NATIONAL COLUMNS

Leonard Pitts: We've made progress, only to see it undone

Posted 4/6/2013 in National Columns

What we have here is a failure to communicate. Or at least, that's Rick Ross' story and he's sticking to it.

George Will: Schools push a curriculum of propaganda

Posted 4/5/2013 in National Columns

The real vocation of some people entrusted with delivering primary and secondary education is to validate this proposition: The three R's -- formerly reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic -- now are racism, reproduction and recycling. Especially racism.

Thomas Sowell: Guns save lives

Posted 4/4/2013 in National Columns

We all know that guns can cost lives because the media repeat this message endlessly, as if we could not figure it out for ourselves. But even someone who reads newspapers regularly and watches numerous television newscasts may never learn that guns also save lives -- much less see any hard facts comparing how many lives are lost and how many are saved.

Kathleen Parker: A monument to reconciliation

Posted 4/3/2013 in National Columns

It isn't often that one gets to hear both the strains of "Dixie" and an African drum concert in the same public square.

Leonard Pitts: Father, forgive us; for we know not what we do

Posted 4/2/2013 in National Columns

Jonylah Watkins died on a Tuesday. She was with her father, who was sitting in a minivan in Chicago on the night of March 11 when someone opened fire.

George Will: William Zinsser and the art of good writing

Posted 4/2/2013 in National Columns

When asked to explain the brisk pace of his novels, Elmore Leonard said, "I leave out the parts that people skip." You will not want to skip anything in William Zinsser's short essays written for the American Scholar magazine's Web site and now collected in "The Writer Who Stayed," a book that begins with him wondering why "every year student writing is a little more disheveled."

Froma Harrop: Cats vs. Dingoes

Posted 3/29/2013 in National Columns

The fight goes on. Whether cats are bird-killing machines or soft balls of love (for themselves, anyway) remains a subject of painful debate. The first part is undoubtedly true. Cats in the United States destroy a median of 2.4 billion birds a year. Add to that death toll 2.3 billion mammals, many of them native creatures: chipmunks, rabbits and voles, reptiles and amphibians.

Froma Harrop: Often you don't need a doctor

Posted 3/26/2013 in National Columns

You want a routine checkup. Or your throat is sore. It's probably nothing, but you're concerned. Do you need a full-fledged MD with all those certificates and perhaps a God complex?

Susan Estrich: Is nothing private?

Posted 3/25/2013 in National Columns

Two guys are at a conference, looking bored. On stage, there's been talk about "dongles," which, if you aren't aware, are devices you plug in to laptops to get connectivity. Bigger ones are supposedly more powerful. Can you guess the joke? (Hint: about whether size matters.)

Leonard Pitts: Right decision, wrong reason

Posted 3/25/2013 in National Columns

Let there be no cheers for Rob Portman. The Ohio senator is, pardon the tautology, a conservative Republican and last week, he did something conservative Republicans do not do. He came out for same-sex marriage.

Rheta Johnson: Not a natural person

Posted 3/23/2013 in National Columns

FISHTRAP HOLLOW --It's been a bad week here in the Hollow. A letter from the Mississippi Department of Revenue informed my county that I was ineligible for the homestead exemption on my house and land. "Applicant is not a natural person," it said.

Leonard Pitts: Life continues, graciously

Posted 3/23/2013 in National Columns

Really? Bobbie Smith, too? Geez. This is what I'm thinking when word comes that the lead singer of the Spinners has died. It comes a month after Richard Street and Damon Harris, who sang on "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" with the Temptations, passed away just days apart.

Kathleen Parker: For Hillary Clinton, the time may finally be right

Posted 3/23/2013 in National Columns

No matter what Barack Obama does, he cannot escape the shadow of his former political opponent.

George Will: DOMA is an abuse of federalism

Posted 3/22/2013 in National Columns

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is an exception to the rule that a law's title is as uninformative about the law's purpose as the titles of Marx Brothers movies ("Duck Soup," "Horse Feathers," "Animal Crackers") are about those movies' contents.

Kathleen Parker: Steubenville and the online bystander effect

Posted 3/21/2013 in National Columns

The recent rape conviction of two teenagers, one of whom also distributed a photo and sent cruel text messages about their victim, has captured the "bystander effect" in graphic and nauseating detail.

Susan Estrich: In defense of speech you hate

Posted 3/21/2013 in National Columns

Michael Vick was all set to do a book tour to promote himself as a new and improved role model when things got ugly. "Despite warnings of planned protests, Vick had hoped to continue with the appearances as planned, bringing his story of redemption and second chance to major markets," his publisher, aptly named Worthy Publishing, said in a statement.

Rheta Johnson: Tweets, chicken hawks and heroes

Posted 3/16/2013 in National Columns

The day the retired pope gave his last tweet, I was captive in the car for seven hours. I heard a lot of radio news, or what passes. First I listened to my usual National Public Radio allotment, and it seemed rather like a slow news day. No marauding shooters were abroad, no wars were started and nobody but the outgoing pope tweeted anything of importance.