"Every year millions tune in to 'A Charlie Brown Christmas,' a 50-year-old TV special that shows its age. The animation looks rudimentary by Pixar standards. The voice acting, performed by real children, isn'€™t exactly a Shakespearean triumph. So what makes this 'Peanuts' television special, in a word, special? It's that Charlie Brown knows what Christmas is all about. ...

"Half a century later, 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' is far more than a quaint historical artifact. The slow and yet sublime story proves that purposeful characters and a simple aesthetic can beat fancy computer algorithms. The annual spiritual validation on mainstream television is a breath of fresh air. Free from gross humor or double-entendres, the show is a reminder that Hollywood need not reach to the lowest common denominator. A lonely kid who hears deep truths and is comforted by flawed but well-meaning friends is enough."

"It's not Gitmo driving recruitment. It's our president.

"In truth, Muslims don't care a whit about Guantanamo Bay. I prosecuted one of the world's most notorious terrorists in the mid '90s, the 'Blind Sheikh,' Omar Abdel Rahman, who formed the cell that carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York. He got the gold-plated due process of a civilian trial and all the trimmings of top-shelf civilian prison -- no Gitmo for him. And you know what? Islamic supremacists continue to condemn his incarceration and jihadists have killed scores of people to try to extort his release. They don'€™t care where we detain jihadists; they care that we detain jihadists."

"Last Saturday, Barack Obama gained the second jewel in his foreign-policy triple crown: the Paris climate accord. It follows his Iran nuclear deal and awaits but the closing of Guantanamo to complete his glittering legacy.

"To be sure, Obama will not be submitting the climate agreement for Senate ratification. It would have no chance of passing -- as with the Iranian nuclear deal, also never submitted for the Senate ratification Obama knew he'd never get. And if he does close Guantanamo, it will be in defiance of overwhelming bipartisan congressional opposition.

"You see, visionary thinkers like Obama cannot be bound by normal constitutional strictures. Indeed, the very unpopularity of his most cherished diplomatic goals is proof of their prophetic farsightedness."

"Congress is set to pass a massive spending bill to fund the government for another nine months, but that spending bill also includes funding that could go towards the United Nations' global warming redistribution schemes.

"Republicans have long pledged funding for the U.N.'s Green Climate Fund (GCF), which hands out money for green energy and 'sustainable' development projects around the world. President Barack Obama pledged $3 billion to the GCF, but so far Congress has opposed any attempt to give tax dollars to the U.N. green scheme.

"While the omnibus spending bill before Congress does not directly fund the GCF, it gives more than $388 million to other international funds that could end up funding the U.N.'€™s broader green energy goals."

"Those looking for the turning points in the tumultuous GOP presidential race may want to circle on their calendars the contests next year in Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois in the Midwest, and South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida in the Southeast.

"As Republicans gathered for their latest debate in Las Vegas this week, more GOP strategists believe their presidential marathon is evolving toward a three-way contest that could divide the party along sharp demographic and geographic lines well into 2016.

"And given the patterns of support behind the top contenders, those states look primed for battle-of-the-bulge confrontations: the places where the contrasting components of the modern Republican coalition are most evenly matched."

"It's enough to make your head spin. Tashfeen Malik -- the Pakistani immigrant jihadist who helped carry out the deadliest terror attack on American soil since 9/11 -- passed three background checks without a single American official discovering that she openly supported 'violent jihad' on social media. Moreover, this was no oversight. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security has an actual 'secret policy' that prohibits immigration officials 'from reviewing the social-media messages of all foreign citizens applying for U.S. visas.'

"This is sheer insanity. In an era when jihadists are extraordinarily active on social media and often count on supporters' sharing and retweeting jihadist messages to help spread Islamist propaganda, our government decided it would create a 'civil liberties backlash' if it were known that America actually reviewed the public social-media posts of immigrants and visitors. ...

"No government can change human nature, but we can stop rewarding its worst impulses. Our present system rewards conformity -- a dubious enough trait -- and magnifies that fundamental flaw by demanding that our civil servants believe a series of lies about the world and -- especially -- our most vicious enemies. Our leaders are worse than foolish. They're cowards. And Americans are paying the price for their failures."

"Danish linguist Tina Magaard and a team of researchers spent three years examining the texts of the 10 largest religions to see if any incite violence. 'The texts of Islam are clearly distinct from the other religions' texts, as they, to a higher degree, call for violence and aggression against followers of other faiths,' she concluded. 'There are also direct incitements to terror.' ...

"Islam is not a 'religion of peace,' and won't be until most of its followers -- the Taliban, the Ayatollah, ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood, the mullahs of Saudi Arabia -- reject tenets like jihad. To suggest otherwise is naive. Virtually everyone is hacking at the branches of this growing menace, and almost no one is striking at its root."

"WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the week after the deadly shootings in San Bernardino, California, Americans' confidence in the federal government's ability to protect citizens from acts of terrorism has dropped to a new low of 55%.

"Confidence in the U.S. government to protect citizens from terrorism is down 12 percentage points since June, and is now 33 points lower than the 88% who said they had a 'great deal' or 'fair amount' of confidence shortly after 9/11.

"These data, collected Dec. 8-9, come just days after the San Bernardino shootings and as more details emerge about the shooters' identities and alleged connections to radical Islamic ideology."

"Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire: Hillary Clinton still insists she didn't tell the grieving families of the Benghazi victims that an anti-Islam video was to blame.

"Yet family members say she said just that, three days after the attack, at the Sept. 14, 2012, ceremony at Andrews Air Force base.

"George Stephanopoulos asked her Sunday if she'd told the victims it was about the film. Clinton gave a flat 'no.' ...

"Just why the administration united around this lie is another editorial. The disgrace here is Clinton's refusal to admit her role -- even pushing the fib to 'comfort' the bereaved.

"Stiff as the competition is, this has to count as her lowest-down, dirtiest lie of all."

"The disconnect between President Obama and the American public on the urgency of the ISIS threat is a problem for his party in 2016, especially for Hillary Clinton.

"Democrats are at risk of politically marginalizing themselves on national security in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, catering to a base that seems disconnected from the growing anxiety that the public feels over the threat from Islamic terrorism. During a month when a horrific terrorist attack killed 130 in Paris and a homegrown, ISIS-inspired attack killed 14 in San Bernardino, California, the Democratic Party's major focus has been on climate change and gun control. ...

"The big question now is how long Clinton will be content to ride Obama's coat-tails. Most Democrats are fully committed to the president's base-first strategy and don't see any benefit in Clinton distancing herself from a president whom she loyally served for four years. But on an issue that could define the election, she risks being defined by the base at a time when even some of the president's former supporters are beginning to question his approach."