THE WASHINGTON TIMES

EDITORIAL: Fight for the Tea Party nod

Republican Party voters are desperately seeking a principled conservative who can win back the White House. The Nov. 6, 2012, election can't come soon enough for those who want to put an end to Obamacare, trillion-dollar spending sprees and regulatory excess. On Thursday, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson announced he will run for the GOP nod in the currently wide-open contest for the nomination. Mr. Johnson's greatest handicap appears to be that nobody knows who he is.

EDITORIAL: Obama to Christians: Forget you

President Obama delivered official messages for Passover, Ramadan and Diwali. But for Easter? Not so much. The White House came under fire this week for neglecting to issue official statements for either Easter or Good Friday, though Mr. Obama did take time Friday to address Earth Day, a celebration observed by tens of thousands of pagan worshippers of the earth goddess Gaia.

EDITORIAL: The charter kickstarter

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the D.C. School Reform Act's passage. This gives public funding to charter schools and a chance at a good education to thousands of children otherwise doomed to attending notoriously poor D.C. public schools.

EDITORIAL: Government tracks your iPhone, too

Apple drew heat last week after security experts revealed that the iPhone secretly tracks the movements of its users. While this revelation is troubling, it's only half as bad as how different government agencies are already keeping tabs on the public.

EDITORIAL: Global-warming zealots to ban ice makers

Ice makers are the latest target in the left's ongoing war against the conveniences of modern life. Earlier this month, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued a report that may condemn this essential household item to the contraband list that already includes functional light bulbs, toilets, washing machines and showerheads.

EDITORIAL: The peacenik hypocrites

American troops are dying in Afghanistan in record numbers, drone-launched mis-siles are killing more people in Pakistan, American aircraft are carrying out missions over Libya, terrorist detainees are facing military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, and WikiLeaker Pfc. Bradley Manning is allegedly being tortured. Despite all this grist, the antiwar movement in 2011 is a shadow of its Bush-era self. The obvious explanation for this is that there is a Democrat in the White House, and according to a new study, this simple answer is largely correct.

EDITORIAL: Go West, young Barack

EDITORIAL: There, they crucified Him

Pilate took Jesus and had Him scourged. And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on His head, and clothed Him in a purple cloak, and they came to Him and said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck Him repeatedly.

EDITORIAL: The great battle

I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian. Do not indulge the hope that you will escape the usual penalties; indeed, in your better moments, I trust you would hardly even wish to do so. In the meantime, we must make the best of the situation. There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a brief sojourn in the Enemy's camp and are now with us. All the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favor.

EDITORIAL: The hippie holiday

Tomorrow is Good Friday, the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified. More important to many is that it's also Earth Day, the annual gala that's taken on the trappings of a pagan religious holiday. At some level, it's good to celebrate Earth, the source of life and home of humanity. After all, we have to live somewhere. Environmentalists, however, seem divided between those who venerate the planet as a deity and those who think it's so fragile that it must be saved from everyone but themselves.

EDITORIAL: EPA’s faith-based agitprop

The Obama administration is re-embracing faith-based initiatives - with a twist. The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced the formation of a Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships Initiative that will reinvigorate the agency's outreach efforts. Instead of supporting abstinence programs or charitable efforts, the idea is to ensure mosques are illuminated by mercury-filled light bulbs and evacuated by low-flow toilets.

EDITORIAL: The end for Assad

Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad is caving in to demands to reform his dictatorship. In that dark and oppressed part of the world, compromise can only mean that the end is near.

EDITORIAL: Red tape recession

The millions of Americans who struggled over the weekend to complete their tax forms were reminded just how out of control the system has become. In the past decade, there have been more than 3,500 changes that make the tax code more complex and onerous. "One of my favorite statistics is that the tax code is four times as long as 'War and Peace' and only getting longer," IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman told the National Press Club on April 6.

EDITORIAL: Gas prices and the Gulf oil spill

Today, on the one-year anniversary, Americans don't have to travel to the Gulf to witness the lingering effect of the the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It's right there in the numbers on their gas receipts every time they fill up at the pump. As hurtful as the disaster has been to the economic fortunes of the Gulf region, the impact of the Obama administration's response to the spill has been far worse on the nation's economy.

EDITORIAL: Supremes open to greenwashing

Global-warming alarmists have failed to make their case in the court of public opinion, so they're taking their propaganda to the Supreme Court instead. Like many ideological movements that lack political traction, the left is hoping that what politicians have disposed of the judiciary will impose.

EDITORIAL: Investors express no confidence in Obama

Wall Street doesn't believe Washington will get its act together and address the growing debt crisis. Markets tumbled Monday after the Standard & Poor's ratings agency raised a red flag over the deficit, going negative on the outlook for the U.S. economy.

EDITORIAL: China bashes U.S. human-rights record

The Chinese government last week released its annual assessment of what it calls the "Human Rights Record of the United States." The document is a jab at our own State Department's surveys of political freedom and human rights in the Middle Kingdom. Complaints of abuse emanating from a nation that oppresses the people of Tibet, suppresses Christians and mows down political protesters with tanks would be easy to ignore. As hard as it is to say this, China has a point.

EDITORIAL: Obama’s Third World America

President Obama warns Republican policies will turn America into a Third World country. Look who's talking.

EDITORIAL: Repairing FDR’s Ponzi scheme

Social Security is broken, and there's no use pretending otherwise. President Obama sounded Wednesday like he was open to the idea of limited reforms to the New Deal-era's signature entitlement program. "There are those who believe we shouldn't make any reforms to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security," said the president. "But I guarantee that if we don't make any changes at all, we won't be able to keep our commitment to a retiring generation. ..."

EDITORIAL: Red-light cash grab accelerates

The city of Fairfax is about to join Arlington and Falls Church in making its streets far more dangerous. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) on March 28 gave its final blessing to the installation of red-light cameras at a pair of Fairfax intersections where the devices could not possibly result in any significant safety benefit.