ArcaMax

There was a time when spending big at a swank restaurant would be regarded as an occasion requiring dress-up. Then the slob culture took over so that even when an establishment made great effort to arrange flowers, iron tablecloths and provide formal service, customers would turn up in sweatshirts and ratty sneakers.

Dress standards for deluxe ...Read more

Russian President Vladimir Putin is clearly out of his mind. Only a deranged and isolated leader stuck a 20th century time warp would launch an unprovoked and barbaric attack against a people he says are the same as his own -- and say he is saving them from Nazis. The insanity of it all has freaked out his European neighbors, most notably the ...Read more

New York Mayor Eric Adams is a rising power in the Democratic Party. A former police captain, Adams is the answer to the prayers of Democrats who have almost given up praying for a politics they can sell nationally.

Adams is a Black man, who, at age 15, was arrested and beaten up by police. His response: "I didn't say, 'Woe is me.' I said, 'Why...Read more

Political seers confidently insist that Democrats are going to lose big in the upcoming midterms. On one hand, they may be right. On the other, they don't really know.

On the third hand, Democrats do have reasons to hope the predictions of doom are overwrought. Here are three:

One: The real Republican threat against the right to end an ...Read more

The demolition of Roe v. Wade began long before now. It started in 2016, when Sen. Bernie Sanders and his left-wing followers destroyed the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. Had Clinton won the presidency, Donald Trump would not have been able to add three justices to the Supreme Court who have made ending a right to abortion highly likely.

That ...Read more

There's no way for an outsider to easily judge the dueling claims in the court battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. The actors completed their whirlwind divorce years ago but continue to volley accusations of physical abuse in what has turned out to be a battle for public opinion.

The most expert insight probably comes from the couple's ...Read more

It came as mild surprise that Netflix reported a sharp drop in viewers and even less surprise that CNN canceled its CNN+ channel. It's not enough for streaming services to collect X dollars a month from subscribers. They have to deliver something in return.

They do, but not often enough.

During the COVID-19 hibernation, life had been a stream....Read more

It would appear that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis harbors ambitions to become the new Donald Trump. Whether a new Donald Trump could win the presidency in 2024 is in question. In 2020, the old Donald Trump lost the popular vote by a not-insignificant 7 million.

But even if a Trumpy candidate remained a political draw two years from now, DeSantis ...Read more

Had I been midair when the Florida court struck down the face mask rule on public transportation, I'd have joined other passengers in cheering.

And had I been on a certain Southwest flight, I would have cheered again at an attendant's call to civility. "I require every passenger on my flight to treat everyone with kindness and respect," he ...Read more

We and our allies are in a war to save civilization. Fortunately for us, Ukrainians are doing the fighting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's barbaric assault on Ukraine has awakened Europe to the reality that he is truly evil and could continue his march westward. It is no coincidence that Sweden and Finland -- once fiercely neutral countries...Read more

People are filing back into Kyiv. Against expectations, traffic has returned to Ukraine's capital city as some shops reopen. More than 800,000 Ukrainians who had left the country when Russia attacked have reportedly returned. Some are back to fight the Russians, while others are determined to carry on as Ukrainians. All are heroes.

The morning ...Read more

President Joe Biden warned China that if it helps Russia in its savagery against Ukraine, the U.S. might apply sanctions to Chinese products. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman expanded on that thought: Sanctions imposed on Russia should give President Xi Jinping "a pretty good understanding of what might come his way should he, in ...Read more

What will happen to the "bread basket of Europe" once the shooting in Ukraine stops? Russia is the largest and Ukraine is the fifth largest exporter of wheat. Together they account for 29% of the world's annual wheat sales. The war has disrupted not only the harvests in Ukraine but also the ability of Russia to ship its wheat to other countries....Read more

President Joe Biden seems intent on easing entry into the United States at the politically worst possible time. It's not impossible that he has a plan to keep order after he ends Title 42, which has made it harder for asylum seekers to enter the country.

Even if he manages to skillfully handle what will undoubtedly be a new surge at the border,...Read more

Powerful politicians have this bad habit of elevating members of their family -- or the family of friends -- to high office. Sometimes the chosen kin or friend's kin has fine qualifications. But the sense that their inside track gives them advantages over others with equally fine qualifications leaves a bad taste. It's also un-American.

Thomas ...Read more

The horror in Ukraine offered a changed focus from the idiocy in Washington on what used to be normal business. It was gratifying to see almost all our political sides come together over Russia's cruelty in Ukraine and its threat to the West.

However, the cartoon capering during the confirmation hearing for a Supreme Court nominee managed to ...Read more

Frank Abrokwa is the repeat offender who, to the shock of many, was released after smearing his own feces on the face of a woman waiting in a Bronx subway station. Apparently, nothing on his long rap sheet required bail under New York State's bail reform laws.

My friend Don expressed outrage on Abrokwa's revolving door and urged me to write ...Read more

In his bizarre rant on why he had to invade and savage a peaceful neighbor, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of trying to force "false values" on Russians. Such attitudes, he said, would "erode ... our people from within" and "are directly leading to degradation and degeneration."

Putin was referring to the West's acceptance of...Read more

Well before Russia launched its bloody attack on Ukraine, the civilized world had vowed to replace dirty fossil fuels with clean energy. The reason was climate change: Planet-warming carbon emissions are threatening our way of life, if not today, then tomorrow.

The invasion of Ukraine by an unstable Vladimir Putin, however, made yesterday's ...Read more

It seems timely that the remains of the Endurance, a ship symbolic of humans' ability to persevere in the harshest environments, was just found where it sunk 106 years ago, off Antarctica. The 28 men who had boarded it in London wandered the frozen wilderness for nearly two years. Miraculously, all survived.

It may be indecent to make too much ...Read more