Editorial Cartoons of the Week
Will life after COVID-19 be normal?
Normal isn’t government permitting us to exercise our liberty. Normal means that we needn’t seek the government’s permission to exercise our liberty.
The grass is always greener where the dog drags you
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was walking back to our stairwell apartment from dropping my daughter off at Patch Barracks Elementary School, minding my own business along Florida Strasse with our labradoodle, Dinghy.
Suddenly, Dinghy spotted a hare munching grass in General So-and-so’s backyard.
OPINION
Why traumatized people have a need to run for office
The politicians I knew might have been Boy Scouts under the public gaze, but in private they were more like Lost Boys. After observing them up close for years and writing two books about them, I came to see patterns in their personal histories.
OPINION
Lincoln Project’s schemes familiar to its adversaries
Fleecing the poor, the elderly, the ignorant and the vulnerable for personal profit is a time-honored tradition for various swamp creatures. It’s also how certain “prosperity preacher” televangelists and evangelists have operated for years, as they accumulated jets, mansions and bursting bank accounts.
OPINION
Apply lessons from abroad to improve US democracy
Most Americans — including most local and state officials and their staff — lack practical knowledge about democratic innovation. We can gain some democratic inspiration and practical knowledge by taking a look at innovations in other countries. Particularly at the local and state or provincial levels, there are many lessons to learn.
What I found while losing my mind
“Mom, do we have any photos of me and Dad when he came home from deployment?” our daughter asked, unwittingly sending me on a harrowing, epic journey through the storage spaces of our home.
OPINION
Biden’s 1st military strike should wake up Iran
The president has already pulled the U.S. back from the aggressive posture Trump adopted toward the Islamic Republic. But they can no longer believe that Biden will be as complaisant as Obama.
OPINION
Baker, Panetta climbed that Hill for a worthy goal
If you’d been in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s hearing room Wednesday you’d have realized that you were watching and listening to decades of Washington’s most famous titled newsmakers who were so eager to help they were virtually speaking at once.
OPINION
How to end a very long war
President Joe Biden's path toward ending a war that began three presidents ago has grown more difficult.
OPINION
New Space Age hampered by old technology
While recent space missions hold great promises and will prove transformative, we unfortunately lack the adequate deep-space propulsion capacity capable of carrying equipment and people reliably to the Moon, to Mars and beyond.
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Don't throw the honorable out with the bathwater
Recently, the reputation of the military has been tarnished by Capitol riot reports indicating that a significant number of those arrested have served. Although extremism in the ranks is not a new problem, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin saw the riot as a “wake-up call.” On Feb. 3, Austin ordered a 60-day stand-down for all military commanders to meet with troops to discuss racism and extremism.
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OPINION
Japanese public needs to know SDF to appreciate it
Given the threats facing Japan, it may benefit the Japanese public to better understand the value of the SDF as an armed force and the military cooperation that takes place with the United States.
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Weird habits picked up during pandemic monotony
“Honey,” my retired Navy husband woke me this morning with a steaming cup of coffee — a sweet routine he started since he began working from home last March — “I just transferred money into your account because you’re twenty bucks in the red. Now, I know you had to buy Anna’s birthday gifts and groceries, so it’s no big deal, but please … just don’t buy any more stock, okay?”
Busted.
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OPINION
Guide vets as they use benefits they earned
We hope that policymakers will work together to defend veterans’ earned benefits and protect their college options and that the VA will improve the Transition Assistance Program.
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Military spouses' best-kept secret
This morning, I peered at my baggy, bloodshot eyes in the bathroom mirror. It had been a rough night. Thanks to wild fluctuations in my hormones, my hair was a rat's nest of sweaty tangles. I tossed two Tylenol down my gullet, hoping to relieve a crick in my neck from tossing and turning, and headache pangs from grinding my teeth.
“Today’s gonna suck,” I admitted to myself with a defeated sigh.
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OPINION
Get tough with, but also work with, the Taliban
As President Joe Biden takes office, he will find an old dossier on his desk, and he’ll have to decide what to do about it. It’s the Afghanistan case, and it could become his first foreign policy crisis.
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Learning to lose now in order to win in the long run
This month, we all bore witness to the horrific extremes that some people will go to in order to avoid losing. Although no one wants to fail, the vast majority of us won’t turn to insurrection, violent assault or malicious destruction of property to win.
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Are we on the cusp of another UFO craze?
I dug my slippered heels into our shag carpet and bore deeper into my lime-green vinyl bean bag chair, thoroughly terrified but unable to avert my widened eyes from our console television. The riveting hypnosis scene from the 1975 television movie “The UFO Incident” starring James Earl Jones was imprinting itself permanently into my impressionable 11-year-old brain.
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Faithful friends: The same 10 pounds
Like many Americans, I resolve to lose weight every New Year. The semantics of my annual pledges may vary — “get fit,” “eat healthy,” “fit into my jeans and still be able to breathe” — and my success rate has been highly unstable. But my motivation is always the same: Rid myself of that stubborn 10 pounds of flab that has haunted me since my mid-20s.
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Sidling up to my studly ShopVac
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I love my ShopVac. Typically, my love affair with this handy appliance is most intimate during the post-holiday cleanup.
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Will it be the rack, or the rocking chair?
“My lower back started hurting again,” I told my new primary care doctor at the base clinic, who appeared to be about 12 years old. My last PCM was also female, but a little closer to my age. The one before that was a nurse practitioner, and the three before that were middle-aged men.
Each time the Navy assigns me a new PCM, which happens frequently, I have to explain myself all over again.
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Holiday head-to-head shows need for normalcy
“Lilly, wake up!” I whisper-yelled to my sleeping daughter, who looked as if she’d slipped into a coma overnight, “It’s seven-thirty! We’re leaving for the Christmas Fair in thirty minutes!” Lilly emitted a deep groan, clearly indicating that she’d forgotten the plan that we’d forged the night before: Get up early and be first in line for St. Matthew’s thrift shop Christmas Fair.
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