Anyone offended by public displays of Christmas needs to see a psychiatrist. Are we clear on this? You are a loon if the sight of baby Jesus arouses anger or sadness in you. Get help.

Jon Stewart and his merry band of elves will tell you that the so-called “War on Christmas” is a figment of the imagination, perhaps a result of indigestion after eating too much holiday pudding. ...

One hundred years ago in America, Christmas was a mighty different situation. Based on newspaper reports, MyHeritage.com recently put together a list of the most-asked-for gifts by children who lived back then. Here are the top five requests:

• Candy. ...

Marketing surveys now show that when Americans come home from work, more folks turn on their computers than their television sets. That is a first.

The reason is twofold: First, you can create your own world on your PC, and second, TV is awful. Flat-out awful. For years, television has been losing viewers because the product, generally speaking, has collapsed. ...

So here’s the setting: the warm azure water of Maundy’s Bay sliding up and down bright soft sand. In the distance, the islands of St. Maarten and Saba can be seen. The blue sky above is dotted with huge white clouds that bob along propelled by a warm breeze. It doesn’t get any better ...

Readers of The New York Times must have been confused the other day when the paper ran an article titled “Under Strain, France Examines Its Safety Net.”

Because the Times is ultraliberal on its editorial page — pretty much advocating every entitlement possible — the hard news story seemed somewhat out of place. It chronicled the enormous benefits that French citizens receive. Paid child care, free higher education, free ...

For many American children, the floor has become their closet. This drives me crazy. I walk into a room where an urchin resides, and there are clothes scattered everywhere. Believe me, I know the passive-aggressive tactics that kids use to torture their parents, but something else is going ...

My parents were children during the Great Depression, and it scarred them, especially my father, who saw destitution in his Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood: adults standing in “bread lines,” children begging in the streets. My grandfather was a New York City cop, and so my dad did not suffer as others did. But he never forgot the brutal scenes ...

When I first heard folks discussing “The Walking Dead,” I thought they were talking about Congress. But no, it was zombies. The undead. Flesh-eating creatures. Bodies that do harm.

Now we have a cable TV series that attracted more than 16 million viewers last Sunday: “The Walking Dead.” Most of the viewers were ages 18 to 49. Apparently, younger Americans love this zombie stuff. Earlier this year, they flocked to see Brad Pitt fight the undead in ...

\Amid all the madness over Obamacare and the government shutdown comes a fascinating poll about “we the people.” For years, the Gallup organization has asked the following question: Do you trust the American people to make good judgments about political issues?

Eight years ago, 78 percent of those polled said they had trust in the folks. This year that number plummeted to just 61 percent. ...

Your mom was right when she told you never to discuss politics and religion, because emotions run so high in those arenas. Especially religion.

Even before my book “Killing Jesus” was released, the mail began pouring in. And some of it was very nasty. ...

We live in a vicious world. It took about one hour before the Russians started gloating about the Washington Navy Yard massacre. Alexei Pushkov, chairman of a foreign affairs committee in the Russian parliament, tweeted: “A new shoot-out at Navy headquarters in Washington — a lone gunman. ... Nobody's even surprised anymore. A clear ...

Here’s the crime story of the week. New York City cops busted a heroin ring comprised of five religious Jews, all male. Prosecutors allege that the men sold a variety of hard drugs out of a Brooklyn apartment but would not provide the narcotics from Friday evening through Saturday morning because of Shabbat. The rest of the week, they would ...

It used to be that most kids hated early September: those back-to-school ads all over the place and the dreaded specter of another long year sitting in front of Ms. Crabtree or whomever. Most baby boomers like me equated Labor Day with a trip to the dentist.

No longer. ...