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) 2013 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Fri, 17 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT Fri, 17 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ Grief and politics don't mix. When raw, aching grief and the dirtiest kind of politics meet, a hot volcano of pain and outrage erupts that is unstoppable. But it is necessary. It is the only way things might ever be... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/05/17/afghanistans-benghazi-the-shootdown-of-extortion-17-n1598966 6ab05dbe-e4fa-48b8-90fc-1ef3d0b827ca Fri, 17 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT "I want to ask a couple of questions about the February 17 Martyrs Brigade," said Rep. Blake Farenthold. The Texas Republican was addressing the three State Department "whistleblowers" who testified before the House... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/05/10/tell-me-again-why-the-us-used-jihadists-to-guard-benghazi-n1592113 79f0a0a5-f95d-4782-b913-8e1819b56083 Fri, 10 May 2013 08:47:00 GMT We have met the enemy and he is "self-radicalization." No, wait: We have met the enemy and he is the Internet. We have met the enemy and he is broadband video? "But this is hard stuff," President Obama tried to... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/05/03/making-islam-not-terrorism-disappear-n1585776 d9260a92-777b-4e52-aca9-0636f63b78c8 Fri, 03 May 2013 13:25:00 GMT Let's pick up where last week's column left off with that Saudi national in Boston - Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, the 20-year-old "student" who was acting suspiciously enough after the Boston bombing to be "detained" under... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/04/26/the-saudi-follies-part-two-n1579557 6b19a966-09d5-479a-92c6-2668fad0a044 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:27:00 GMT After the FBI rescheduled another postponed briefing on the Boston Marathon Massacre for 8 p.m. on Wednesday night -- and then canceled that one, too -- that was it. I was going to give the news circus a rest until... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/04/19/another-terrorist-attack-another-ussaudi-coverup-n1572302 e8cf24f8-9827-4962-b4a4-76b8b85e8e1e Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:12:00 GMT More than 5,000 words into the New York Times Magazine report on everything ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., and his wife, Huma Abedin, want you to know about Weiner's "sexting" scandal that led him to resign from... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/04/13/weiner-still-in-spotlight-while-larger-scandal-ignored-n1565423 a39b43cb-d4d7-4b6a-be81-6cbc94302c2a Sat, 13 Apr 2013 13:48:00 GMT Get ready for the last straw.First, though, I'd like to suggest that anyone reading this column in a local newspaper or news site pat the editor on the back for publishing what in our neo-medieval world of fear amounts... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/04/04/the-deafening-silence-that-signals-our-demise-n1558406 d795626d-c659-472f-9688-57b91802900f Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:30:00 GMT Talk is cheap, Gen. Petraeus. You may not agree. After all, your Washington, D.C., super lawyer, Bob Barnett, charges you something like $900 an hour for a kind of talk best described as reputation reconfiguration or... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/03/28/petraeus-should-help-leavenworth-10-receive-clemency-n1552294 35b8f63a-3613-4238-b4d9-7a4b8bb7c1e2 Thu, 28 Mar 2013 22:30:00 GMT I found myself in a group conversation that included one of the more instantly recognizable media figures -- someone who personifies the phrase"mainstream media." Since this isn't something that happens every day, why... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/03/21/your-uclick-features-n1545521 363a8a21-4438-4415-bed7-e64639315743 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:55:00 GMT Dear Mainstream Media,Back in 2008, candidate Barack Obama went off his teleprompter and added a couple of sentences to the text of a speech about expanding the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. Over rolling applause, the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/03/15/why-does-obama-need-16-billion-bullets-n1534513 c3c9f7e4-ba61-4f5f-9936-75b778a63cf8 Fri, 15 Mar 2013 04:01:00 GMT Republican Rand Paul took to the floor of the U.S. Senate this week to filibuster John Brennan's nomination to become head of the CIA. "I will speak as long as it takes," the junior senator from Kentucky said, "until th http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/03/08/paul-sounds-alarm-on-domestic-drone-strikes-n1528538 3b93b4ee-3102-4973-beb1-9ec44c615ca2 Fri, 08 Mar 2013 05:01:00 GMT One last question about newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Why? Why for nearly two months (a Washington eternity) did this nominee above all others galvanize GOP Senate opposition? I ask the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/03/01/gop-is-erratic-in-its-confirmation-strategy-n1523086 c7b50bec-adce-46b0-aaff-131143cf63f7 Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:44:00 GMT Freshman Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is just the latest in a long series of public figures to be reviled for "McCarthyism" following his recent questioning of Chuck Hagel, President Obama's nominee for... