ArcaMax

We can thank China that gasoline prices aren't higher than they are.

By last month, China had cut imports of oil by 3 million barrels a day, the daily consumption of Italy and France combined. China's economy, meanwhile, hums along.

Americans agonize over how the price of oil affects gas at the pump. Were it not for China, a tank of gas ...Read more

The president wants us to put the war in the "rear view window."

Who can blame him? Thirteen American servicemen and women have given their lives. You and I, the taxpayers, have spent upwards of $29 billion. But did we "win"? Win what? Is it a more dangerous world, or a safer one, because of this war? Are we getting any more out of this deal ...Read more

I swam in the beautiful bay water three times that day. Salt on skin does wonders. Six of us had a sundown dinner on the roof, with a homemade almond cake a la creme and fruit for dessert, a ferry and lighthouse in the distance.

Everyone around the table at the house party was a true-blue friend. Some I'd known forever, so it seemed.

Our ...Read more

Step right up, folks! Please don't crowd! No need to shove, plenty here for everyone!

Welcome to the Bonanza Extravaganza of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) "BOOM." Silicon Valley billionaires are now proposing a scheme to deliver an unbelievable windfall to "every citizen." Tech titans like Sam Altman of OpenAI are pushing the federal ...Read more

When workers scraped Donald Trump's name off the Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, they should have kept going. They should have taken Kennedy's name off as well and restored the building to its original, simple title, the National Culture Center.

After President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Congress ...Read more

For Americans traveling in Western Europe this summer, it's a time of real humility, and some humiliation. You have to be quite the American exceptionalist to defend America these days, when what seems truly exceptional about our country is a presidency that is openly, even flagrantly, corrupt. It's a strident word to use, but it is, as the ...Read more

Conditions at Delaney Hall are so reprehensible and degrading that detained individuals resorted to starving themselves to bring attention to their inhumane treatment. An open letter signed by nearly 300 people brought light to the medical neglect, spoiled or inadequate food and other "torturous" conditions at the facility. The hunger and ...Read more

I'm not one to generally quote Senate Majority Leader John Thune as my authority on Cabinet appointees, but when it came to Bill Pulte -- the housing chief with no national security experience who was President Donald Trump's first choice for Director of National Intelligence -- he was right to express concern. Pulte has no business in that ...Read more

Even if you haven't geeked out over the "boy problem," you're probably aware of the well-documented evidence that boys and men are struggling.

Boys lag behind girls in school and graduate at lower rates. Women now comprise the overwhelming majority of college students and graduates. Boys are far more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, get into...Read more

Most times when I'm invited to speak at a conference, someone introduces me by reading the short bio provided. But this past week at the Southeastern Writers' Association Conference, my friend, the Georgia judge and novelist Lori Duff, introduced me. She started off by warning she might embarrass me, then proceeded with the most generous and ...Read more

I don't fix things.

I'm a man. I don't fix things.

I pay people to fix things, is what I do.

In general, the people I pay to fix things do not fix the thing on the first try.

Being unable to fix things on the first try doesn't hurt your fixing-things career, though.

Nearly everyone I've ever had to call back to fix the same thing twice ...Read more

The Southern Poverty Law Center has spent years fighting hate, racism and injustice in the American South and has played a critical role in strengthening the civil rights of millions of Americans. It has even worked closely with the FBI in that effort. Now, the Trump administration claims that the SPLC was actually involved in some kind of con...Read more

Teyana Gibson Brown was home with her husband, 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old cousin in January when 10 masked and heavily armed federal agents stormed into her house. The federal agents smashed through her front door with a battering ram. They pointed their rifles at Teyana and her family members as she stood in the doorway repeatedly ...Read more

Redistricting is the process of drawing the lines of districts from which public officials are elected. When redistricting is conducted fairly, it accurately reflects population changes and our diverse communities and is used by legislators to equitably allocate representation in Congress and state legislatures. When politicians use ...Read more