Anyone offended by public displays of Christmas needs to see a psychiatrist. Are we clear on this? You are a loon if the sight of baby Jesus arouses anger or sadness in you. Get help.

Jon Stewart and his merry band of elves will tell you that the so-called “War on Christmas” is a figment of the imagination, perhaps a result of indigestion after eating too much holiday pudding. ...

One hundred years ago in America, Christmas was a mighty different situation. Based on newspaper reports, MyHeritage.com recently put together a list of the most-asked-for gifts by children who lived back then. Here are the top five requests:

• Candy. ...

Marketing surveys now show that when Americans come home from work, more folks turn on their computers than their television sets. That is a first.

The reason is twofold: First, you can create your own world on your PC, and second, TV is awful. Flat-out awful. For years, television has been losing viewers because the product, generally speaking, has collapsed. ...

So here’s the setting: the warm azure water of Maundy’s Bay sliding up and down bright soft sand. In the distance, the islands of St. Maarten and Saba can be seen. The blue sky above is dotted with huge white clouds that bob along propelled by a warm breeze. It doesn’t get any better ...

Readers of The New York Times must have been confused the other day when the paper ran an article titled “Under Strain, France Examines Its Safety Net.”

Because the Times is ultraliberal on its editorial page — pretty much advocating every entitlement possible — the hard news story seemed somewhat out of place. It chronicled the enormous benefits that French citizens receive. Paid child care, free higher education, free ...

For many American children, the floor has become their closet. This drives me crazy. I walk into a room where an urchin resides, and there are clothes scattered everywhere. Believe me, I know the passive-aggressive tactics that kids use to torture their parents, but something else is going ...

My parents were children during the Great Depression, and it scarred them, especially my father, who saw destitution in his Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood: adults standing in “bread lines,” children begging in the streets. My grandfather was a New York City cop, and so my dad did not suffer as others did. But he never forgot the brutal scenes ...

When I first heard folks discussing “The Walking Dead,” I thought they were talking about Congress. But no, it was zombies. The undead. Flesh-eating creatures. Bodies that do harm.

Now we have a cable TV series that attracted more than 16 million viewers last Sunday: “The Walking Dead.” Most of the viewers were ages 18 to 49. Apparently, younger Americans love this zombie stuff. Earlier this year, they flocked to see Brad Pitt fight the undead in ...

\Amid all the madness over Obamacare and the government shutdown comes a fascinating poll about “we the people.” For years, the Gallup organization has asked the following question: Do you trust the American people to make good judgments about political issues?

Eight years ago, 78 percent of those polled said they had trust in the folks. This year that number plummeted to just 61 percent. ...

Your mom was right when she told you never to discuss politics and religion, because emotions run so high in those arenas. Especially religion.

Even before my book “Killing Jesus” was released, the mail began pouring in. And some of it was very nasty. ...

We live in a vicious world. It took about one hour before the Russians started gloating about the Washington Navy Yard massacre. Alexei Pushkov, chairman of a foreign affairs committee in the Russian parliament, tweeted: “A new shoot-out at Navy headquarters in Washington — a lone gunman. ... Nobody's even surprised anymore. A clear ...

Here’s the crime story of the week. New York City cops busted a heroin ring comprised of five religious Jews, all male. Prosecutors allege that the men sold a variety of hard drugs out of a Brooklyn apartment but would not provide the narcotics from Friday evening through Saturday morning because of Shabbat. The rest of the week, they would ...

It used to be that most kids hated early September: those back-to-school ads all over the place and the dreaded specter of another long year sitting in front of Ms. Crabtree or whomever. Most baby boomers like me equated Labor Day with a trip to the dentist.

No longer. ...

The singer Billy Ray Cyrus was supposed to be interviewed on television this week, but he canceled. And who could blame him? His daughter, Miley, embarrassed herself and her family on worldwide TV. Her narcissism on full display, the 20-year-old pop star simulated sexual activity with an older male singer while singing some kind of ...

One of the highlights of my summer experience was the 50th reunion of my graduating class from St. Brigid elementary school on Long Island. Back in 1963, 60 children sat in a small classroom hoping for big things in the future. We had spent eight years together, but now high school beckoned, and all of our lives would ...

Up here, many folks don’t much like President Obama’s vision of a big government colossus dictating health care, doling out entitlements and generally meddling in the affairs of the citizenry. Alaska voted against Obama by 14 percentage points in 2012, and if another election were held today, the anti-Obama vote would most likely ...

As President Obama heads for a nice vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, a place of wealth, I want him to work on a simple math calculation. One of the major themes of his administration is that there is a tremendous problem of “income inequality” in this nation that must ...

One of the downsides of being famous is that folks pay far more attention to you than they should. American celebrities are constantly under surveillance, and every word they say is subject to scrutiny. So be careful what you wish for if you desire fame. No human being should be ...

GALWAY, Ireland — The intense debate over immigration reform in the United States has riveted many in this bucolic area in the west of Ireland. That’s because in addition to millions of Hispanic aliens, a significant number of Irish would benefit from immigration clarity. Just ask anyone in the Woodside section of Queens, ...

With Father’s Day on Sunday, there is good news and bad news. First the negative: Single mothers head up almost 9 percent of American households. The good news? Fathers who care are making a huge difference in this country.

How do I know? It is estimated that close to 40 percent of all those incarcerated in this country did not have a father in their childhood home. So doing the math, a responsible father seems to be a strong force for promoting righteous conduct. ...

So, last Saturday I’m back on the ball field coaching my 9-year-old boy’s little league team along with three other fathers. We lose big. Why? Because it was hot. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: Wasn’t it hot for the other team? Stop with the logic, OK?

