed into saying "Season's greetings" and "Happy holidays" and avoiding "Merry Christmas" at all costs that we now have some people saying "Happy holidays" at Thanksgiving time, as if "Happy Thanksgiving" would offend anyone. "Season's greetings" is as vacuous as wishing someone a "Happy Wednesday." Personally, I have never cared whether someone wished me a happy anything. My true happiness does not depend on it.

December 21, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Obama thaws Cuba, but Vladimir Putin still Cold War KGB

Vladimir Putin was born Oct. 7, 1952. He joined the KGB in 1975 after graduating from the International Law branch of the Law Department of the Leningrad State University. Mr. Putin remembers the Cold War.

December 18, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: IRS on FOIA lawsuit

There are a number of news accounts that incorrectly identify the Internal Revenue Service as being involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit with Cause of Action (D.C. District Court Civil Action No. 1:13-cv-01225-ABJ). That lawsuit involves the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) and its investigations, not the IRS.

December 18, 2014

EDITORIAL: Prisoner sex change overturned by appeals court in Massachusetts

In a rare triumph this week for judicial restraint, a federal appeals court in Boston overturned a lower-court ruling, telling the state of Massachusetts that it doesn't have to pay for reassigning a prisoner's sex — or "gender," as the excessively delicate insist. (Nobody ever called Marilyn Monroe a genderpot.)

December 18, 2014

EDITORIAL: Andrew Cuomo rejects fracking and New York economic opportunity

New York just gave Vladimir Putin and the Middle Eastern energy sheikhs an early Christmas present. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, after considerable dithering, finally did what everyone assumed he would. He banned fracking and gave up the bounty lying beneath his state. He sides with the radical environmentalists of the Democratic Party against the interests of his 19 million constituents, wasting an opportunity to fire up the rusty economic engine of high-tax, slow-growth New York. So much for the Empire State's boastful claim that "New York is open for business."

December 18, 2014

Reports: Nationals trade Steven Souza to Tampa Bay as part of three-team deal

Souza, the outfielder best-known for his over-the-shoulder catch that provided the final out of Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter on Sept. 28, will be traded to Tampa Bay with the Nationals obtaining a pair of prospects from San Diego in return, according to multiple reports.

December 17, 2014