THE WASHINGTON TIMES

EDITORIAL: Detroit police chief wants citizens to arm themselves

Motor City has become Murder City. With 333 homicides of all kinds last year, Detroit tops the list of major cities under siege by violent criminals. The man with the nation's most thankless job, Detroit Police Chief James E. Craig, shocked the establishment when he said last week that he thinks the solution to Motown's crime is more guns.

January 6, 2014

VIDEO: Emily Miller debates D.C.’s gun reregistation law on Fox News ‘Huckabee’

Fox News' Mike Huckabee interviewed Emily Miller about her column criticizing Washington, D.C. for forcing law-abiding gun owners to reregister their guns in 2014.

January 6, 2014

EDITORIAL: Cronyism by corn

The new year brings bad tidings to corn. The Midwestern states have been harvesting bushels of cash from the 2007 congressional directive requiring gasoline refineries to adulterate the fuel with corn, but the good times may soon end. This reform is possible now that certain liberal dreamers acknowledge that the scheme serves neither an economic nor environmental purpose.

January 5, 2014

EDITORIAL: The folly of taxing the rich

Soaking the rich might make some people feel good, but going after "the rich" impoverishes everyone. The French never learned that lesson from their 18th-century outburst of envy that created widespread shortages and famine, and three centuries later, they have traded the guillotine for income confiscation. France's constitutional court last week approved the government taking 75 percent of the income of millionaires at the request of President Francois Hollande. Keeping his campaign promise will damage a fragile economy and hurt the poor most of all.

January 5, 2014

EDITORIAL: Doing nothing constructively

It was so cold when Congress came back to town Friday to tidy up loose ends and close the first session of the 113th Congress that Democrats for once had to keep their hands in their own pockets. Keeping a congressman's hands off your wallet, even if for only a day, is a good and rare thing. That's why complaints that the 113th Congress is among the least "productive" ever miss the point.

January 5, 2014

EDITORIAL: No more dead parrots

Australian global-warming enthusiasts, enthralled by their own hype, expected their summertime trip to the South Pole to be a breeze. They've been insisting for years that man is overheating the planet, the polar ice caps are melting, and penguins in the south and polar bears in the north would soon die of heat prostration. What a Christmas Eve surprise for the 52 passengers aboard the MV Akademik Shokalskiy. Their ship became trapped by ice that clearly wasn't melting. The ship remains stuck, perhaps permanently, but a rescue helicopter carried the researchers to safety.

January 2, 2014

EDITORIAL: Expanding government snoopery

A nosy neighbor, gossip or voyeur looking for a job can look beyond a career at the National Security Agency. The federal government offers a wealth of opportunities for reading other people's mail. We've come a long way from the other extreme of foolishness, when a Cabinet officer once shut down a code-breaking program because "gentlemen don't read each other's mail."

January 2, 2014

EDITORIAL: Justice Sotomayor’s temporary reprieve

Now that Obamacare has gone live, more people than ever are running in horror from President Obama's health care disaster. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Mr. Obama's first pick for the high court, had no choice but to block enforcement of the health care law's requirement that religious groups, whether they want to or not, must subsidize abortions, sterilization and contraceptive devices.

January 2, 2014

EDITORIAL: He tossed $8.2 million into the trash

For a man with a fetish for keeping things tidy, James Howells, 28, is a reckless man when he's in the mood to clean out drawers and cabinets. Mr. Howells, a Welshman, is a "bitcoin miner" who lost bitcoins worth $8 million tucked away in his laptop computer.

January 1, 2014

EDITORIAL: A resolution for the government

The tradition of making a New Year's resolution to lose weight, kick the smoking habit or exercise more shouldn't be limited to mere men and women keen on self-improvement. Now more than ever, the government should resolve to slim down and become more effective — and less annoying. Such a resolution would require lawmakers to show restraint before proposing a new rule.

January 1, 2014

EDITORIAL: Hypocrisy on the White House menu

Some people can't resist telling other people what to eat. There's no room on the menu for trans fats. No salt, no sodas. Milkshakes are out, arugula is in. With everything that tastes good erased from the menu, the government's cafeterias set tables with food blander than ever, but you wouldn't know it at the White House mess.

January 1, 2014

EDITORIAL: A hope for the new year

The year 2013 ends with higher taxes, more spending and a stagnant economy. The promise of "hope and change" remains as elusive as ever and likely will stay that way until voters give Washington new marching orders in the 2014 midterm elections.

December 30, 2013

EDITORIAL: Eric Holder’s knockout game

Justice is anything but blind at the agency run by Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. For weeks, the Justice Department refused to acknowledge the existence of the "knockout game" everyone was talking about. The object of the knockout game is to randomly assault a stranger on the street and render him unconscious with a single punch. The knockouts appear to carry extra "street cred" if captured on a cellphone and the video is posted online.

December 30, 2013

EDITORIAL: Showdown in Seattle

Even a financial whiz with the skills of Warren Buffett couldn't have kept Detroit or Stockton, Calif., from bankruptcy. Public-sector unions have been living large at the public's expense through absurdly generous retirement schemes.

December 30, 2013

EDITORIAL: Another sore loser

Some Virginia Republicans have perfected the art and science of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. With control of the state Senate up for the taking in a special election on Jan. 21, Joe T. May is running as an independent for an open state Senate seat, which almost certainly ensures that Democrats will win.

December 29, 2013

EDITORIAL: A hero for our times

The nation lost an unlikely and mostly unsung hero with the death on Christmas Eve of Walter Oi. Armed with keen insight of the sort that has almost entirely vanished from Washington, this University of Rochester economist was instrumental in demonstrating the superiority of a voluntary military force over a conscripted one.

December 29, 2013

EDITORIAL: Cash in the water

The sharks are circling in the Gulf of Mexico. A federal judge on Christmas Eve delivered a ruling that puts BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, at the mercy of anyone who claims he or she lost business as a result of the infamous 2010 oil spill. Even hookers are getting a piece of the action.

December 29, 2013

EDITORIAL: Frightened by debate

Liberals can't stand competition. From their comfortable lofts in ivy-covered towers, left-wing professors sneer at free-market philanthropists eager for a role in the support of higher education. Several disgruntled professors are hectoring the administrators of the Catholic University of America to send back generous donations of $1 million from the Charles Koch Foundation and $500,000 from the Busch Family Foundation. So far, the school is standing firm.

December 26, 2013

EDITORIAL: Diplomatic welfare

Ambassadors get many perks. Diplomatic immunity is a convenient way to avoid traffic tickets. They often live in grand houses and pay neither rent nor American taxes. Some embassies throw great parties, and motorcades can cut through rush-hour traffic. Certain diplomats get another gift from American taxpayers: They're on welfare right here.

December 26, 2013

EDITORIAL: When other words fail

Civility is a lot like the weather. Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. Just now there's lots of talk about proper language in the British Parliament, where they're fussy about words. Well, why not?

December 26, 2013