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/02/25/its-time-to-see-joe-mccarthy-for-the-hero-he-was-n1517669 1a04f125-5b5c-48d3-82c6-6e2c3e0651b6 Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:34:00 GMT I may be the only American who has seen both the "panic room" where Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard fled in 2010 as a Somali Muslim man hacked at the door with an ax, and the apartment house where this week Danish... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/02/08/another-attempt-to-silence-critics-of-islam-n1507751 33abef3e-0436-4ac0-ba2e-9b8997d4dd8d Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:27:00 GMT And so it came, the coup de grace. The final "barrier" to "opportunities" for women in combat is no more. With a stroke of their pens, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/02/01/when-women-fight-civilization-loses-n1502373 b462389d-6349-49d4-84ed-323820b904e1 Fri, 01 Feb 2013 05:01:00 GMT One day, I hope, Hillary Clinton's Benghazi hearings will stand as testament to the smoke-and-mirrors dangerousness of U.S. foreign policy, circa 2013 -- both as executed by the executive branch of government and as... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/01/25/benghazi-hearings-provide-few-answers-n1496991 0fd39926-5871-4bd5-ba10-315b3d90ee97 Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:20:00 GMT Not one of the 23 executive orders that President Obama signed -- flanked by schoolchildren whom none of us want to see murdered and before an audience that included relatives of murdered schoolchildren -- would have... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/01/18/obama-uses-children-as-pawns-in-his-power-grab-n1491740 4dd0d148-3c31-4aba-ae3d-187b5634ee0c Fri, 18 Jan 2013 05:01:00 GMT Ever since Al Gore sold Current TV to Al Jazeera, the network founded and funded by the oil-rich emirate of Qatar, the former vice president has drawn continuous fire in conservative media. Fox News, the New York Post... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/01/11/is-saudi-prince-steering-news-corp-coverage-n1486794 0f6e497a-b098-4556-bccf-a93b5e46ec15 Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:18:00 GMT Americans, Gallup tells us, admire Hillary Clinton more than any other woman in the world -- again. This latest accolade marks the 17th time Gallup has found Clinton to be the Most Admired Woman (MAW?) since she became... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2013/01/04/hillary-clinton-doesnt-deserve-americans-admiration-n1478607 76d6537c-2bfd-4839-9d42-a40e938ae1b8 Fri, 04 Jan 2013 05:01:00 GMT Early in 2012, I opened a column with this question: "Is there a single public official who is examining -- who cares about -- the murder spree by Afghan security forces against Western troops and security... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/12/28/western-leaders-keep-silent-on-afhghanistan-murders-n1474947 74d76983-ecf4-460b-a6dc-4f302b69846a Fri, 28 Dec 2012 05:01:00 GMT Some thoughts about Army Pfc. Bradley Manning's pretrial hearing, which concluded this week.Manning, of course, is charged with leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the website WikiLeaks and, at his... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/12/14/media-oddly-silent-on-wikileaks-proceedings-n1466618 74ce6e77-88ac-4242-91ff-78db3a094cab Fri, 14 Dec 2012 05:01:00 GMT No doubt in the spirit of the season, somebody bestowed an audio sweetmeat upon Bob Woodward of The Washington Post -- 13-plus minutes of an off-the-record conversation that took place in spring 2011 between Gen. David... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/12/07/fox_news_is_the_latest_to_hop_in_bed_with_petraeus 4b57a422-6345-494b-8982-79f1d7ca0ed4 Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:01:00 GMT It is neither "racist" nor "sexist" to question U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's role in the Benghazi scandal. It is, however, almost entirely beside the point. Rice wasn't making... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/11/30/benghazi_probe_must_not_get_sidetracked 44b13530-d72b-4925-8caf-57dd4b31f581 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 05:01:00 GMT I think I know what David Petraeus is thankful for this week.Even though it appears the former CIA director lied to the House Intelligence Committee on Sept. 14, and may have lied again to the same committee on Nov. 16,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/11/22/petraeus_scandal_diverts_focus_from_benghazi_coverup 13a164e2-9dd2-4c09-8183-bc6bd9c32508 Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:01:00 GMT Was David Petraeus as great a general as the write-ups of his downfall routinely claim? This is a provocative question that I will begin to answer with another question: Did America prevail in the Iraq War? I suspect... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/11/15/petraeus_betrayed_his_country_before_he_betrayed_his_wife 4be4b6dc-c2cf-481a-ac81-5d6bb64b75c5 Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:34:00 GMT If Election Day is about picking winners, the morning after is for post-mortems. That's when we slice open the losing campaigns, set aside the hundreds of millions of dollars that gush out, and pick apart the cause of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/11/09/the_high_road_led_straight_to_defeat_for_romney 7da4a139-bb0d-4842-9b4c-b4499bf710cd Fri, 09 Nov 2012 05:01:00 GMT As we arrive at Election Day, some of the most crucial questions left unanswered about Benghazi are, in fact, the simplest. They are not "fog of war" questions. They are not questions rendered unanswerable by... