Viewpoint

Viewpoint: Make financial rescue bolder, not bigger

The costs of Washington's bailout fiesta are now so huge that you can see them from space.

Viewpoint: Gay adoption — the real agenda

On Nov. 4, Arkansas voters approved a ban on adoption by unmarried couples. The purpose of the ballot measure, according to the Family Council Action Committee, was "to blunt a homosexual agenda that's at work in other states and that will be at work in Arkansas unless we are proactive about doing something about it."

Viewpoint: A new trio for our times

The era of dumb, dissed and dysfunctional government may be ending. Cynicism, cronyism and conventional political wisdom are threatened as a new, transnational political culture of idealism, activism, and potential multi-partisan cooperation dawns.

Viewpoint: Hillary plus Obama equals high drama

It's too early to tell what changes Sen. Hillary Clinton will bring to Barack Obama's foreign policy, but she's already had an enormous effect on his brand. Her addition to his team has turned "No Drama Obama" into "Mo' Drama Obama."

Viewpoint: Cutting costs in a tough economy

I have bad news. In the midst of the worldwide economic meltdown we are experiencing these days, I have taken a hard look at revenue from this column and find that I am earning but a tiny fraction of the $6.5 million I had projected for 2008, which leaves me no choice but to impose aggressive cost reductions, including a 75 percent reduction in writing time and the elimination of editing. I apologize for the inconvenience. And I thank you for your patience.

Viewpoint: The real school scandal

Hypocrisy is an overblown sin. Better to be a hypocrite who occasionally violates his principles than a villain who never does.

Viewpoint: A presidency for the books?

If you thought exiting your last job was painful because you had to stand around eating sheet cake and acting excited about your impending "freelance projects," imagine being an outgoing president. Not only do you have to give up your career, move out of your house and bid farewell to your jet all on the same day, you're expected to embark on one of the most onerous tasks known to humans: writing a book.

Viewpoint: Patience, Republicans

It was the aftermath of the presidential election, and everyone was explaining why the losing party lost. It was out of step with ordinary people. Its voters were too old. It was too identified with hot-button issues like abortion. It had a problem with Hispanics, young people and independents. It was increasingly confined to a limited number of states.

Viewpoint: I was spied on by the state police

I'm not sure what's more shocking, the news that the Maryland State Police wrongfully maintained an intelligence file on me for months as a "suspected terrorist" or that despite my surveillance, officers might not recognize me if I walked into police headquarters tomorrow.

Viewpoint: Torches passing, generations reconciling

Did you miss this in the post-election news? Sen. Robert C. Byrd, 91, Democrat of West Virginia, announced that he will give up the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee to Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, 84, Democrat of Hawaii. The torch has passed to a new generation.

Viewpoint: Rights shouldn't be voted away

What now for California? In May, its Supreme Court announced a right to same-sex marriage. Gays and lesbians rushed to take advantage of the opportunity; by early November, 18,000 such marriages had been performed. But on Nov. 5, they stopped. By a 52 percent to 47 percent margin, California voters approved Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage.

Viewpoint: Dog days ahead for the Obamas

In case you hadn't heard, Barack Obama's daughters are getting a dog. They were promised one after the election regardless of the outcome, and as the president-elect noted at his first news conference, the subject is generating "more interest on our Web site than just about anything." He said this in the same somber tone with which he also discussed Cabinet appointments and Iranian nuclear proliferation, referring to "criteria that need to be reconciled" (the need for a hypoallergenic dog and a preference for a shelter dog) and calling it "a pressing issue in the Obama household."

Viewpoint: Are some religions more equal than others?

Ever heard of Santeria? If you weren't born in Cuba or Miami, you might not have. Santeria is a syncretic faith that originated in Cuba as a combination of the Yoruba African slave traditions mixed with the Roman Catholicism of the Spanish plantation owners.

Viewpoint: The real 'woman story' of 2008

Have you ever seen a transformation this fast? In barely two months, the Barracuda became the Scapegoat. Think of it as evolution on steroids.

