EDITORIALS

New York Times Editorial: Walmart gives a raise

“There is also little doubt that Walmart (and other employers) would pay more if low wages were not, in effect, subsidized by taxpayers, who pay for the food stamps and other public assistance that low-wage workers rely on to get by. This argues for improved labor standards that would shift the burden back to employers.”

The Tampa Bay Times: Cutting one test is not testing reform

“While the governor and state lawmakers nibble around the edges, the new standardized tests are barreling toward students in a couple of weeks. Yet there has not been nearly enough careful consideration and preparation for these new assessments”

Chicago Tribune: Understanding Islamic State and its End-of-Days vision

“The best examination we’ve seen appears in the current issue of The Atlantic. “What ISIS Really Wants,” by Graeme Wood, argues that Islamic State is not a death cult that distorts Islam in a bid to gain political power. Rather, it is a fanatically rigid religious movement based on specific teachings and traditions of seventh-century Islam, which it implements to a dangerously literal degree.”

The Denver Post: Common ground on criminal justice reform

“All too often, reform proposals are judged by their supporters, not their content. Diverse support eases that dynamic and encourages the examination of policy.”

Albuquerque Journal: Balking at fines wont help DOE reach a nuke solution

“An arrogant Obama administration Energy Department seems to be ignoring the fact that the agreement that allowed WIPP to open also allows the state to fine the DOE in the event of violations. But the DOE, which oversees both LANL and WIPP, is refusing to pay at least $54 million in penalties the New Mexico Environment Department in December slapped on the federal government for numerous violations at LANL and at WIPP.”

Los Angeles Times: Immigration debate slowed by another partisan showdown

“But Hanen’s argument is unconvincing. He criticized Obama’s immigration enforcement policies in a previous, unrelated case, and he made it clear in this case that he is receptive to the claim that the government failed to follow proper regulatory procedures. The Obama administration counters persuasively — to us, if not to Hanen — that it acted properly and within its legal authority.”

Portland Oregonian: Gov. Brown’s short list of must-do’s

“Brown’s leadership as governor starts in the troubled office vacated by Kitzhaber. But the office will become untroubled when Brown clearly signals to lawmakers who’s doing what in the sprawling state government – and why and how.”

PERSPECTIVES

The Guardian: Barbara Ellen: Doe Biden and why touchy-feely men should back off

Once again, we return to the sanctity of personal space, and how everybody, male and female, deserves the right to operate their own “border controls”, either on the street, in an office, or at the swearing-in ceremony of a new defense secretary.

The Weekly Standard: Irwin M. Stelzer: The meaning of Walmart’s wage hike

“Markets work. That’s the message from Walmart’s decision to raise its starting wage for 500,000 of its 1.3 million US employees to $10 per hour starting next year.”

New York Times: David Brooks: The nationalist solution

“Young Arab men are not going to walk away from extremism because they can suddenly afford a Slurpee. They will walk away when they can devote themselves to a revived Egyptian nationalism, Lebanese nationalism, Syrian nationalism, some call to serve a cause that connects nationalism to dignity and democracy and transcends a lifetime.”

Washington Post: George Will: Twitter can’t tame terrorism

“Progressives who believe that dialogues, conversations, engagements, conferences and summits are keys to pacifying the world have a peculiar solemnity about using certain words that are potentially insensitive. This mentality is perhaps especially acute in digitally drenched people who believe that Twitter and other social media have the power to tame turbulent reality.”

Mark Shields: America truly needs the New Hampshire primary

“New Hampshire voters have been as influential as they are conscientious. In the 10 presidential elections from 1952 to 1988, no one won the White House who had not first won the New Hampshire primary”

The Nation: M.J. Rosenberg: Benjamin Netanyahu is playing with fire

“It is possible, however, to make one prediction about the speech and its aftermath without fear of being proven wrong. Neither the speech nor the ugliness surrounding it will immediately alter the fundamental relationship between the United States and Israel. That is because it is a relationship buttressed not merely by emotional or strategic considerations but, more significantly, by the power of the lobby.”

The New York Times: Maureen Dowd: Jeb Bush’s brainless trust

“Without their last names, Hillary and Jeb would not be front-runners, buoyed by networks of donors grateful for appointments or favors bestowed by the family. (When Jeb and W. ran gubernatorial races in 1994, they both mined their mother’s Christmas card list for donors.)”

The Weekly Standard: William Kristol: A fire ball in the night

“So voters (admittedly, by a small margin) think Hillary Clinton “represents the future.” And they believe all the Republicans represent the past. Yikes.”

The Portland Oregonian: Kathleen Parker: The Riddle of war

“Both Democrats and Republicans have found aspects of the authorization with which they disagree, but at least they’re talking to each other. Even so, Americans are justified in wondering whether this crowd (or any) is up to the task and whether we’ve learned anything from previous wars. As Afghanistan taught us, it doesn’t make much sense to tell the enemy our schedule. What’s three years in the context of a centuries-old grudge?”

Slate: William Saletan: How Obama thinks about Islam and terrorism

“Obama understands that today’s terrorism is profoundly connected to the Muslim world. But the connections are manufactured and destructible. To break them, we have to deny terrorists what they want: crude associations of Islam with violence.”

The Economics: W.W./Chattanooga: The president’s patriotism

“The difference is that where Mr Giuliani sees a half-hearted allegiance to the fatherland, some of us see instead evidence of education, intelligence, emotional complexity and a basic moral decency—evidence of a man not actually in the grip of myths about his country.”