Washington Times columnist Diana West writes a weekly commentary column for Newspaper Enterprise Association. A conservative with a strong bent for cultural commentary, Diana West explores topics few writers touch upon - from whether Islam is really a religion of peace, to whether Howard Dean was as good a governor as his campaign claims he was, to society's bizarre efforts to protect children from Mother's Day, to the rise of "PC" summer camps in Vermont - presenting all in a deft, often humorous manner. "I feel that such an approach, besides being more readable, is also more persuasive than a steady output of sober jeremiads," says Diana West. "Not that I haven't been known to do a few of those, but I do strive to slip in a few zingers. In other words, mine is not a who's up, who's down Beltway column; nor is it just another take on the Big Story-of-the-Week. Instead, I am fascinated by the culture stories, the ones that reveal who we are as a people." Diana West's column has appeared in NEA since 2001. A journalist with experience in feature-writing, political coverage and arts criticism, Diana West joined The Washington Times' editorial page in 1999 to comment on cultural and social issues, along with a range of political affairs, including Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign, sundry Clinton scandals and the ongoing fight over the judiciary, resigning in 2002 to pursue other writing projects. Diana West won second place for editorial writing in the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association Contest (largest daily division) in 2001. In 1990, Diana West won a first place prize in feature writing from the National Newspaper Association for a two-part story on the David Baltimore affair, a scientific fraud controversy involving the Nobel prizewinner. Diana West has contributed essays and features to many publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post, Commentary, The New Criterion, The Public Interest and The Women's Quarterly. Diana West has also written fiction for The Atlantic Monthly and has been a columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. Born and raised in Hollywood, Diana West spent a year as a youngster living in Ireland with her family. Diana West went on to graduate from Yale with a B.A. in English. A Washingtonian for many years, Diana West lives in the nation's capital with her husband and two daughters. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2009 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:39:06 GMT Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:39:06 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ Pakistani jihad death squads were much in the news this week. In Peshawar, Pakistan, they bombed a marketplace, claiming more than 100 lives, and in Chicago, they were thwarted, according to an FBI affidavit, from carry http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/10/30/rally_behind_denmark 614cce3d-319d-4aea-af2d-65604031f436 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:39:06 GMT When it comes to Afghanistan, what separates President Barack Obama and Gen. Stanley McChrystal? Not much. Neither wants to destroy the Taliban -- just tamp it down to the point where an as-yet non-existent Afghan... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/10/25/stop_nation-building,_just_save_our_way_of_life bb8b9060-6cd4-4d2e-89a6-4b4c40a2b973 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:57:38 GMT Before I get to the chilling implications for free conservative speech underscored by the vicious, public campaign to blackball Rush Limbaugh as a potential owner of an NFL team, I want to provide a little context about... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/10/16/lefts_rush_blitz_a_cheap_shot a864efa4-7fce-4807-88f6-656d90cb353c Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:42:32 GMT Last week's column was about something that doesn't exist -- a multi-level strategy to combat the advance of sharia (Islamic law) across the West. The strategy doesn't exist because there's little understanding that... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/10/10/sharia_trumps_yales_free_speech c9efef0b-b93f-4b1d-9ea7-ccd029a9802c Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:09:11 GMT Today's column is for all hawkish Americans currently wrestling with looming doubts about the pointlessness of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and clubbing those doubts down with the much-mentioned perils of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/10/07/losing_our_way_to_victory 5a10efa3-71fe-4be7-8f6b-4ac39673a3bf Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:32:09 GMT There are many reasons to fire Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, and all of them are contained within his 66-page "assessment" of the war in Afghanistan. The document is fascinating, just as the work of zealots is... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/09/25/ready,_aim,_fire_mcchrystal 148209d2-86de-47e0-bd1e-b4baef6bf064 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson may have unexpectedly ignited an explosion of race rhetoric with two words in the House chamber -- "You lie" -- but I can snuff it out with two words in a newspaper --... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/09/18/when_did_opposition_become_racism 538a787e-1155-48e7-9f53-c53813b179c2 Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT Well, it happened. Or, rather it happened and was reported, which is something else again. I will wager it has already happened, unnoticed, unrecorded, totally ignored. But on this occasion, there was someone to witnes http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/09/11/new_strategy_in_afghanistan_protect_everyone_but_americans 2057d09f-e4a1-49f8-8e35-d43228c42048 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT Finally, some debate over U.S. war policy in Afghanistan. Or at least debate over George F. Will's call to pull the plug on U.S. war policy in Afghanistan, headlined "Time to Get Out of Afghanistan." The negative respo http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/09/03/only_a_fool_calls_it_surrender 021b4928-ac3f-4ed4-98ab-0fd393225727 Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:28:44 GMT Something about the death of a famous liberal person turns the media into grieving widows whose dictum against speaking "ill" of the dead eliminates all sober analysis of the life in question. Once, death in the passing... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/08/27/media_sheepish_about_lions_murky_past 98e5f477-f1a2-49db-a769-571403469911 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:46:36 GMT The official story is that fear of Muslim violence drove Yale University Press (YUP) to censor the Danish Muhammad Cartoons and other imagery of Muhammad from an upcoming book about, well, the Danish Muhammad... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/08/20/yale_economics_101_crush_cartoons,_get_sharia-backed_gold 341e746b-1570-4a49-b2a3-8a00807c770d Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:42:02 GMT Question for Americans: How can we as a nation even consider using our military for another "surge" in Afghanistan when the "surge" in Iraq has left little more imprint on the sands of Mesopotamia than the receding... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/08/14/our_iraq_strategy_is_now_a_tale_of_diminishing_returns aeb72837-94bd-4198-91e1-5240dcd79f81 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:23:17 GMT I saw some fresh figures on 2009 civilian casualties in Afghanistan this week from the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). They are, I'm betting, on the generous side both when it comes to counting... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/08/06/will_our_new_afghan_policy_be_fatal_hesitation 64e9bb36-d220-412b-9c5e-79f538a12ace Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:36:59 GMT Barack Obama's birthday is Aug. 4, and I hereby urge the president to bestow a party favor on the nation that elected him: a verifying look at the original "long-form" version of his birth certificate. It's important... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/07/30/what_obamas_hiding_and_the_media_are_ignoring afd3da13-6de8-4e77-8707-8f5a1ac562dc Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT It's time for a post-Cronkite post-mortem, but not on the late "icon" himself -- the "most trusted man in America," the "voice of God," "the gold standard," the "proxy for a nation," or, in plainer English, the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2009/07/24/cronkites_offensive_history b4cfdcc0-4d6e-492a-b284-1eaeaf84d815 Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT