NYT > Opinion

• Mortgage Meltdown
  Is there a remedy to the mortgage crisis?
• The Work Remaining
  A halfway resolution of the United States attorneys scandal is not enough. It needs to be investigated vigorously and completely.
• Democracy and South Africa
  For its democracy to develop, South Africa needs an open and inclusive political system in which any candidate can compete.
• Medicare Private Plan Abuses
  Congress ought to eliminate the unjustified subsidies that give private Medicare plans a competitive advantage over traditional plans.
• Happiness for Sale
  It is reassuring to find that effective policies to boost the incomes of the less fortunate would make their lives easier and happier.
• A Tale of Trigger
  It struck me that everyone must have a holiday tale they could write up and paste into the back of “A Family Christmas.”
• Christmas, Asian Style
  Across Asia, Christmas is imported as a globalized product and works well as a festival of lights.
• The Greatest Christmas Present: An Easy Flight
  In terms of air travel, Christmas Day is the calm eye of the holiday travel storm.
• Justifiable Waterboarding?
  The benefits of torture: underappreciated or overstated?
• Bound for Academic Glory?
  A new report on higher education raises questions about how public universities can improve.
• Marketing Disorder
  An ad campaign about mental disorders hits a nerve.
• Not Your Mom’s Apple Pie Chart
  How readers fared solving the "Which Came First?" mystery.
• When They Told Me Norman Wrote a Book…
  The author unearths a little-known book by Norman Mailer and finds himself in it.
• Protecting a $155 Billion Pot
  Thomas DiNapoli has moved forward in trying to make the state comptroller’s office more accountable to the public. He should keep aiming in that direction.
• When Christmas Morning Comes
  Christmas is imbued with a recognition that the transition from sleep to waking always carries with it the immeasurable gift of a new day.
• Broken Polls
  Election officials in other states should follow Ohio’s and Colorado’s lead in promoting fair and honest elections.
• Weakening Pakistan
  Pakistanis need to turn out in force on Election Day to ensure that everybody — not just Pervez Musharraf — can have a say in Pakistan’s future.
• Arrogance and Warming
  President Bush’s decision to deny California permission to regulate global warming emissions from cars can only be explained as the product of ideological blindness.
• 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.
• St. Nick in the Big City
  The modern Santa may be happy, but does he still care about the poor?
• ‘Ode to Joy,’ Followed by Chaos and Despair
  While Beethoven’s work may seem an innocuous choice for the official anthem of the European Union, it actually tells much more than one would expect about Europe’s predicament today.
• A Dessert With a Past
  How America narrowly escaped Christmas pudding.
• A License for Local Reporting
  The outcome of Federal Communications Commission policy that matters most to us is not who owns what, but how much news gathering goes on.
• 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?