Viewpoint: The fear that underlies Obama's 'hope'

There's little doubt that President-elect Barack Obama's redemptive message of change grabbed Americans by the throat. After all, it's in times full of fear and despair that people are hungry for hope. Mr. Obama's triumph and victory speech were moving not only because they reminded us that this country is based on the idea of possibilities but because, for at least a moment, much of the nation believed that hope was reborn. And that raises a question: Why are Americans so obsessed with hope?

Viewpoint: Pushing to leave no child inside

It's a glowing spring morning, April 22, 2008. Earth Day. The place is Patuxent River State Park, where marsh, lake and forest converge and many migratory birds seek refuge.

Viewpoint: Change we don't have to pay for

President-elect Barack Obama's campaign mantras were "change we need" and "change we can believe in." His victory, and the enthusiasm of his more ardent supporters, may suggest that Americans dream of doing what Thomas Paine proposed we do in 1776: "begin the world over again." In fact, underlying the vote is yearning to return to how things were before: before the Iraq war, before torture, before the housing bust, before the recession.

Viewpoint: Maryland in good position to weather economic storm

My sons asked me recently if I had ever seen such turbulent and volatile economic conditions. I told them the same thing I tell people who ask me that question at work: While I have never experienced anything like this before, I am confident that our economy will recover in time.

Viewpoint: Election questions no one asks

No doubt everyone is relieved to have the election behind us, even if some of us are less than ecstatic about its result. The president-elect and Democrats in Congress very much want to move forward, talk about the future and get busy on their agenda. After all, the oceans aren't going to stop rising on their own.

Viewpoint: The plague of economic illiteracy

With the Dow Jones down by nearly 40 percent over the last year, $2 trillion in retirement savings vanishing in the last few weeks, 2.2 million foreclosures in 2007, and America's national savings rate at zero, the country's current anxiety certainly seems warranted. But, as psychiatrists would say, anxiety is based on apprehensions about the unknown, whereas fear is based more on informed knowledge of danger.

Viewpoint: The surprise is how soon

President Obama. President Obama.

Viewpoint: South Korea's kimchi problem

There's probably no nation in the world more emblematic of the pitfalls and challenges of rapid modernization than South Korea. South Korean society is a caldron of competition and contradiction, caught between respecting the past and striving for the future.

Viewpoint: Today's certain loser: President Bush

Regardless of what the polls say, it's not clear who is going to win the presidential race. But it is clear who is going to lose: George W. Bush. If this contest proves anything, it's that the electorate is sick of him and eager for someone very different.

Viewpoint: The McCain fan who wasn't mugged

It smelled worse than rotting garbage in triple-digit heat, but I'm not surprised some folks swallowed it anyway.

Viewpoint: The effects of government, a 14th-century Tuscan perspective

In the week before Election Day, I once again cast an absentee ballot into an Italian mailbox. A part-time, expatriate painter from New York may not appear, especially in these times of pro- and anti-Americanism, as typically American, but American I am. And despite the tragedies and indignities suffered in the last eight years, I am still happy about it. Contrary to the opinion that expatriates are somehow less "American" than their compatriots living within the United States, nothing puts an awareness of American identity, in all of its positive and negative aspects, into focus more than living in another country. One of the big ideas that has gotten lost in the endless squabbles over nonissues these days is that of the importance of government and its potential impacts on society. Recent events, most notably the disintegration of the financial system, demonstrate that responsible government is a sine qua non for the proper functioning of our economic system. Yet, since at least the early 1980s, we have witnessed an assault on government as a source of society's problems.

Viewpoint: Sarah Palin's contribution

Considering all the attention focused on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her slipping support in the polls, Sen. John McCain has unwittingly provided a public service in selecting her.

Viewpoint: Obama's not new

There's an old saying: The oldest word in American politics is "new." Only in that sense is there anything new to Sen. Barack Obama.

Viewpoint: The 'real' America

Will the "real" America please stand up?

