ArcaMax

The late, great humorist P.J. O'Rourke used to quip that everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to wash the dishes.

Well, now that can be said for traditional environmental groups that seem to have lost their way.

Green groups are supposed to be about keeping our rivers, lakes and streams clean. They are supposed to be about ...Read more

There's a political cartoon going around that shows John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy sitting on a couch watching a speech by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The two hold their palms to their heads and moan that their legacy is being twisted and ruined.

This has the situation completely backward. It isn't RFK Jr. who is rejecting the Kennedy brothers...Read more

Let's face it. Anyone who works in, or just visits, the Wall Street area of Manhattan can't deny the aura of power and money isn't what it was 20, 30 or 50 years ago.

The vibrancy, the financial dominance, the gusto seems to have gone missing -- so have many of the Gordon Gekko high rollers. Today, Wall Street is less crowded. It's sleepier. ...Read more

In the last several months, I have debated some of the intellectual leaders of a group called the "national conservatives." I consider myself a conservative (on most issues, though I lean more libertarian). National conservatives are well meaning and make some very valid points about the things that are going in the wrong direction in America ...Read more

One of the most enduring lessons of American history is that the banning of liquor sales and consumption ("the noble experiment") was a colossal failure. Drinking didn't go down much, but the profits ended up going not to legitimate businesses but bootleggers and the mob, while the murder rate soared to all-time highs in American history. It was...Read more

One of the textbook marketing flops of all time was the Ford Edsel sedan, which was heralded as the hot new car in the late 1950s. All the automotive experts and Ford executives said it was a can't-miss. Henry Ford (the car was named after his son) guaranteed hundreds of thousands of sales.

But one big thing went wrong: Nobody ever bothered to ...Read more

After spending $6 trillion on social welfare and a Green New Deal spending spree and running our national debt up to $33 trillion, President Joe Biden is asking to whip out the federal credit card yet again for $100 billion more in military assistance for Ukraine and Israel and "humanitarian" aid.

Yes, it certainly is a dangerous world, and ...Read more

Perhaps what's most distressing about the latest collapse in high school test scores is that no one seems to be very distressed.

You've probably heard the news that ACT scores have fallen for the sixth straight year. Our high school kids are less equipped for a job or college than at any time in three decades.

Why isn't anyone in Washington or...Read more

When I was growing up and attending Catholic schools, I was taught that the pope is infallible.

But then I read Pope Francis' updated encyclical letter last week, and now I can only conclude that at least this pope is fallible. In fact, the declaration is so filled with anti-Christian fallacies that one has to wonder whether we have a ...Read more

Why has Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) declared war on credit cards?

Americans are in love with paying with plastic.

Perhaps too much so -- given that credit card debt now exceeds $1 trillion.

But paying with plastic has become a sort of American pastime -- so popular and convenient (especially reward programs that offer cash-back payments, ...Read more

House Republicans are in another titanic battle with President Joe Biden on how to balance the budget. Actually, it's a lopsided debate because Democrats have no interest at all in reducing the deficit. They are operating under the delusional idea paradigm of "Modern Monetary Theory," which posits that the U.S. government can borrow $2 trillion ...Read more

You may have heard the Biden Justice Department is suing Google in federal court for being a "monopoly." That's a bizarre charge given that few, if any companies in all American history have lowered prices more than Google -- which provides access to information that used to take hours or days to find -- with merely a click of a button, and ...Read more

What's worse? When politicians shut down the government, or when they lock down businesses, stores, schools, churches and restaurants -- and nearly all private commerce in America?

If you haven't heard, the media and congressional Democrats are near cardiac arrest over the prospect of a government shutdown later this year. They may need ...Read more