ArcaMax

I recall imagining, back in 2020, that when COVID-19 was finally in the rearview mirror, we would witness a global party of epic proportions. If the "Roaring Twenties" were partly a reaction to the ebbing of the Spanish flu, perhaps the 2020s would feature a similar eruption of animal spirits and devil-may-care antics (albeit, alas, without the ...Read more

University of Pennsylvania Professor Amy Wax has no patience for victimhood complaints. Asked whether she considers mid-20th century British politician Enoch Powell (whose writing she assigned and who gained fame for his "rivers of blood" anti-immigration speech) was a racist, Wax was indignant:

"Can you define racism for me? Is so-and-so a ...Read more

In late 2019, Politico asked a high-ranking Biden aide about the candidate's age. "If Biden is elected," the anonymous adviser said, "he's going to be 82 years old in four years and he won't be running for reelection."

That was then. Though Joe Biden never did forswear a second term, thus avoiding Teddy Roosevelt's 1904 mistake, which made him ...Read more

Oh how conservatives loved to hate the media. The leftward tilt of the big prestige press was irritating for those of us on the other side, and compounding the offense were ritualistic denials that emanated from the likes of CBS and The New York Times.

Does it strike you as outrageous to suggest, as Fox News host Tucker Carlson has, that ...Read more

In 2015, at the age of 90, former president Jimmy Carter released a statement saying that he had metastatic melanoma and that the cancer had spread to his brain. "It's in the hands of God," he calmly explained, "whom I worship." News organizations dusted off obituaries, and tributes poured in.

But then something unexpected happened. Carter was ...Read more

My husband went to California on a business trip a few weeks ago. While he was away, I found myself doing something completely out of character -- switching on the TV while cooking or reading the paper. A silent house felt lonely. In 1960, just 13% of households were comprised of single adults. By 2021, that figure had more than doubled to 28%. ...Read more

Police reform is hard. Not that there's any shortage of smart proposals. In the wake of the shameful beating death of Tyre Nichols, we've seen a number of promising reform ideas, including dramatically increasing training and disempowering police unions, both of which I support. But, the world being what it is, resources are finite, special ...Read more

Driving to dinner on Sunday, I found myself suddenly surrounded by emergency vehicles. Fire trucks, police cars and ambulances seemed to converge from all directions. Had someone jumped off the bridge into the river?

I thought of that crush of rescuers when the video of Tyre Nichols' murder surfaced. What a split screen: On one hand, the total ...Read more

Imagine that you are the parent of a 15-year-old girl and discover that her school has been concealing her daytime behavior from you. Your daughter has joined a far-right Mormon spin-off cult, believes in plural marriage, has spoken of dropping out of school to get married, and declines to participate in physical education because wearing gym ...Read more

If you're a parent with kids in public school, you are doubtless aware of the roiling controversies about the teaching of critical race theory and about policies governing the participation of trans athletes in sports. Those things are not trivial, but you're probably not hearing much about a far more consequential matter: how schools are ...Read more

During one of Kevin McCarthy's gauntlet of punishing votes, it was striking to see with whom he passed the time. There she was, dressed in sophisticated black, the member hailed as a "key ally" to the new speaker of the House: Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Her choice of color (in the past she has donned stark reds, whites or blues -- get it?) is ...Read more

Here's a funny thing about the Freedom Caucus' insurrection against Kevin McCarthy, which on Tuesday denied him election as Speaker of the House on three consecutive ballots for the first time in a century. On the surface, it looks like the firebrands and zealots are in revolt against the GOP "establishment." But the reality is that the ...Read more

On Christmas eve in Washington, D.C., the temperature plunged to 15 degrees Fahrenheit, the coldest on record. In our neighborhood, people were admonishing their neighbors for leaving dogs outside too long. "It's friggin' 15 degrees!"

And yet, the governor of Texas nonetheless decided to dump another 130 men, women and children -- some wearing ...Read more