THE WASHINGTON TIMES

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Terrorist torture definition is CIA question

The Feinstein hit on the CIA has occasioned a new round of soul-searching ("Democrats define 'politicization' with so-called torture report," Web, Dec. 15). Can we define torture, or is it subjective? Should we apply the Potter Stewart approach to the definition of torture, recalling that the Supreme Court justice acknowledged that he could not define obscenity but knew it when he saw it? It seems that torture, like beauty or obscenity, is in the eye of the beholder, that waterboarding holds water in some quarters but is torture in others.

December 17, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Peru Nazca Lines desecration latest in Greenpeace legacy

Greenpeace's desecration of the World Heritage-designated Nazca Lines in Peru is just the latest appalling offense the ultraradical organization has committed ("Greenpeace's Nazca lines stunt prompts Peru to seek criminal charges," Web, Dec. 11). Greenpeace activists have attempted to storm oil platforms, have destroyed crops and trespassed at nuclear power facilities. While these activists may think they're getting their message out, all they're really doing is disrupting life for the public and now risking doing grave damage to what the United Nations has determined is "a masterpiece of human creative genius."

December 17, 2014

EDITORIAL: Alan Gross free from Cuba, but Obama’s gift betrays victims of Castros

Sen. Marco Rubio calls President Obama's remarkable gift to the Castro brothers, and agreement to "normalize" American relations with Cuba, the work of a "willfully ignorant" man. We hope so. Ignorance can be corrected. Perhaps, to put the most generous face on it, this deal originated in the bowels of White House incompetence that is the mark of this administration. But Mr. Obama may not be ignorant at all, willful or otherwise, but proceeding skillfully to radicalize America's place in the world to fit the wishes and dreams of the determined and radical left from which the president sprang.

December 17, 2014

EDITORIAL: Pakistan Taliban terrorists killed human decency hope everywhere

Human decency died in Pakistan. Islamic extremists wielding weapons of mass hatred had forfeited any shred of respect from decent men and women everywhere, but the massacre of children in Peshawar sets them apart from the merely evil. They are monsters, pure and simple, and any hand of peace should be withdrawn.

December 17, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Protect Yellowstone buffalo from hunting season

We've been given no other choice but to seek Endangered Species Act protection for the Yellowstone buffalo ("Many ideas floated over Yellowstone park bison," Web, Dec. 14). This important action has been taken by the Buffalo Field Campaign and Western Watersheds Project.

December 16, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Black lives matter, even 19.7 million fetal lives

In recent weeks and days, we have seen thousands of people marching the streets carrying signs that read "Black Lives Matter." This has struck me quite profoundly as a Christian believer in the sanctity of life.

December 16, 2014

EDITORIAL: Ted Cruz gives Harry Reid a Senate win on Obama nominees

Ted Cruz is a brave conservative who, unlike some of his fellows, does not quail at the sound of the guns. He sets an example others could emulate. His tenacity, both at the grass roots where he has many friends and in Washington where he seems to have few, gives the conservative coalition a much-needed shot of testosterone in its flabby arm. His stand-up attitude is particularly valuable as Democrats try to figure out who they are and who they want to be in the wake of the thumping they took in November.

December 16, 2014

EDITORIAL: Christmas spirit lost in Europe with commercialism, quiet churches

Someone stole Christmas in Europe, and it wasn't the Grinch. There's something missing, and it isn't just the snow. Shops dependent on tourists are praying, so to speak, that the unseasonably warm weather will give way in time for a white Christmas, but the Continent's secular obsessions have put a chill on the premier Christian holy day. The Christmas spirit in much of the old country is only what you drink.

December 16, 2014

EDITORIAL: D.C. pot law snuffed out in Congress

Not every pinata provision in the spending bill is bad. The Republicans attached a rider to the measure expressing disapproval of the attempt to legalize recreational marijuana. It's a signal of more to come.

December 15, 2014

EDITORIAL: Christmas canceled; children stalked by elves

John and Lisa Henderson of Hurricane, Utah, finally had enough. Their three sons — ages 11, 8 and 5 — seemed ungrateful for their good life. It's a common plaint of parents in a land of plenty that sometimes seems to be the land of too much.

