opinion

There’s no question that Israel is located in a very tough and dangerous neighborhood. And these are especially grim days. The brutality of radical Islamist militias – particularly ISIS – has stunned the world and now threatens the Israel/Syria border of the Golan Heights. To the north, Lebanon is reeling …

PORT STEWART, Northern Ireland – President Obama Wednesday replayed a familiar scenario when dealing with scandal, in this case delays for treatment, deaths, alleged cover-ups and other acts of malfeasance reported at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals in the United States: first express outrage, next announce an investigation and …

Tolerance and diversity does not include men who wear camouflage or beards, according to Michigan’s largest municipally-owned utility. The Lansing Board of Water & Light has decided to cancel an upcoming “Duck Dynasty” look-alike contest off because the contest might offend people, a spokesman for the utility told me. “The …

The crisis in the Ukraine will likely end with Russia permanently controlling the Crimea, with the remainder of the country more tightly in its orbit than anticipated a few weeks ago. It’s easy to attribute this to Vladimir Putin’s appetite for empire, but for a long time now the West …

Can the president legally bypass Congress and rule the government by decree? The answer to the question above is: No. But you wouldn’t know that by listening to President Obama. In the past three weeks, the president has made it clear how he plans to run the executive branch of …

When it comes to making resolutions to be healthier, we spend a lot of time thinking about what to eat. While choosing a balanced variety of healthy foods is important, how you eat foods can ultimately make or break your success. Research shows that mindful eaters tend to eat less …

“One reason that action to limit growing income inequality in the United States is difficult is that the growth in inequality is not a simple picture. Old-line leftists, if there are any left, would like to make it a single story—the rich becoming richer by exploiting the poor. But that’s …

A nativity scene at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina was abruptly removed last week. Now we know why. The recommendation to remove a Nativity from a Christmas display at the base came from Pentagon lawyers who feared the plastic Baby Jesus could give the appearance that the military …

Encouragement is like air — you can’t live without it. Without encouragement, there can be no empowerment for living a full and abundant life. Everyone needs an encouraging word. It inspires us to develop faith, hope and love for the future. A discouraging word will steal, kill and destroy us, …

It’s the 40th anniversary of Erica Jong’s “Fear of Flying,” which some have described as a breakthrough book for women and for modern feminism. Reduced to its common (and I do mean common) denominator, the book, which was written in the appropriately named “Me” Decade of the ’70s, encourages women …