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/11/02/pickerings_red_flags 95915d44-0b2c-4e47-bce7-e1729c8b9968 Fri, 02 Nov 2012 14:51:00 GMT A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column addressing the national scandal that investigation into the security failures and lies surrounding Benghazi-gate must also expose. This even larger scandal concerns the fact that... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/10/26/obama_in_cahoots_with_known_terrorists 70111fa7-a98a-453f-8063-be77bf7764fe Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:04:00 GMT Honestly, did the buck really stop with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Benghazi-gate, or did the buck just stop?Here's what Clinton said: "I take responsibility. I'm in charge of the State Department's... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/10/19/clinton_sidesteps_blame_even_as_she_accepts_it 4d1b121c-630f-405e-9c54-58d003861735 Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:15:00 GMT Imagine, pre-9/11/12, that you were responsible for arranging the defense of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Would you have considered American interests and personnel best protected by bringing in a local... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/10/12/administration_welcomed_wolves_into_the_sheepfold eab32ab1-9a7f-469f-8640-484cdad265c6 Fri, 12 Oct 2012 04:01:00 GMT I tweeted recently about shocking news in The Daily Caller that Attorney General Eric Holder, as a Columbia University student and leader of the Student Afro-American Society (SAS), participated in the armed takeover of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/10/05/obama_cabinet_is_a_scary_roster_of_exradicals 74dc854c-158b-401a-96d8-6cb5ec7e82a9 Fri, 05 Oct 2012 04:01:00 GMT Who said the following: "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."Iran's Ahmadinejad? Egypt's Morsi? Some little-known, fatwa-flinging cleric increasing the bounty on Salman... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/09/28/slander_and_free_speech_are_one_and_the_same 690b742a-392c-4b78-af98-bbb93ccf67b1 Fri, 28 Sep 2012 04:01:00 GMT What's wrong with the following Associated Press headline? "Charlie Hebdo cartoon spurs French gov't to order embassies, schools to close."Cartoons of Muhammad in the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo didn't... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/09/21/free_speech_at_risk_as_us_synchronizes_with_islam 4d89ee2d-513e-4662-acba-2905dc0eb32f Fri, 21 Sep 2012 04:01:00 GMT Two historic attacks on U.S. territory marked the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and what happened? The Obama administration surrendered our constitutional principles.The first was a "blasphemy" riot that... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/09/14/even_after_deadly_attack_us_kowtows_to_islam 2692ed36-1c1d-41fe-8d4c-524de22e8477 Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:01:00 GMT Back in 2008, during the peak illusory powers of Barack Obama as the post-partisan hopester-and-changer, the media consistently failed to report that the statist beliefs of the Democratic presidential nominee came... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/09/07/a_vote_for_romney_is_a_vote_against_socialism 0fe3c09c-7868-465f-831b-59df713ec6f6 Fri, 07 Sep 2012 04:01:00 GMT Ah, to be a member of Big Media when the white Republicans gather to nominate their white ticket for the White House. It's like shooting white elephants in a white convention center, what with their unbearable whiteness... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/08/31/whats_whiter_than_the_gop_the_media c732d6fe-3c6c-4578-8593-46064e8958f8 Fri, 31 Aug 2012 04:01:00 GMT Prediction: If the GOP establishment doesn't follow Republican Rep. Todd Akin's example with a big, fat apology -- to Akin -- the whole party goes down in flames come November.I don't mean every Republican will lose,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/08/24/wake_up_gop_and_quit_ostracizing_todd_akin 7e93d873-ed36-4eaa-80e5-01ca05223cb0 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 14:00:00 GMT First, kudos to Mitt Romney for choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate. Now, the danger: Romney, Ryan, their surrogates, their supporters and the American people will continue to treat Election 2012 as just another... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/08/17/future_of_the_republic_hangs_on_2012_election f52996dc-4c8d-4792-a4cd-0f15d1d10bef Fri, 17 Aug 2012 04:01:00 GMT Two weeks ago, I wrote about the handful of House Republicans, led by Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who sent letters in June to inspectors general at five government departments, asking them to investigate... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/08/03/why_are_we_handing_muslim_extremists_the_house_keys 97948b48-3db5-4cd9-9458-20ff91045879 Fri, 03 Aug 2012 04:01:00 GMT Be alarmed: The U.S. government continues to be "advised by organizations and individuals that the U.S. government itself has identified in federal courts as fronts for the international Muslim... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/07/20/house_republicans_question_influence_of_muslim_brotherhood de77f125-9162-49a3-8747-b3b1b5bb765e Fri, 20 Jul 2012 04:01:00 GMT The Washington Free Beacon reported this week on the continuing omission of Israel from a U.S.-sponsored organization called the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF). At a recent forum meeting in Spain, Maria Otero,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2012/07/13/israel_is_on_its_own_in_war_against_terrorism 7c16b868-0b42-4f1b-aea9-08c6aa568eb0 Fri, 13 Jul 2012 04:01:00 GMT