December 15, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Taiwan thanks Congress for sea defense fleet of Perry-class frigates

Kudos to the Senate and the House of Representatives for unanimously passing a bill Dec. 10 that authorizes the sale of four Perry-class frigates to Taiwan.

December 15, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Dianne Feinstein information sharing a liberal double standard

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is sitting in prison for letting out secrets that damaged our nation's safety. National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is living in self-imposed exile in Russia for letting out secrets that damaged our nation's security. Yet Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, is a hero to the liberal news media for letting out secrets that could damage our nation's security and cause harm to Americans here and abroad.

December 15, 2014

EDITORIAL: Hollywood hacking a Sony cyberattack horror story

Liberal hypocrisy in Hollywood? Malice in Tinseltown? Pettiness among the stars? "Say it ain't so, Joe." Oscar Levant, the movietown piano player with a sharp mind and a sharper tongue ("I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin") once offered a hopeful analysis of what's wrong with the town: "Hollywood is made of tinsel, but if you get beneath the tinsel you'll find the real tinsel." The hackers of Sony Pictures took the challenge, and have revealed the details of the malice, pettiness and tinsel in purloined emails, and La-La Land is beside itself with fear, loathing and mortification.

December 14, 2014

EDITORIAL: Republican establishment rigs rules to get its candidate for president

The Republican establishment, which gets so many things wrong, is trying to manipulate the party rules to make sure it gets the presidential candidate it wants in 2016. The party chiefs put it another way, of course: They're just trying to make sure that the party nominates a "respectable" candidate who won't be mortally wounded before it's time to fight Democrats. Some of what Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, wants to put into place makes sense, but many of the suggestions from other quarters don't.

December 14, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Race baiters fan flames against law and order

Are various political and religious radicals in the United States deliberately increasing racial tensions and mistrust in order to convince the poorly informed that they need these radical leaders for protection? I believe so, and I think those willing to remove their politically correct blinders will see the evidence, too.

December 14, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Budget bill, shutdown threat a game for Congress

"Dereliction of duty" and "a pox on both their houses" are the phrases that come to mind in reviewing the most recent actions of tragic comedy in what we call Congress ("Leadership courts centrist support for $1.1T spending bill as shutdown looms," Web, Dec. 10).

December 14, 2014

EDITORIAL: Obama’s IRS faces scrutiny with Republican-led Congress

The corruption of the Internal Revenue Service is still under investigation, but the public has learned a lot already: The IRS targeted conservative and tea party groups for extra scrutiny and harassment, Lois G. Lerner tried to hide behind the Fifth Amendment to avoid prosecution for violating the rights of taxpayers, and the president of the United States assured one and all that there was not even a "smidgen of corruption" at the agency when he knew better.

December 11, 2014

EDITORIAL: Congress’ budget compromise could be worse in form of ‘cromnibus’

Nancy Pelosi is finished as speaker of the House — as in gone, finished, kaput. But the lady's famous assurance that Congress would have to enact Obamacare to see what was in it continues as the guiding spirit of this Congress. The congressional leaders negotiating the "cromnibus" were so determined to avoid a government shutdown that they were determined to let their colleagues be surprised by what they voted for.

December 11, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Iran nuclear cheating calls for more missile defense

Iran is once again showing the world its leaders can't be trusted ("U.S. condemns Iran's detention of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian," Web, Dec. 7). They jail American journalists for no reason. And now they are allegedly cheating on the interim nuclear sanctions agreement that recently extended peace talks.

December 11, 2014

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Al Sharpton, Eric Holder, Louis Farrakhan set back race relations progress

White Americans send their white children to black educators, get pulled over by black police officers, go in front of black judges, go under the knives of black doctors, admire black entertainers and sports professionals, and interact with black members of the American family in myriad other ways on a daily basis. The American civil rights movement saw massive, sweeping legislative victories on our soil, yet men such as Attorney Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan behave as if all this has not taken place, and they circumvent the idea of peace and cooperation between the races (as does the first black president). The onus is on black leadership in America to honor these legislative victories and extol their virtues rather than ignore them and foment racial strife, angst and division, thus doing real harm to race relations.

December 11, 2014