NYT > Opinion

• Hell on Wheels
  Unless you are a deep-sea diver or, maybe, an iron-ore salesman, your luggage really shouldn’t necessitate load-bearing wheels.
• Slowing the Rise in Health Costs
  The good news is that many of the reforms analyzed by the Commonwealth Fund might improve the quality of health care delivered to Americans.
• A Pause From Death
  The U.N. General Assembly’s vote for a global moratorium on the death penalty was a milestone, yet its symbolic weight made barely a ripple in the U.S.
• Qaddafi Plays Paris and Madrid
  Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, has been trying to rehabilitate his international image. Despite his efforts, he still has a long way to go.
• An Idea Whose Time Should Be Past
  Nowhere is repeal of mandatory-sentencing policies more urgently needed than in New York, which passed its draconian drug laws in the 1970s.
• A Holiday Political Quiz
  Five days to Christmas and two weeks to Iowa, how well do you know the candidates for the 2008 presidential election?
• Brown’s British Blues
  Gordon Brown’s lack of glitz and sparkle has come to seem what it is in the modern political age: a drawback.
• The Long and Short of It
  Presidential campaigns are both too long and too short, says Karl Rove.
• The Safety Hazard on Your Lap
  The situation of lap babies is cause for concern.
• Afternoons With Worsom
  A life transformed by photography.
• Not Your Mom’s Apple Pie Chart
  How readers fared solving the "Which Came First?" mystery.
• Two Aesthetics
  Reactions to a new film, the New Museum . . . and an old television show.
• Holier Than They
  For all the presidential candidates’ talk about religion, few are asking what it means to be truly Christian in spirit.
• When They Told Me Norman Wrote a Book…
  The author unearths a little-known book by Norman Mailer and finds himself in it.
• The Governor’s Nose Dive
  There is a lot of important business facing Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the New York State Legislature. It is time to put Troopergate among the footnotes in the history books.
• A Crisis Long Foretold
  When all the truth is out about the twin crises of the subprime lending mess, the Federal Reserve will have company in the hall of shame.
• Blazing Arizona
  On Jan. 1, Arizona intends to become the first state to try to muscle its way out of its immigration problems on its own.
• Disappointments on Climate
  A week that could have brought important progress on climate change ended in disappointment.
• Plenty of Blame for Afghanistan
  Unless the United States and Europe come up with a better strategy — and invest more money and troops — the “good war” in Afghanistan will go irretrievably bad.
• A Long Time Coming
  New Jersey’s renunciation of the death penalty could inspire officials in other states to muster the courage to revisit their own laws on capital punishment.
• The Vatican’s Relative Truth
  In Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to the U.N. next April, will he be able to find a language to ensure that what he pitches is also what people catch?
• The Mourning After
  Widows and their children in many societies are shunned, abused and exploited.
• The Office I Left Giuliani
  Rudolph W. Giuliani’s claim to have turned around the Manhattan United States attorney’s office is an insult to the outstanding men and women who have served in that office over the last 50 years.
• Clause and Effect
  The best way to make sense of the Second Amendment is to take away all the commas.
• Static on the Dream Phone
  The race is on for competitive advantage in the truly open cellular phone network of the future.