THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Tempting the wrath of wildfires

Most Americans are familiar with TV's Smokey Bear, shovel in paw, warning, "Only you can prevent wildfires." No disrespect is meant to the nation's furry and fretful friend, but the evidence mounts that, despite the government's best efforts, we can't halt the conflagrations.

August 1, 2021

‘Investigation’ never meant to be fair

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had it all pre-planned when it came to the involvement of federal agencies and the U.S. Capitol Police. On Jan. 6 there was a legal rally in Washington to protest the massive voting fraud that took place in the 2020 presidential election. There was going to be a call for the Electoral College to take corrective action. As I understand it, Pelosi, in anticipation of this, diverted attention by planting in the crowd federal agents who helped incite a rush on the Capitol.

July 29, 2021

Hearing or criminal trial?

The July 27 hearing of the House's Jan. 6 committee was a disgrace ("Jan. 6 hearing opens as police detail violence, injuries," Web, July 27). It was partisan fare, not non-partisan fair.

July 29, 2021

Welfare by any other name

While growing up, I had neighbors who participated in programs similar to a guaranteed-income payment plan, only it was called a "welfare check" and it had few requirements or restrictions. I don't recall ever hearing anybody say they had been lifted out of the low-income category by participating. So it's shocking to me that the current public officials want to bring back a program that was determined to be so ineffective ("L.A. considers guaranteed income plan as more Democratic cities offer no-strings cash," Web, July 26).

July 29, 2021

Vote No on infrastructure (and reconciliation)

Senate Republicans must vote no on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal.

July 29, 2021

Hearing on Jan. 6 a circus

The House hearing on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is another divisive, partisan, Democrat-led action. Like the two Democratic impeachment efforts to remove President Donald Trump, where the president himself and Republican defense were denied documents and witnesses and Democrats had secret sessions, the Republicans were not allowed to choose their representatives for the hearings.

July 28, 2021

Weapon or harmless virus?

There are a few questionable components to "New wave of COVID-19 is not the fault of the unvaccinated" (Web, July 27). First, Mr. Root's thesis is that President Biden and other officials in the U.S. government are targeting unvaccinated Americans and blaming them completely for the new outbreak of COVID-19 and the delta variant. While I don't necessarily think this is happening, I agree that we should not single out a group of people and blame them for everything going on with the pandemic right now. But not two paragraphs later in the piece, Mr. Root groups all Chinese people together and blames the entire pandemic on them, calling the entire country of China mass murderers and urging readers to never forget or forgive. This is highly hypocritical.

July 28, 2021

Kudos to Biles

My wholehearted prayers and support go out to a true champion of all time, 24-year-old Simone Biles ("Olympic champ Biles withdraws from all-around competition," Web, July 28). I commend Simone Biles for fighting the forward fight for her mental health.

July 28, 2021

Nancy Pelosi’s kangaroo court

Americans deserve to know what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The chances they will find out from the work of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's biased congressional committee, though, are slimmer than the Democrats' House majority.

July 28, 2021

Let merit determine success

Of special interest to me in Michael McKenna's "The importance of education in the Virginia governor's race" (Web, July 25) and Robert Knight's "NFL salutes woke culture" (Web, July 23) were the included statistics. These clearly suggest that when merit is the basis for participation and/or advancement in a particular endeavor, enforcement of some preconceived notion to achieve racial equity is unnecessary.

July 27, 2021

Cash no longer king?

I aws taken aback recently when I visited a Charlotte, North Carolina, Smashburger. Taped to the restaurant's point-of-sale terminals were signs indicating that cashiers would only accept credit and debit cards as forms of payment. No greenbacks and/or coins allowed.

July 27, 2021

‘Wrong direction,’ indeed

The U.S. is surely headed in the wrong direction ("Dr. Fauci says U.S. headed in the 'wrong direction' on coronavirus," Web, July 25). But it has nothing to do with the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.

July 27, 2021

Narcissus in Paradise: Minding your manners in ‘selfie’ America

The desperate quest for fame brings out the worst in people, especially on Internet websites such as Instagram. Stories of young, fame-sick people falling from cliff-tops in search of that perfect "selfie" are particularly tragic.

July 27, 2021

Were votes legal to begin with?

"Maricopa County launches 'JustTheFacts' website to combat Trump's stolen election claims" (Web, July 23) states that Maricopa County officials "point out that a hand account of a statistical sample of ballots matched the final vote tally and that an independent audit of the county's voting machines and software found nothing wrong." This does not address the matter of whether all voters who voted did so legally. What about the sworn affidavits in several battleground states about mail-in ballots that did not have any creases from being folded? Was this also an issue in Arizona? Would the sample used be enough to uncover whether the same ballots were run through a machine multiple times?

July 26, 2021

Hoping Pelosi’s arson is at end

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a proud political arsonist -- as long as the fire serves as a partisan political device ("Pelosi pledges to hold up infrastructure bill, as Portman says Senate is nearing a deal," Web, July 25). She assembles Republican kindling by disdaining bipartisan appeals on a standalone infrastructure bill; spreads accelerant by claiming that physical infrastructure must be supplemented by trillions in human infrastructure; lights the fuse with loud protestations against reasonable legislation and then dances amidst charred Republican remains.

July 26, 2021

Allowing sunburn is child abuse

While relaxing with our family on a Florida Panhandle beach recently, my wife and I observed a large family set up about two car lengths away from our canopy. Shortly thereafter, I walked over and asked the young man holding the baby if he would like to lay his baby under our shade. In heavily accented English he said kindly, "Thanks, but no." We continued to watch the seemingly sunblock-less young baby redden.

July 26, 2021

Climate hyperbolists are finding the pandemic stole their thunder

Americans are not naturally inclined to peer out the window in the morning to see if the sky is falling.

July 26, 2021

Not much ‘relief’ to celebrate

'Bolshevik Bernie' was responsible for the CARES Act that Trump signed in 2020. So people are getting paid not to work. That's the good news. The bad news? They're being paid with phony money.

July 25, 2021

Religious observance can aid excellence

Elie Kligman and Jacob Steinmetz should stand proud atop the pitcher's mound and the history books ("Two Orthodox Jewish pitching prospects juggle baseball, religion,"Web, July 19). As their stories underscore, commitment to personal faith and professional pursuits ought never be considered mutually exclusive propositions. What's more, Steinmetz's father traces the discipline responsible for his son's success on the baseball diamond to the young man's relationship with religion. Kligman's versatility as a pitcher-catcher, meanwhile, is rooted in his observance of Shabbat "as catchers are generally given a day off due to the demands of the position."

July 25, 2021

ID already frequently required

I recently located a chart online listing over 60 places/times when a valid personal ID is required. Examples include renting a car, purchasing a car, making bank transactions, obtaining a passport, visiting a doctor or hospital, getting a prescription, securing a job, applying for welfare and applying for unemployment.

July 25, 2021