ArcaMax

If ever I heard of an oxymoron, that's it.

There is nothing graceful about all the medical tests -- and enhanced risks -- that seem to come with each decade.

Some people drew luckier than others in the DNA game. My lawyer and longtime dear friend, the legendary Bert Fields, is the only lawyer in his fine firm who actually goes to work in the...Read more

Apparently, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who has been much in the news for his outlier comments on COVID-19, is at it again.

He just so happened to go to a synagogue in Surfside, Florida, to sign a bill that has troubled many religious leaders.

DeSantis has ordered every schoolteacher in the state to set aside one to two minutes each day ...Read more

I never thought I would say it but I miss Donald Trump. Not as president, certainly not that. But as a distraction.

Remember how every morning you could wake up to screaming headlines about the latest outrageous Trump tweet? By the time you could fully digest its inanity, there would be yet another one. To those of us who thought that he ...Read more

As a longtime professor, I find it quite strange that an academic approach that has been discussed for at least as long as I've been teaching is only now making its way into the political debate.

Just last week, former Vice President Mike Pence, in an effort to reclaim his stake to Donald Trump's base, gave a speech in New Hampshire not only ...Read more

It worked for Richard Nixon, who won the presidency in 1968, redrawing the electoral map. The once-solidly Democratic South, which supported John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, deserted Hubert Humphrey.

It worked in Massachusetts, where, in 1978, a candidate trained by the legendary hardball player Dick Morris defeated the popular incumbent, ...Read more

When I used to do politics in Boston, there was a saying about loyalty. Loyalty isn't about sticking by your friends when they're right. That's easy; mostly, it involves joining the parade. No, loyalty is about sticking by your friends when they need help, when the easy thing to do is turn your back.

I have a lot of wishes.

I wish the people...Read more

I admire the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky from Harvard. She is following science, and science says there is no reason for me to wear a mask.

My chance of developing a case of COVID-19 serious enough to put me in the hospital is basically zero. I can't say that for anything else in life...Read more

The decision of the Republican House, led by Kevin McCarthy, an otherwise sane person, to oust Liz Cheney from her leadership position is a measure of just how afraid Republicans are, not of Democrats but of each other.

The arithmetic is simple. Most House seats are "safe," meaning that the incumbent's party has a comfortable advantage in the...Read more

Democrats close to California Gov. Gavin Newsom call Caitlyn Jenner the gift that keeps on giving.

Republicans just hold their heads. Some argue that after months of tedious signature gathering, the effort to recall Newsom is fizzling, and not just because vaccines are available on a walk-in basis and California is headed for herd immunity.

...Read more

COVID?

COVID-19 has all but disappeared from California. At this writing, our positivity rate -- the percentage of tests that are coming back positive -- is 1.2%.

California has gone from being one of the worst places in the nation for COVID-19 to being the best. The joke is that everyone who could get COVID already got it. The reality is ...Read more

The latest effort by anti-abortion activists to limit access to abortion, notwithstanding Roe v. Wade, takes the form of "reason bans," in which a woman's right to an abortion depends on the reason she wants it. This week, the North Carolina legislature advanced a bill that set forth the prohibited reasons and would penalize any doctor who ...Read more

In January, Simon & Schuster canceled its agreement to publish a book, presumably a memoir-cum-political pandemic, by Sen. Josh Hawley. Last week, in response to internal protests, Simon & Schuster refused to cancel plans for a book by former Vice President Mike Pence.

It drew a line. In this case, it was a line between a rogue senator who ...Read more

I spent the 1984 presidential campaign in the seat behind former Vice President Walter Mondale. From nomination to landslide defeat, I was there, right behind him, giving weather reports to the rest of the plane.

Winning campaigns are great. You show up and you're a genius. Everybody is flying high. Sure, there is always backbiting, but ...Read more

This week, liberal Democrats, led by Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts unveiled their proposal to increase the size of the Supreme Court by four justices. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected it out of hand. "I have no plans to bring it to the floor," Pelosi said of the legislation, ...Read more

If you or someone you love has just opened their email this week to find that they were rejected by their first choice for college, I got that rejection, too.

My first choice was Harvard, which was called Radcliffe in those days. I did everything I could: getting straight A's while working almost full time as a waitress and being the ...Read more

The Reopening of America -- or even of one town or state -- is hardly a seamless operation.

The stages make less and less sense. Everything is open, even if everything isn't really supposed to be open for more than a month.

Restaurants and shops, big stores and small, salons and barber shops -- almost everything but schools and office ...Read more

Former President Donald Trump wished a happy Easter to all including "Radical Left CRAZIES."

"Happy Easter to ALL, including the Radical Left CRAZIES who rigged our Presidential Election, and want to destroy our Country!" he said, well after the Capitol was stormed by his supporters, resulting in the death of a Capitol Police officer and four...Read more

President Biden made public his first slate of nominees for current vacancies on the federal courts. It was the most diverse set of nominees any president has ever sent to the Senate. It was easy to miss the story -- even I almost did -- between the pandemic and the vaccine; worries about family, money and the rest. But it matters, and it will...Read more

If you're looking for a vaccine, I can offer one piece of practical advice: Go red. If you live in a blue state, look for the red counties. Or get in your car and drive.

Six hours to Amarillo, my friend's son says. Amarillo was his grandfather's hometown. Other than that, he has absolutely no connection. But Texas is Texas. Better than ...Read more

Two stories I've been thinking about make clear that Republicans have problems Donald Trump's departure has not begun to solve. The problems are not with the Democrats. They are with science.

The first was the finding in the latest NPR/"PBS NewsHour"/Marist poll that some 49% of Republican men and 47% of Trump supporters say they will not ...Read more