Viewpoint: Abortion out of the closet

Do you remember the New Yorker cartoon showing a couple in their living room reading the newspaper? "Gays and lesbians getting married," reports the husband to his wife, whereupon he adds, "haven't they suffered enough?"

Viewpoint: Payback time for a Georgia senator?

When Sen. Barack Obama brought his 50-state-campaign plan to Georgia, a bastion of crimson-state conservatism, Republicans scoffed. They dismissed his TV ads and voter-turnout effort as money misspent in a GOP stronghold. And, sure enough, Mr. Obama practically pulled up stakes in Georgia two months ago, taking his treasure to a Dixieland more receptive to Democrats, to red states like North Carolina and Virginia that might bleed into blue.

Viewpoint: When DNA goes public

If you haven't heard of the PGP-10 yet, you will. No, they are not defendants in some crime of the century. Nor are they a new techno group. If anything, the PGP-10 resemble a chorus line performing what one geneticist calls a Molecular Full Monty.

Viewpoint: The problem with average Joes

Until last week, the most common axiom about plumbers was that when they bent over to fix a pipe, you could see the crack of their butts.

Viewpoint: Lessons from the braceros

Their images share the haunting starkness of prints from the Great Depression.

Viewpoint: Paths to gay marriage

When you set out to do something important, it doesn't matter just whether you achieve it - it also matters how. That's why Hank Aaron is a baseball immortal for breaking the career home run record, while Barry Bonds, who did the same, is a pariah.

Viewpoint: Obama's getting off easy

The Democratic nominee scorned the "prejudice and bigotry and hatred and division" on display in the Arizona senator's campaign. As for his own platform, he said that "we will do all these things because we love people instead of hate them. ... Beware of those who fear and doubt and those who rave and rant about the dangers of progress."

Viewpoint: ACORN flap is latest in Republican fear-mongering

If Mickey Mouse shows up at the polls in a couple of weeks, Sen. John McCain might have cause for the alarm he showed over alleged voter fraud during Wednesday's debate. If Minnie and Goofy also turn up with state-sponsored photo ID, then the Justice Department and the FBI will need to turn their attention away from terrorism, bank robberies and billion-dollar financial scams to investigate fake voters.

Viewpoint: Gays come out of the closet, abortion goes back in

.Do you remember the New Yorker cartoon showing a couple in their living room reading the newspaper? "Gays and lesbians getting married," reports the husband to his wife, whereupon he adds, "haven't they suffered enough?"

Viewpoint: The GOP and the perils of populism

If Sen. Barack Obama wins the presidency next month, Republican strategists probably won't waste too much time deconstructing the pros and cons of Sen. John McCain's candidacy. Mr. McCain is clearly a figure of the past, and that's most likely where he will remain.

Viewpoint: The minority mortgage libel

In the great search for somebody to blame for the nation's economic meltdown, an easy scapegoat is emerging.

Viewpoint: Gratitude with attitude

Question: What prize was recently characterized by one of its winners as "mundane"?

Viewpoint: Candidates in Fiscal Fairyland

When it comes to taxes, this election presents a clear choice. On one side you have a Democrat who proposes to raise taxes. On the other, you have a Republican who proposes to raise taxes.

Viewpoint: 'The Affluent Society,' reconsidered

"The Puritan ethos (save first and enjoy later) was not abandoned. It was merely overwhelmed by the massive power of modern merchandising."

Viewpoint: To Appalachia, with respect

If you're a Democrat who needs help getting the votes of rural white folks, the go-to guy is David "Mudcat" Saunders, a central-casting political consultant recently made famous by a parade of magazine writers led by The Weekly Standard's Matt Labash.

Viewpoint: What I learned playing the slots

As obvious as it is, it's an axiom that's worth repeating as the debate over slot machines enters the final weeks: Whatever revenue the state stands to derive will come out of the pockets of Marylanders (and any out-of-state gamblers who can be lured here to play).

