ArcaMax

It was in 1972 that Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment.

The Amendment provides "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Last week, 48 years later, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment -- which would make it law but for the fact that ...Read more

What a coincidence. With less than three weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, we suddenly learn about a meeting that took place a year ago, with only two people in the room. She, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, told him, Sen. Bernie Sanders, she was running for president; he allegedly told her that a woman couldn't win, which is a weird thing to say to a...Read more

When I go on Facebook, I don't see many ads for garden equipment, power tools or even big TVs and sound systems. But comfortable work clothes for a woman of a certain age? Low-heeled pumps with arch support? Expensive skin creams that turn back the clock? How did these companies find me?

The answer, of course, is simple. They asked. I fit their...Read more

I'm late with my column. I forgot it was New Year's Eve.

For most of my life, I couldn't have imagined such a thing.

New Year's Eve mattered .

New Year's Eve -- like Valentine's Day and my birthday, only more so -- was the day I judged my personal life most harshly. I dreaded it. It was a mark of failure if I didn't have a date, which...Read more

"The Dearly Beloved" by Cara Hall was my favorite book of 2019.

It's the story of two families, two ministers, jointly appointed to lead a liberal Christian church in New York in the 1960s.

I'm not Christian; I'm not much interested in books about Christian faith. If I'd understood where I was headed, I might never have picked it up. I just ...Read more

In other news, can you believe Christmas is next week?

I mean, who has bought anything?

It just jumped on us, like impeachment, but you need gift wrap and tape.

I have never seen impeachment show up at such at inconvenient time, even for die-hards like me. Not to mention all the new movies.

"Is there something new?" we ask one another.

Not ...Read more

Former Rep. Katie Hill was driven out of office by vicious revenge porn clearly orchestrated by her angry ex-husband and her defeated former rival.

Now Sen. Bernie Sanders -- ignoring the advice of virtually everybody, starting with the governor -- has jumped into the primary fray to replace her.

Sanders knows better than Gov. Gavin Newsom, ...Read more

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel in Pennsylvania rejected Bill Cosby's appeal of his rape conviction, holding that it was proper for the judge to allow five additional women to testify that they, too, had been drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby.

That evidence did not come in at the first trial, which is almost certainly why the first jury ...Read more

What should be a momentous announcement seems more like the opening gong of a bad reality show we've been living inside of for going on three seasons.

Trump really did it this time. Again. And we already know the ending.

The House Judiciary Committee will draft articles of impeachment.

Then speeches.

The House Judiciary Committee will send ...Read more

His staff used to brag that he was Donald Trump before there was Donald Trump. That was before he pled guilty but after he took to blaming his wife for the misuse of official campaign funds that allegedly financed his extramarital affairs.

Trump before, during and after Trump is more like it. Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Rep. Duncan Hunter ...Read more

No one forced him to go. The photo and video make clear that there was no one holding a gun to his head, no one forcing him to be there.

And I'm almost as certain that no one -- certainly no one on the royal staff -- thought that it was a nice invite, an opportunity for a man whose brother will be king to socialize with a rich pimp and his ...Read more

In 1976, the one-term Georgia governor who used to surprise locals in Iowa by introducing himself and telling people he was running for president finished first in Iowa (actually, he finished behind uncommitted, but that counted as first) and went on to win the Democratic nomination.

How did he do it? How did a little-known governor whose self-...Read more

What are usually the hard questions are easy this time. He did it. It was wrong. Now who cares is the question.

He did just what all the uncontradicted testimony has established, what we knew going in, witness after witness saying exactly the same thing. It doesn't matter who the whistleblower is, but the Republicans keep demanding his identity...Read more

In California, every kid over the age of 3 knows how to duck and cover, and has an earthquake kit in their locker, emergency phone numbers and the like. Pretty terrifying the first time you pack that little kit for school.

Fires, earthquakes ... back east it was hurricanes. In my day, we also knew to head downstairs when the air raid sirens ...Read more

"The world needs to see that the United States will stand up and say this is wrong; we stand with the people of Hong Kong."

That's not me talking. It's not Madeleine Albright or Samantha Power or Nancy Pelosi.

That's Jim Risch, Republican senator from Idaho and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He's the co-sponsor and, by ...Read more

I disagree with almost everything President Donald Trump has done. I cringe at the disrespect he has shown to his own office. He has degraded the presidency, driven us apart, lied enough to make anything Joe Biden has ever said trivial by comparison, cozied up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and contradicted his own intelligence services, ...Read more

Mark Zuckerberg is certainly a genius, but not when it comes to understanding the First Amendment, much less the politics of a city like Washington, D.C.

Zuckerberg has taken the position that it is neither possible nor appropriate for Facebook to do anything to deal with political ads that are nothing but lies. He's wrong. The First Amendment,...Read more

Yesterday, Lakers superstar LeBron James and his family evacuated his Brentwood mansion, as did former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and countless rich people whose faces you might recognize. And even richer people who aren't used to packing up in front of cameras. Not everyone in Brentwood is rich, just like not everyone who lives on Fifth Avenue ...Read more

You close the windows. Turn on the air, if you have it. Check the live maps. Twitter. Figure out how to make your smart TV just a television. Text whoever you need to check on or reassure. Cancel any long drives you don't have to make.

It's a fire day in California.

As I used to reassure my mother, I live on a regular street. There is no brush...Read more

In his open letter responding to an allegation of rape contained in Ronan Farrow's new book, Matt Lauer (and, presumably, his lawyers) shows yet again that he doesn't get it. "It" being abuse of power, the meaning of consent and the offensiveness of his approach. "It" being the law -- as it has evolved, thankfully.

He claims that his "silence" ...Read more