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 Diplomat’ is truly diplomacy for dummies

The popular Netflix series “The Diplomat” has Keri Russell playing a woman who’s really sore that she’s been made American ambassador to the United Kingdom. Many Americans would pay a fortune to become America’s representative to the Court of St. James’s, and some do. It’s a ...

Opinion: Copy-and-paste reporting is not helpful

New Yorkers are divided on what happened on that F train when a former Marine, who was white, choked to death an unruly homeless man, who was Black. The comments sections of the New York papers reveal little division among the readers. Facts are still coming in, but based on what we know, most ...

Opinion: My surprisingly fond farewell to Jerry Springer

Some television hosts might hang their heads in shame if their show was dubbed “Worst TV show in history.” Jerry Springer wore it like a badge of honor. “It’s hard for anyone to get upset at our show today,” Springer said after receiving that dubious honor from TV Guide in 2002, ...

Opinion: Limiting some fee collections will ultimately hurt consumers

Any parent will tell you that forcing children to eat their spinach is no way to win a household popularity contest. Children don’t care about the long-term benefits of eating healthy food when the alternative is the short-term thrill of sugary treats. Much to their children’s chagrin, ...

Opinion: Why do we obsess over trans issues?

From the amount of discussion, you might think that a third of all fifth graders were transgender — that is, they don’t identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Actually, the transgender population is very small. Only 0.6% of Americans — far fewer than one out of every 100 — ...

Opinion: How comment-section trolls took over the Republican Party

Is the GOP becoming a dysfunctional chatroom? In economics, Gresham’s law on currency markets holds that “bad money drives out good.” That same principle also applies to the comment sections on online sites. In comments sections — including such mega-versions like Twitter — the ...