ArcaMax

"Our crime rate is going up," former President Donald Trump claimed during the Republican National Convention last week, when he vowed to "Make America Safe Once Again." Yet the most notable recent increase in the homicide rate happened on Trump's watch, and violent crime has been falling since then.

That gap between Republican rhetoric and ...Read more

While I was watching the ongoing news reports on the assassination attempt of former President Donald J. Trump last weekend, I was simultaneously scrolling through social media posts on X. The repulsive vitriol was and continues to be ever present, and although President Joe Biden had the best intentions in his plea for unity during his address ...Read more

If you search for "home still" on Amazon, you will see a bunch of products that are explicitly advertised as tools for producing liquor. But while it is legal to make beer, cider or wine at home for your own consumption or to share with friends, unlicensed production of distilled spirits remains a federal felony punishable by up to five years ...Read more

The film "Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot" begins with a beautiful truth about childhood innocence. As the cameras pan over the woods of rural southeastern Shelby County, Texas, the narrator mentions that when you are a child you don't have much to worry about because the world just seems simpler. At least this is the way it should be ...Read more

Challenging the federal indictment stemming from his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump argued that former presidents can be prosecuted for "official acts" only if they are first impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate based on the same conduct. While rejecting that claim last week, ...Read more

In May, the Pew Research Center published results from January and April surveys on African American voters' opinions on the upcoming November election and domestic and foreign policy, along with their thoughts regarding President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. The January sample size consisted of 759 Black adults out of 5,140 ...Read more

After the U.S. Supreme Court curtailed the powers of federal agencies in two cases last week, progressive critics predictably complained that the decisions favored "big business," "corporate interests" and "the wealthy and powerful." That gloss overlooked the reality that people with little wealth or power frequently are forced to contend with...Read more

The kid in me really enjoyed Disney and Pixar's "Inside Out 2," the sequel to the beloved 2015 film that introduced us to Riley, an only child who is somewhat shy but has a big heart of kindness.

I actually think the first film was funnier as it tackled Riley's growing emotions of Joy, Fear, Sadness, Disgust and Anger from a young girl to the...Read more

Two years ago, New York Times columnist David French complains, the Supreme Court "created a jurisprudential mess that scrambled American gun laws" by saying they must be "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." Last week, French suggests, the court drew back from the precipice when it upheld a federal law ...Read more

Within the past week, I have been reading some interesting Chronicle of Higher Education articles that my campus dean sent regarding concern about students' lack of zeal for intellectual engagement in the classroom. We spent some time discussing this in my annual review, particularly how many professors now feel they are at a crossroads in ...Read more

After the Supreme Court overturned the Trump administration's bump stock ban last week, critics complained that the justices had interpreted the Second Amendment in a way that rules out perfectly reasonable gun regulations. That was an odd complaint, because the case did not involve the Second Amendment.

The Court's decision upheld an ...Read more

In concluding with Part 2 from last week's column, "Addressing Mental Health in the Church," I want to share some final essential and helpful points that I received from this Bible study series taught by my pastor, Overseer S.D. Carter.

The first one is that mental illness is not the result of sin or punishment for it. Unfortunately, a damaging...Read more

When former President Donald Trump agreed to address a conference hosted by an organization that opposes abortion in all circumstances, President Joe Biden's campaign cited the appearance as evidence of Trump's extremism on the issue. But in his brief recorded remarks at the Danbury Institute's Life & Liberty Forum in Indianapolis on Monday, ...Read more

Toward the end of May my pastor, Overseer S.D. Carter, began a mental health series for our church, Vision of Breath with Life Ministries in Columbus, Ohio. The series has extended into June and has a similar theme to last month's National Alliance on Mental Illness' "Take the Moment" campaign, which focused on support for family caregivers and ...Read more

On the heels of a New York conviction that stripped former President Donald Trump of his Second Amendment rights, a federal jury in Delaware is considering whether Hunter Biden violated three gun laws when he bought a revolver in 2018. If Biden is convicted of those felonies, he also will lose the constitutional right to armed self-defense.

...Read more

A century ago, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, also known as the Immigration Act of 1924, which precipitated a two-generation-long pause in mass migration.

Upon Coolidge’s signature, multiple benefits to citizen workers ensued immediately. Immigration dropped from 707,000 in 1924 to 294,000 in 1925. Within...Read more

I cannot imagine the immense depth of grief and pain the families of Davy and Natalie Lloyd are bearing right now as the remains of this young missionary couple were recently flown back to the U.S. from Haiti. Davy, 23, and Natalie, 21, had their entire lives ahead of them, and soon after getting married in 2022, they began working for the ...Read more

President Joe Biden "was a key figure in passing the 1994 Crime Bill, which disproportionately harmed Black communities through harsh sentencing laws and increased incarceration rates," former President Donald Trump's campaign reminded voters last week. If elected, Trump promised in a speech at the Libertarian National Convention two days ...Read more

Longtime Houston civil rights activist Rev. William "Bill" Lawson passed away this month at the age of 95. He was a close colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and worked with him in establishing Houston's office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. As a stalwart in the generation of civil rights leaders with King, Lawson fought to...Read more

For half a century, critics have argued marijuana does not belong in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, a category supposedly reserved for drugs that cannot be used safely even under a doctor's supervision due to their high potential for abuse and lack of accepted medical applications. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice ...Read more