ArcaMax

The late Charlie Munger, who with longtime friend Warren Buffett turned Berkshire Hathaway into a behemoth, attributed his investment successes to his ability to pay sustained attention. "I did not succeed in life by intelligence," Munger recounted. "I succeeded because I have a long attention span."

Americans are notorious for having a short...Read more

In Woody Allen's iconic film "Annie Hall," protagonist Alvy Singer instructs his new girlfriend that our existence is divided into two categories: the horrible and, if you're really lucky, the miserable. For many Democrats who find Donald Trump and his presidency an abomination, their alternative seems a Democratic Party dominated by a base ...Read more

In his book on America's hitherto most accomplished demagogue, "No Sense of Decency," journalist Robert Shogan concluded that the principal reason America's favorable view of Joseph McCarthy eventually collapsed was "the increased revulsion of many Americans for McCarthy as a result of what they saw of him. ... What came across was McCarthy's ...Read more

While our avowed admirer of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un spent American taxpayers' dollars parading military hardware through Washington, D.C., in order to celebrate his 79th birthday and sent troops to quell protests about the forcible detention of immigrants, Democrats scratched their heads wondering why they're so unpopular among ...Read more

Last week we marked another anniversary of D-Day, the landing by Allied troops at Normandy, launched to liberate Europe from its murderous occupation by fascists. Thousands of young soldiers died in the initial phases of the campaign to free Europe; many thousands more would die before the Nazis surrendered.

Historically, June 6 is a date ...Read more

Hillary Clinton took quite a lambasting in 2016 when she used the word "deplorable" to describe the Donald Trump phenomenon that had captivated so much of America, but the word choice has long since proved apt, even perfect. Oxford Dictionary suggests that the word's best synonyms are "disgraceful" and "shameful," which do seem to fit pretty ...Read more

On Wednesday evening, Sarah Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, went to a party in Washington, D.C. She was a Jewish woman from Prairie Village, Kansas; he was a Christian and a citizen of Israel. The couple worked in Israel's Embassy to the United States. They were scheduled to fly to Israel that weekend, where Yaron intended to propose ...Read more

Donald Trump may not know due process from "101 Dalmatians," but he knows get-rich-quick schemes, and he wasted little time after taking office before making a beeline for the world's most reliable generator of cash for the Trump family: the Mideast. His trip to the Gulf last week could hardly have been a happier experience for our president: ...Read more

The decline in religiosity in America is oft-noted and well-documented, as survey upon survey demonstrates. Gallup reports that while 44% of Americans said in 2000 they attended services weekly, by 2023 that figure had dropped to 32%. The percentage of Americans who identified with a particular religion likewise fell during that period.

But ...Read more

Hard to believe, but President Donald Trump seemed to be just making it up this past week, selling Americans the line that the bad economic news was, in fact, good economic news. Ever the real estate salesman and historically practiced at the art of con-artistry, he claimed that the collapse of financial markets since his inauguration, negative ...Read more

Addressing Congress in 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt warned Americans about being lulled into unconsciousness by those who pooh-poohed the dark clouds over Europe created by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. "I hope that we shall have fewer American ostriches in our midst," said FDR. "It is not good for the ultimate health of ostriches ...Read more

Late in the new Broadway show "Operation Mincemeat," the sparklingly inventive musical comedy based on British Intelligence's deception of Adolf Hitler about Allied war plans during World War II, the marvelous slapstick pauses momentarily. "If people like us just blindly follow orders," one of the characters warns, "the fascists won't need to ...Read more

There simply is no balderdash that Donald Trump hasn't elevated to an art form, a point so obvious by now that it's ceased to register. Lately, the Balderdash-O-Meter seems to crash hourly, as the president who claimed with a straight face to be running against a "weaponized" Biden administration devotes himself full throttle to weaponizing ...Read more