My team wilted in the fourth inning. In fact, three of the players cried. One missed his mother. I told him the game would be over shortly and she was looking forward to seeing him. He accepted it, but struck out anyway. ...

Once again, graduation time is upon us, and a new study by the Los Angeles Times says plenty about the state of higher education in America. The paper looked at the invited commencement speakers for 150 colleges and universities. There are just four conservative speakers, as opposed to at least 69 ...

So there I am coaching third base for my 9-year-old son’s Little League team. Man on second, one out. The batter hits a ground ball to third, and the fielder promptly boots it, so I send the runner in to home plate. He’s ahead of the ball — and then, suddenly, the kid stops running! He’s tagged out. We lose by ...

It hasn’t been a great week for the Obama folks, as the scandal du jour tour has firmly taken hold. Every day it seems another federal agency is exposed as having intimidated, snooped, covered up or gone to Vegas on the taxpayer dime. Zimbabwe is even making fun of us.

On Jan. 21, 2009, in remarks welcoming his new presidential staff, Barack Obama said: “Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.” ...

Every time there’s a horrendous story about kidnapping or child molestation, America loses another ounce of freedom. The Cleveland situation in which three girls were held in sexual slavery for 10 years is a perfect example of my statement. Although kidnapping by strangers is rare in the U.S., the shocking media accounts of stories like ...

Living in the shadows of the ongoing war on terror are 1,715 American military people who lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few of those brave folks lost all four limbs when bombs blew apart their bodies. In addition, there are now at least 20 new amputee victims because of the brutal terror bombing ...

Shortly after the bombings in Boston, two different media people made statements that were alarming to say the least. Two days afterward, McClatchy reporter Amina Ismail asked White House spokesman Jay Carney: “President Obama said that what happened in Boston was an act of terrorism. Do you consider the U.S. bombing on civilians in ...

There is a growing movement in America to “reform” the nation’s tough laws against drug dealing. The pressure is coming primarily from liberal and libertarian groups who see the use of narcotics as a personal choice, something that freedom should allow.

That opinion is fallacious in the extreme because of the public safety issue involved. ...

Because this is the holiest week of the year on the Judeo-Christian calendar, it might be useful to look at how theology is faring in the age of secularism.

As you may know, there is a movement in America to remove the word “God” from the currency, to replace the word “Christmas” with “winter” and to replace the word “Easter’” with “spring.” On Long Island, where I live, one school is running a “spring egg hunt” with a special ...

So my vacation plans to Cyprus have been canceled. Something about the government there seizing everybody’s wallet because the country is bankrupt. Another nanny state bites the dust. When will they ever learn?

Never. ...

This week President Obama told ABC News that the current national debt, which is approaching $17 trillion, is “sustainable,” and he does not feel the need to try to balance the budget.

Where is Herbert Hoover when we need an economic genius? ...

With the shorthand “OMG” (oh, my God) becoming a huge cliche, it might be worth taking a look at how Americans are seeing the Almighty these days — that is if they are looking at all.

A recent Gallup poll indicates that just 31 percent of Americans worship publicly on a weekly basis, while 43 percent rarely go to a church, synagogue or mosque. ...

Please listen up. We are all being conned by the Obama administration. This year, the American taxpayer will fork over about $571 billion to pay for educating children in the nation’s public schools. All told, the country spends close to $16,000 per student every year on primary through college education. That’s the highest per-student ...

While watching the Grammy awards last Sunday, it occurred to me that American culture has been defined by music ever since the end of World War II. After the Germans and Japanese surrendered in 1945, millions of GIs returned home to marry and begin families. The big-band era of good-time music accompanied that, and romantic singers like ...

Roland Torres wants you to know a few things. He lives in a rural area where life is pretty straightforward. His family has been active on the bayou for five generations, witnessing a daily battle of survival of the fittest. The birds, animals and reptiles who inhabit the vast swamps of south-central Louisiana live only as long as their wits ...

It is one of life’s great mysteries that so many liberal people are so callous when it comes to aborting fetuses. I mean, the Democratic convention last summer was almost a pro-abortion pep rally, as a variety of pro-choice speakers, including Caroline Kennedy, knelt at the altar of ...

If you see Kris Kristofferson around, please tell him thanks for writing the line “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose” in his song “Me and Bobby McGee.” That thought is sage and very appropriate for America in the year 2013.

In California, Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law an astounding 876 new mandates. They all took effect last week. Now, in the Golden State, you cannot do the following: ...

With Christmas now in the rearview mirror, it is perplexing that some far-left bloggers are still bemoaning the fact that Newsweek magazine proclaimed that folks who respect the traditions of the Christmas holiday “won” the battle against secular progressives who want to diminish the birth of Jesus in the ...

Jon Hammar saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, but his most brutal foreign experience was in Mexico. Last August, the 27-year-old former Marine corporal was incarcerated by Mexican authorities in Matamoros for trying to register an antique shotgun with customs agents. Foolishly, Hammar followed instructions given to him by U.S. Border ...

Anyone offended by public displays of Christmas needs to see a psychiatrist. Are we clear on this? You are a loon if the sight of baby Jesus arouses anger or sadness in you. Get help.

This brings us to the governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee. He recently told me on national television that the reason he will not use the word “Christmas” in describing the state Christmas tree is that the word might offend non-Christians. The governor calls the ...

Las Vegas, this is a town that looks better at night. Millions of lights pierce the darkness creating a visual that is both energetic and trance-inducing. The multilayered lightshow is dazzling and unique in America.

But when the sun comes up, Las Vegas speaks directly to the recession. Half-completed buildings loom over the landscape like giant steel skeletons. Some developers ran out of money and simply walked away — leaving huge, hulking abandoned structures to absorb the desert ...