ArcaMax

Learning is a societal and individual good. American businesses, however, have weaponized higher education into an overcredentialization racket that coerces millions of young people to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars in tuition, room and board, often to study subjects in which they have little interest, for the chance to be hired for a ...Read more

Where does a lawyer draw the line between zealous advocacy of a client's cause and using his standing as a lawyer as a license to lie? A California State Bar judge ruled this week that former Chapman Law School Dean John Eastman crossed that line in his representation of Donald Trump's efforts to invalidate the 2020 election.

"It is true that...Read more

My father spent the last 13 years of his work life at a sporting goods company, where he was an assistant department head.

When he retired, 34 years ago, he had full and complete rights to a pension of $241.86 a month. He died five years later, and my mother received $241.86 a month for the next 34 years.

And that was my father's life, that ...Read more

Ronna McDaniel's conduct following the 2020 election was shocking enough, but NBC's decision to hire her as a paid political analyst almost topped it. The blowback from the company's own commentators prompted the executives to turn around and send McDaniel packing.

The problem for NBC and its decidedly liberal MSNBC news channel wasn't that ...Read more

It might just be a coincidence that former Justice Stephen Breyer's new book had its official publication date on the same day the court heard argument on the biggest abortion case since Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade. In his important new book, "Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not ...Read more

Washington's pink cherry blossoms, a spring sight for sore eyes, are about to be whacked. The Park Service says 150 trees must be cut down to build a new seawall round the Tidal Basin, where the marble Jefferson Monument perches perfectly on the water.

That calls up the legend of young George Washington and his famous line: "Father, I cannot ...Read more

When a fox attacks a hen house, is it uncivil for the hens to raise a ruckus?

Two Supreme Court justices say it is. Elevating collegiality above social justice, right-wing extremist Amy Coney Barrett and progressive jurist Sonia Sotomayor have jointly been hailing America's top court as a model of genteel political discourse, claiming that ...Read more

You can blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for plenty of things, and plenty of Israelis do. These include his cynical maneuvering to avoid being held to account on criminal charges, his alliances with nut jobs in his coalition government and the gross negligence that left Israel vulnerable to Hamas' invasion of Israel and its ...Read more

News that Catherine, Princess of Wales, has been diagnosed with cancer set off a pointless argument. One side complained that the royal family had not been forthcoming with the truth behind her long hospitalization. The other held that Catherine has a right to privacy and is under no obligation to make her medical condition public.

Both ...Read more

American communities are being confronted by a lot of new police technology these days, a lot of which involves surveillance or otherwise raises the question: "Are we as a community comfortable with our police deploying this new technology?" A critical question when addressing such concerns is: "Does it even work, and if so, how well?" It's ...Read more

"The world is kind of deserting Israel right now," Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) remarked after meeting with members of the pro-Israel lobby American Israel Public Affairs Committee. "So they're worried about that."

Their concern is warranted. Less than six months after Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people with brutality that sparked ...Read more

Who was Sen. Chuck Schumer speaking to when he denounced Benjamin Netanyahu and urged Israel to hold new elections to replace him? And who was he speaking for?

Don't get me wrong. I'm no fan of Netanyahu's. Not one bit. When the history of Oct. 7 is finally written, Hamas will rightly be blamed for unspeakable evil. It was their doing and ...Read more

Nothing in politics is more difficult than breaking with longtime allies, friends and supporters over an issue of principle. In recent years we have seen the "Never Trump" Republicans take that painful step, sometimes abandoning their party and severing relationships built over a lifetime, with bitter consequences.

And last week we watched as...Read more

A big part of my job is community engagement. The opinion section of any newspaper cannot happen without the people of the community. In order to lift up the voices of our neighbors, I must reach out and be willing to talk to people, not just sit at the computer and wait for my inbox to fill up. Email is still a digital space, and it lacks the ...Read more

Movie scene: A car pulls to the curb on a downtown street. Four men wait inside the vehicle. They're white. All of them have slicked-back hair, pinkie rings, shiny suits and shirts with long collars that almost cover the knots in their ties.

A man walks down the street, not seeing the guys in the car.

(Because the director of the movie is ...Read more