Viewpoint: Wall Street mess? Blame Cindy Crawford

The collapse of Wall Street and the freeze of credit markets can be traced to one unlikely culprit: Cindy Crawford.

Viewpoint: Desperate Republicans turn to desperate measures

The base of the Republican Party - a dwindling but still significant group - clings to a handful of pseudo-facts that don't hold up to serious scrutiny but that still occupy a central place in GOP ideology. Those include the assertion that Saddam Hussein represented a threat to the United States, that affirmative action in lending led to the mortgage crisis and that voter fraud is a serious problem in modern elections. In campaign seasons such as this, when victory may turn on a handful of votes, none of those claims is more important to Republican activists than overhyped allegations of voter fraud.

Viewpoint: Toward a new American consensus

Since Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party and significant chunks of the Democratic Party have coalesced around a consensus that has supported largely free markets and a diminished government role in the economy, value-free social values, and a wink and a nod toward fiscal responsibility. But now, this mixture of watered-down cultural values and hands-off economic policies simply isn't working well or in most Americans' best interests. It's time for a new way forward, taking the best from our country's liberal and conservative heritages.

Viewpoint: High court on a precipice

I really hate to bring it up. We already have two branches of our national government in full-scale meltdown. The president looks like a guy pleading before the parole board for early release. Congress makes "dysfunctional" sound like a compliment.

Viewpoint: Palin column prompts rapid response

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a dumpster, but since she didn't, I should "off" myself.

Viewpoint: A weird, friendly place in Howard County

When I was a kid, I had this problem walking in the public library without getting bad vibes from the humorless, ramrod-straight librarians. Some nonsense about overdue fines and my penchant for walking off with Hardy Boys mysteries without checking them out. This was in the days before Department of Homeland Security cops manned the exits with print-sniffing dogs.

Viewpoint: Republicans and 'the dream'

Back in the 1980s, when Sen. John McCain was entangled in the Keating Five scandal that cost American taxpayers a few billion dollars and some banks, I was producer and writer of the TV show Dallas. It took place in Bush-Cheney-land. We, too, drilled for oil, corrupted folks, screwed them out of money and livelihoods and ... there was The Dream. It came to mind the other day after something said by Mr. McCain's chief lobbyist - I mean campaign director!

Viewpoint: Minorities a convenient scapegoat for U.S. financial woes

In the midst of a severe financial crisis - a meltdown fueled by clueless homebuyers, greedy lenders and money-grubbing financiers - some observers have decided to blame "minorities" for the mess. Though wiser heads have proclaimed the emergency too serious for partisan gamesmanship, some in the conservative commentariat still can't resist playing the race card.

Viewpoint: An Iraqi take on U.S. politics

Suddenly, the U.S. economy has edged out Iraq as the most consuming issue for American voters. Not so for Iraqis.

Bradley Effect

Viewpoint: Media play the race card on Obama

The news media have been shamefully stoking the idea that the only way Sen. Barack Obama could possibly lose the presidential election is if American racists have their way. Indeed, the fact that Mr. Obama isn't leading in polls by a wide margin "doesn't make sense ... unless it's race," says CNN's Jack Cafferty.

Viewpoint: McCain hits Obama with a POW

The McCain campaign is busily preparing for the coming three presidential debates, which begin Friday. Since Sen. Barack Obama is the stronger speaker, Sen. John McCain's strategists have decided on a straightforward, simple approach as evidenced in these practice questions and proposed replies, which we have obtained from reliable sources:

Viewpoint: Young Jews plan a 'Great Schlep' for Obama

If you need proof that this is the most important election in a generation, get this: Jewish grandkids are flying to Florida to visit their grandparents - without being guilted into it - to talk their elders out of voting for Sen. John McCain.

Viewpoint: The cult of unfettered private enterprise

The high priests of capitalism are in sackcloth and ashes, their belief in markets shattered, their catechism of risk-taking renounced. From Wall Street to Detroit, once-devout believers in unfettered private enterprise are running from their religion. Now that their greed has brought the economy to the brink of depression, they want government help.

