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: How far downward can we define deviancy?

The central scandal in the Epstein sex abuse ring targeting children is not the sex. It’s the children. What powerful men do with grown-up women — that is, females 18 or older — bothers me little. I never cared much about Donald Trump’s assignation with porn star Stormy Daniels. ...

Opinion: What the Founders feared most

“The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.” — James Madison America today would terrify the Founding Fathers. Armed troops roam the streets of major cities, masked government agents arrest people without probable cause and disrupt ...

The Epstein conspiracy in plain sight

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know — even if you may have committed terrible crimes. That’s the Jeffrey Epstein version of the famous line about success. The massive tranche of Epstein emails released by the House Oversight Committee didn’t reveal any smoking guns about ...

Trump plays in the wrong key — again

WASHINGTON — Seeking spiritual solace, I washed ashore at the John F. Kennedy Center’s concert hall. Yes, I loved the crashing chords of the “Organ Symphony” by Saint-Saens and the lyrical light notes of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. “The Star-Spangled Banner,” not so ...

Opinion: Epstein case exposes divisions in MAGA unity

He’s back! Just when you might have thought we would not have the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s to talk about anymore, he plunged back into headlines last week — and his former close friend and associate, President Donald Trump, was not happy about it. Epstein is a sore ...

Opinion: Mamdani already starting to deflate

The election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor set off — for his fan base, anyway — great expectations of a more “affordable” city. But the Democratic Socialist hasn’t even been sworn in, and some of his marquee promises are already history. Start with free buses. For a ...