THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Sri Lanka’s power struggle explained

A confusing power struggle has broken out on the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka, and many powers in the region and beyond are watching closely. President Maithripala Sirisena dismissed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe last month and replaced him with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Shaun Donnelly, U.S. ambassador to Colombo from 1997 to 2000 and now vice president for investment and financial services in the Washington office of the U.S. Council for International Business, answers questions from The Washington Times on the crisis. Published November 8, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Voters will see left’s true colors

As I watched on TV some of the Democratic strategists giddy with delight that their party took over the House of Representatives, a thought came to me: When you get handed a bunch of lemons, you make lemonade. Published November 7, 2018

EDITORIAL: All in all, the Republicans dodged the bullet

So much to be outraged about, so little time. The election results, The New York Times said with more than a little understatement, "it wasn't necessarily the night of either party's dreams." The Democrats got the House, though the blue wave that was supposed to wipe out Republicans for a generation was nowhere to be seen. Published November 7, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Change nuclear-program route

Congratulations to Robert R. Monroe for exposing the major problems confronting a much-needed upgrade to America's nuclear-weapons stockpile ("Resuming U.S. nuclear weapons testing is crucial," Web, Nov. 6). Published November 7, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Stop allowing false allegations

I watched most of the broadcast hearings on the nomination of now Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. I was concerned about the vicious and absolutist blanket demands by one party and their "True Believer" adherents that all Americans "believe the survivor" ("Another Kavanaugh accuser admits to fabricating rape story," Web, Nov. 3). Their goal was to destroy the life and livelihood of Justice Kavanaugh and keep him off of the U.S. Supreme Court. Published November 6, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Trump simply righting wrong

Those attacking President Trump's assertion that he will issue executive orders adverse to "birthright citizenship" and open-borders asylum demands were strangely silent when then President Obama repeatedly acted at variance to the congressional constitutional province with regard to immigration laws. Published November 6, 2018

EDITORIAL: Opportunity in Latin America

After eight years of the Obama administration's complaining, false modesty and general incompetence, President Trump has reluctantly backed into the logical role as leader of the free world. If not us, who? Who else to keep at bay the United Nations, even more incompetent than Mr. Obama? Published November 6, 2018

EDITORIAL: Americans always get the government they vote for

Americans revel in full-contact sport. Football, alas, has replaced baseball as the national pastime. No longer satisfied to put on their favorite team jersey, some parents stoke their competitive fires by dyeing their toddler's hair to match the team colors. But pigskin fanaticism is not politics, and Election Day isn't game day. Flush with acute political angst — some call it a prelude to a second civil war — voters face off Tuesday across the nation. More than bragging rights are at stake — the outcomes will determine decide the nation's future. (If only for the next two years.) Published November 5, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Caravan slippery slope

When the several-thousand-member immigrant caravan arrives at the U.S. border, how many should be transported to each state? What is each state's fair share when it comes to housing and care? Published November 5, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Left uninterested in health of U.S.

If the Democrats were truly interested in the health of the American people, wouldn't they be opposing the caravans and open borders? How many new diseases have already been introduced into the U.S. by illegals? How many diseases that were formerly eradicated from the U.S. have illegals brought back? Published November 5, 2018

EDITORIAL: Kamala Harris tries on a tax-cutter’s costume, and it doesn’t fit

It's fun to dress up on Halloween and pretend to be someone else, the more unlikely the costume the better. The prize for dressing up as the unlikeliest of all goes this year to Kamala Harris, the junior senator from California. With an eye on 2020, and having discovered that millions of Americans are having difficulty paying their taxes and maintaining a comfortable standard of living, she pretends to be Donald Trump the tax-cutter. Just as the ghosts and goblins were gathering for their annual blow-out she introduced something called the Lift the Middle Class Act, providing a tax credit of up to $6,000 to families earning less than $100,000 annually. Published November 4, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Don’t let Clinton machine back in

I will never forget the joy and tears, for days in early November 2016, after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. I will also never forget Hillary and Bill Clinton, together with Chelsea Clinton, faux conceding, lying as usual by saying Mr. Trump "deserves a chance." Published November 4, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Left can’t have amendment both ways

Liberals and some political pundits are howling mad about President Trump's consideration of a plan to issue an executive order halting the long-standing policy of the United States granting citizenship to anyone born in our country. They claim "birthright citizenship" is a right under our Constitution. Some point to the 14th Amendment to bolster their argument. Generally speaking, relying on our Constitution is a winning strategy, but you have to apply that standard across the board, not selectively. Published November 4, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Not-so-healthy recommendations

Anybody who has not realized that the federal government's involvement in dietary guidelines has been a public health disaster is probably already dead from following the guidelines ("Gum, bottled water, pizza bagels want to be called 'healthy'," Web, Oct. 30). There are 30 million diabetics in the U.S. population, and that many again with pre-diabetes, otherwise referred to as metabolic syndrome. Asians as well as African-Americans, not to mention Native Americans, have been especially susceptible to the garbage which has emanated from the FDA over the past several decades. You don't have to appear fat, either. Published November 1, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Fight anti-Semitism with fire

Anti-Semitism has been ascribed to many factors over the millennia, but the one with most purchase in our sophisticated age is simply that many people require an "other" to explain their failures and disappointments, for it stills the restive mind to project one's deficiencies on others ("The chosen people, chosen again," Web, Oct. 31). And Jews, from their earliest coherence as a distinct people, were decidedly an "other." In the historical perspective, it is apparent that they delighted in their distinctiveness, never intuiting that the degree of difference would lead directly to a genocidal coefficient of hatred, one with which we deal to this day. Published November 1, 2018

EDITORIAL: Whitey Bulger died as he lived, by the bloody hand of a mob

By the code of the streets, he got what he deserved. Hundreds of the kith and ken of the dozens of men and even some women who died at the hand of James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger would agree. Whitey, the notorious Boston mobster, was killed in prison this week at the age of 89. It was a fitting and violent end to an extraordinarily violent life. Published November 1, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Saudis still ally against Iran

In her intelligent and convincing op-ed, "American interests after the Khashoggi murder" (Web, Oct. 30), Shoshana Bryen shows why we should consider our long-term interests in the Middle East rather than a momentary blunder by our ally. Published October 31, 2018

EDITORIAL: Synagogue shooting reveals a profound hostility to faith

Authentic religious faith teaches nothing if not the lesson that God breathes into every person a spark of the divine. Some master the core of that authentic religious teaching eagerly, some accept it in stages over a lifetime of experience and, a few, like the man of pure evil at the Pittsburgh synagogue, never get it at all. Published October 31, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Amendment not free-ride ticket

Does anyone with any common sense believe that the birthright clause in the 14th Amendment was intended to give illegal aliens a free ticket to citizenship? This is an abuse of the legislation and President Trump should be supported in his decision to put an end to it. Published October 31, 2018

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Screen potential illegals at border

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, huge numbers of immigrants came by ships that were required to unload at Ellis Island. There they were screened for criminal backgrounds, disease and fitness. At times, they were required to have employment offers in the United States. Any "failures" were immediately sent back to their home countries or put in hospitals and not allowed to enter. Published October 30, 2018