National Columns

The Washington Post, beginning Nov. 1, 2019, will allow its syndicated columns to appear only in print. The columns will still be available as part of our e-edition newspaper online, but they will not be available as separate pieces on our website, ljworld.com. These columnists include George Will, David Ignatius, Michael Gerson and others. This does not affect other columnists like Leonard Pitts, Mona Charen, Connie Schultz and Mark Shields, who are not affiliated with the Washington Post.

Opinion: The present breaks the past’s heart

Change is not my best friend. Not since the day my family moved from Wisconsin to California when I was 8. Leaving the land of my grandmother, the skating rink and snowballs in winter, Lake Mendota and the tennis courts in summer, the community garden and all that seemed unfair. The ...

Opinion: Guantanamo Bay and torture revisited

America’s longest current criminal prosecution is in its 15th year, on its fifth judge, and still has no trial date. The defendants are Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four alleged mass murder co-conspirators. Mohammed is the second person that the government has characterized as the ringleader ...

Opinion: The lie at the heart of Trump’s slush fund

The Orwellian “Anti-Weaponization Fund” Trump has created — the legal equivalent of twirling the combination lock on Fort Knox and driving off with gold bars — purports to be righting a wrong. The bogus (and badly written) “settlement agreement,” which is laughable as there was no ...

Opinion: A tale of two tax questions

Californians will face two competing tax measures this November. The first is the Billionaire Tax Act, a one-time, 5% levy on the accumulated net worth of the state’s richest residents. Lesser known is the Retirement and Personal Savings Protection Act, which would draw constitutional lines ...

Opinion: Why is the government pushing bison off public land?

My sister Erica and I returned to Montana just a few days after the Bureau of Land Management revoked grazing permits for bison. American Prairie, a nonprofit working to create one of the largest nature reserves in the United States, was the target of that decision. Erica and I bounced along ...

Opinion: The Democrats’ underwhelming autopsy

The Democrats couldn’t complete their term paper, but handed it in anyway because too many people were wondering what had become of it. Under pressure, the DNC finally released its autopsy of the 2024 election, after rampant speculation about what it contained and why it hadn’t yet been ...