Op-Ed Columns
Learning old lessons
Barack Obama is back from Asia and his bow to the Japanese, his handshake with the tyrant from Myanmar and his difficult sessions with the Chinese. There sure has been a lot of talk about the president and his submissiveness in Asia. (Updated: 11/21/09 6:44 AM )
Sammy Sosa, a whiter shade of male
Dear Sammy Sosa: (Updated: 11/21/09 6:44 AM )
Travesty in New York
WASHINGTON—For late-19th-century anarchists, terrorism was the “propaganda of the deed.” And the most successful propaganda-by-deed in history was 9/11 — not just the most destructive, but the most spectacular and telegenic. (Updated: 11/21/09 6:44 AM )
Trudy Rubin: Afghans await a sign of support
KABUL, Afghanistan—The residents of the Afghan capital, both native and foreign, are waiting for President Obama — to make up his mind. (Updated: 11/20/09 8:52 AM )
Froma Harrop: Civic price of courting corporations
Amtrak riders passing through New London, Conn., can catch an odd sight in an otherwise picturesque New England setting: a fancy corporate center standing next to a street grid emptied of nearly all its buildings. This used to be the Fort Trumbull neighborhood, a working class enclave that would have been largely forgotten had it not been central to a controversial 2005 U. S. Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain — the government’s right to take private property for public use. (Updated: 11/20/09 8:53 AM )
David Broder: Picking a fight is GOP tradition
WASHINGTON—For Sarah Palin, with her personality and history, to tell Rush Limbaugh that Republicans should welcome primary fights within their own ranks is hardly surprising. (Updated: 11/20/09 8:53 AM )
Fighting a coercion clause
PHOENIX — In 2006, long before there was an Obama administration determined to impose a command-and-control federal health care system, a young orthopedic surgeon walked into the Goldwater Institute here with an idea. The institute, America’s most potent advocate of limited government, embraced Eric Novack’s idea for protecting Arizonans from health care coercion. (Updated: 11/19/09 7:06 AM )
Overseas, Obama gives people hope
“So how do you think Obama is doing?” (Updated: 11/19/09 7:06 AM )
Bypassing the Karzai problem
MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan — Is there any way to get around Afghan President Hamid Karzai? (Updated: 11/19/09 7:06 AM )
Robert Samuelson: Obama’s malpractice
WASHINGTON — There is an air of absurdity to what is mistakenly called “health care reform.” Everyone knows that the United States faces massive governmental budget deficits as far as calculators can project, driven heavily by an aging population and uncontrolled health costs. Recovering slowly from a devastating recession, it’s widely agreed that, though deficits should not be cut abruptly (lest the economy resume its slump), a prudent society would embark on long-term policies to control health costs, reduce government spending and curb massive future deficits. (Updated: 11/18/09 10:54 AM )
Clarence Page: Truth vs. PC at Fort Hood
I admit it. As the early horrifying news of the Fort Hood massacre unfolded and I was jerked alert by the word that the suspect was a Muslim, a thought-prayer suddenly flashed across my mind: Oh, please don’t let him be black. (Updated: 11/18/09 10:55 AM )
Susan Estrich: Do you recognize your president?
There’s an old saying that hard cases make bad law. The same rule, unfortunately, applies to presidential decisions. (Updated: 11/18/09 10:56 AM )
Leonard Pitts: Pausing amid life’s uncertainties
They killed a killer last week. (Updated: 11/17/09 1:33 PM )
E. J. Dionne: Government needs a civilian ROTC
WASHINGTON — Imagine a time when government work was exciting, widely admired, and much sought after. (Updated: 11/17/09 1:33 PM )
Kathleen Parker: Making civility interesting
WASHINGTON — Growing concern about incivility is one of America’s more appealing trends. Increasingly, individuals and institutions are seeking ways to burnish the Golden Rule. (Updated: 11/17/09 1:34 PM )