Opinion Columns
-
Seeing life in the obit pageDec 21, 2011 4:00 am - It is a Monday morning and I begin my day, as I usually do, with the obituaries. This is a particularly rich day — Vaclav Havel, the novelist, playwright and former pres...
-
Too many promises, too little doneDec 21, 2011 4:00 am - President Obama doesn’t suffer from amnesia, but apparently he hopes the public does. In his latest in a series of interviews on “60 Minutes,” the president took positio...
-
Bah humbug? You can swear by itDec 20, 2011 5:00 am - ’Tis the season to be crabby! I’m not kidding — this has turned out to be the grumpiest, most anxiety-ridden holiday season ever. It’s not some perennial “Christmahana...
-
Gingrich’s war on ShariahDec 20, 2011 5:00 am - The epochs of Newt Gingrich’s public life are defined by the books that have revolutionized him — generally of the type that sell well at airports. There is Isaac Asimov...
-
There was just one HitchDec 19, 2011 4:00 am - The Republicans’ final debate preceding the Iowa caucuses suddenly became uncompelling. There was nothing to do but write about Christopher Hitchens, whose death has mad...
-
Welcome home to you too, Mr. PresidentDec 19, 2011 4:00 am - “He finally said something,” the man in the elevator said to no one in particular as he turned away from the little screen that entertains us with traffic, weather and n...
-
A mild victory in South AfricaDec 18, 2011 4:47 am - I’m inclined to believe that the apparent result of the climate change summit in Durban, South Africa, might turn out to be a very big deal. Someday. Maybe. That’s my v...
-
Testing the waters of economic libertyDec 18, 2011 4:47 am - In 1927, seven years before the board game was created, Washington state decided to play monopoly. It gave a private interest the exclusive right to operate a ferry on 5...
-
The ghosts of Sam Hurd's Christmas pastDec 17, 2011 11:00 pm - As Sam Hurd and his friends feasted on 14-ounce prime fillets, and according to authorities discussed 10-kilo deliveries of cocaine, I wonder if a certain pair of memori...
-
The wages of appeasementDec 16, 2011 4:00 am - “Ask Osama bin Laden ... whether I engage in appeasement.” -- Barack Obama, Dec. 8, 2011 Fair enough. Barack Obama didn’t appease Osama bin Laden. He killed him. And fo...