ArcaMax

Playboy Enterprises just announced that it has purchased a table at this year's White House Correspondents Association dinner. Swell. Just what we need.

The dinner, as you've probably heard, is an annual ritual of narcissism in which leading press figures don black tie and hope to see, or better yet, be seen with, Hollywood stars. Like much of ...Read more

I've always felt a kinship with Paul Ryan. Maybe it's the fact that we are both Jack Kemp acolytes. Maybe I have a soft spot for upright family men who are attracted to public policy by the desire to do good. Maybe I love conservative wonks. But Paul Ryan's fate over the past several years is as good an indication as any of how far our politics ...Read more

When 450 students arrived at Anacostia High School in the District of Columbia's southeast neighborhood on April 4, they found that few of the sinks or toilets were functioning and the cafeteria was flooded. They were advised by the Department of General Services to use the facilities at a middle school two blocks away until repairs could be ...Read more

Donald Trump woke up on Friday, March 23, and realized that a deficit-ballooning $1.3 trillion "omnibus" spending bill was awaiting his signature. The law increases defense spending but otherwise completely fulfills the spending priorities of the Democratic minority. Some have even said that the omnibus was "Barack Obama's budget."

Suddenly ...Read more

Watching the parade of porn stars, reality TV contestants and former Playboy models lining up to lambaste the president of the United States, as well as the daily trove of stories of wife beating, naked nepotism, gambling and official corruption among his Cabinet members and White House staff, I was reminded of a story Bill Buckley once told.

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There are so many things to lament about the modern world -- fracturing families, the rise of authoritarianism, the rage for torn jeans -- but there is also much to celebrate and savor. One is the abundance of great conversation available through podcasts. There's my own, of course, "Need to Know," and then there is the master.

If you're not ...Read more

"If you don't have steel, you don't have a country" declared President Donald Trump at a press availability with the Swedish prime minister. He was explaining his decision to impose a tax on steel and aluminum. Why these products?

Well, the president had just met with steel executives, who tend to press government officials to spare them from ...Read more

I don't know about you, but when I hear the phrase "drain the swamp," I associate it with clean government, transparency, ethics and such like. In 2016, it became, along with "Lock her up," a favorite Donald Trump campaign slogan. Trump was not the first to use the metaphor. John Kelly traces it back to a 1903 letter to the Daily Northwestern. ...Read more

When absorbing news about the Mueller investigation, I can't help thinking of Saddam Hussein. No, I'm not equating our president with the late Iraqi dictator. I'm thinking more about our assumptions regarding Saddam's guilt. In the run-up to the Iraq War, the whole world was asking whether Saddam had a secret program for weapons of mass ...Read more

An orgy of mutual disgust now greets every mass shooting in America. Liberals despise conservatives who, they predict, will offer only insipid "thoughts and prayers" in the face of what they conceive to be preventable massacres. Conservatives scorn liberals who, they believe, will propose "feel-good" gun measures that would have no effect on any...Read more

I'm having trouble understanding why Rob Porter had to resign his job as White House staff secretary (the person who manages the paper flow in the West Wing). Yes, he was credibly accused of domestic abuse by two ex-wives. One produced a photo of her black eye and bruised cheek; the other had phoned 911 when he allegedly punched through the ...Read more

Early in George W. Bush's first term, I was dining with a friend who didn't agree with my worldview. He challenged my certitude, allowing that he wasn't sure about many issues. "Don't you wonder whether you're right?" he asked. "Well," I replied, "if I held an incorrect view, I'd change it to the correct one."

It was a joke, obviously, but I've...Read more

I am old enough to remember when conspiracy theories were primarily the province of the left.

In the 1990s, the San Jose Mercury News ran a series asserting that the crack epidemic in African-American neighborhoods was a plot orchestrated by the CIA. The tale was satisfying to many who were predisposed to see the CIA as a villain and who were ...Read more