Viewpoint: Why liberals should care about deficits

From Ronald Reagan until Robert Rubin, fiscal restraint, deficit reduction, and "balancing the budget" were all but exclusively the province of conservatives. In practice, the last decade or so has changed that political equation, as President Clinton and Treasury Secretary Rubin successfully cut spending, raised revenues, and balanced the federal budget for the first time since the 1960s - only for President Bush to increase spending, cut revenues, and increase federal debt by more than $4 trillion. Of course, in both cases, a Republican-controlled Congress helped.

Viewpoint: Palin stirs turmoil in the sisterhood

What finally sent her over the top was the poster. There was Sarah Palin as Rosie the Riveter, flexing her biceps under the motto: "We Can Do It!" The image was the same on the T-shirt my friend had left over from the primaries. But with a crucial difference.

Viewpoint: Mencken's diminished disciples

What's the collective noun for editorial writers? I need to know, because a whole herd of us is coming together this week here in Little Rock, Ark. But to call us a herd gives us too much credit for organization. I know it's a coven of witches, a pride of lions, a murder of crows, but what do you call an agglomeration of editorial writers?

Viewpoint: Sex, drugs and natural gas royalties

People always say the Bush administration is in bed with the oil companies, but it turns out to be literally true.

Viewpoint: Two parties offer very different visions

During the political conventions, we were swamped with a lot of punditry about stagecraft, statistics, polls and politics. We heard over and over again about appeals to this or that constituency.

Viewpoint: To McCain, truth is irrelevant

Last year, at a campaign event in South Carolina, Sen. John McCain called on a woman who had a question about the expected Democratic nominee. "How do we beat the bitch?" she asked. Mr. McCain laughed, said, "That's an excellent question," and noted he was leading Sen. Hillary Clinton in a poll, before assuring his audience that "I respect Senator Clinton."

Viewpoint: To reduce abortion rate, push for contraception

Lipstick. Pig. Palin. Pathetic.

Viewpoint: What have we learned from 9/11?

We each have our 9/11 story: where we were, what we were thinking on that Tuesday morning seven years ago when "the world changed forever." I was at work when my wife called me about 9 a.m. to suggest I get to a television set. I did so and I was looking at the south tower of the World Trade Center, with a gigantic hole in its side. The newsreaders were speculating that this might be an accident, when a glance at the cloudless sky outside made it instantly apparent that it was not. Suddenly, on camera, an airliner flew into the north tower. Now it was obvious that these were terrorist attacks by hijacked aircraft. As a pilot, I also knew that the flight crews on the planes could not have been flying them.

Viewpoint: Where every loss is the 'worst ever'

Strange, the bits of conversation you'll overhear in passing. Especially as you grow older and hearing begins to fade. This one came from a lady talking about a book she had read about the war in Iraq. She liked it an awful lot. Stayed up reading it till the early hours of the morning. Then I thought I heard her say, "Seventeen lost in one day. It was the worst loss in American history."

Viewpoint: Those devilish Democrats

My parents were calling me while I was at the conventions for the last two weeks, asking if I have any "news." These people clearly don't read my columns, like they say they do.

Viewpoint: America's 'identity' blind spot

As a nation and as individuals, we tend to view the world through the prism of our own experiences. Over the last few weeks, Russians, Georgians, Abkhazians and South Ossetians have reminded us that ethnic nationalism and secessionism are on the rise around the globe. I worry that the American experience leaves the United States and its citizens unprepared to confront it.

Viewpoint: American Optimism: Is All Hope Lost, or Can We Find It?

The resonance of Sen. Barack Obama's call for "hope" is striking, because hope seems in such short supply. This spring, 81 percent of Americans told the New York Times/ CBS News poll that "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track"; 9 out of 10 gave the economy a negative rating in a Washington Post/AP survey; and 74 percent told Public Agenda that the world is becoming a more dangerous place. As Phil Gramm so indelicately said, we are in a "mental recession."