ArcaMax

Vice President Kamala Harris spent over $500 on cookware at a fancy store during her diplomatic visit to Paris.

I'll pause here to give you time to pick yourself up off the floor. It's a major shock to learn that someone with a net worth of $7 million would do a little shopping on a trip abroad. I assumed Harris would pack a well-worn copy of "...Read more

The Biden administration, to its credit, never misses a chance to emphasize the importance of dealing with climate change. President Joe Biden calls it an "existential" threat to humanity. John Kerry, his special envoy on the issue, said in April: "That means life and death. And the question is, are we behaving as if it is? And the answer is no....Read more

It has been 400 years since Native Americans took part in the first Thanksgiving, hosted by the Europeans who had appeared the previous year. This year also marks the first time a federal department has been headed by a Native American, and last week, she did something wise that none of her predecessors saw fit to do.

Interior Secretary Deb ...Read more

It can be really bothersome to hear politicians lying. But sometimes it's more alarming to realize they may be telling the truth.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission complaining that "gasoline prices at the pump remain high, even though oil and gas companies' costs are declining." He wants the agency ...Read more

The Republican Party of Wyoming has formally banished Rep. Liz Cheney from its ranks. This decision calls to mind Evelyn Waugh's remark when told that Winston Churchill's son, a politician and journalist, had undergone surgery for a benign tumor: "A typical triumph of modern science to find the only part of Randolph that was not malignant and ...Read more

In the annals of American economic policy, the year 2020 will be remembered as a remarkable success. That may sound odd, considering that the economy suffered a seizure that caused unemployment to quadruple almost overnight. But sometimes success is measured less by what is achieved than by what is avoided.

In this case, we avoided a ...Read more

The 9/11 attacks were the worst acts of terrorism in American history, with horrible results to thousands of innocent people. But the U.S. government's response to it was a horror show of its own, with consequences that continue to reverberate.

In his ensuing war on terrorism, President George W. Bush lashed out in large, catastrophically ...Read more

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once recounted how her grandfather experienced a spiritual revelation. When he lacked the money to fulfill his dream of graduating from Stillman College, he was told he could get a scholarship -- but only if he wanted to become a Presbyterian minister. "That's just what I had in mind," he replied.

...Read more

If you attend an abortion-rights rally, you are not likely to see anyone wearing a Second Amendment T-shirt. Visit a gun range, and trust me, none of the pickup trucks will have Planned Parenthood decals. But the Texas abortion ban has some very different Americans joining in a chorus of, "Don't tread on me."

The law prohibits any abortion ...Read more

It was once said of a Philadelphia Phillies outfielder renowned for his defensive prowess, "Two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water, the other one-third by Garry Maddox." At 72, Maddox can no longer cover quite that much ground. But then, there is less to cover. Every day, the areas underwater seem to be expanding.

This week, a storm known ...Read more

Anyone walking around Chicago can find all sorts of things that make life enjoyable, from outdoor sculptures to lakefront beaches to stunning architecture. What is not so easy to find is something that is sometimes needed to make life bearable: a public restroom.

It seems unfair to neglect a function vital to all humans while catering to needs ...Read more

In the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden told the United Nations General Assembly that the upshot is to "close this period of relentless war." But if the forever war is over, the prospect of an even more dangerous war is emerging elsewhere -- in the Straits of Taiwan.

Lately, the sabers have been rattling ...Read more

The United States has rarely been as divided as it is today -- red states vs. blue states, vaxxers vs. anti-vaxxers, the woke mob vs. insurrectionists and Houston Astros fans vs. decent human beings. Some people think the problem is not that Americans are too divided but that they are not divided enough. They have a suggestion: a national ...Read more

The United States is one of the richest societies on earth -- but one with more than its share of poverty. While American capitalism has done wonders to raise living standards for the great majority of people, it has left millions out of this prosperity.

Whether our failure deserves sustained national attention is at the heart of the current ...Read more

There was a time when "coastal" was an innocent geographical adjective, as in "coastal islands" or "coastal flooding." It referred to events and places located on large bodies of saltwater. But somewhere along the way, "coastal" gained a sinister, shameful connotation.

Populists and pseudo-populists have long fulminated against elites. But ...Read more

A former Facebook product manager's claims about the company's impact on American society has inflamed members of Congress and everyone else who holds a grudge against Big Tech. Particularly alarming is the allegation that Instagram, which Facebook owns, is wrecking the psyches of teenage girls. But there is less here than meets the eye.

In her...Read more

Donald Trump's presidency was the era when liberals learned to love federalism. From California to Massachusetts, governors and legislatures in blue states decided that resistance to federal dictates was a crucial way to uphold progressive policies.

Those were the good old days. With Democrats in control of both Congress and the White House, ...Read more

A deadly plague continues to rage across America, and neither vaccines nor face masks nor herd immunity can stop it. The epidemic of drug overdose deaths has taken more lives than COVID-19 and is more intractable. But the Biden administration is showing a welcome openness to a new strategy.

That approach is known broadly as "harm reduction." ...Read more

Like many sports franchises whose owners want to augment their already immense riches, the Chicago Bears are pondering a relocation. After a full century of playing in the city, the Monsters of the Midway could move to suburban Arlington Heights -- unless, of course, Chicago wants to make it worth their while to stay.

Season ticket holder Lori ...Read more

It's a redistricting year in the blue state of Illinois, which means that Republicans are getting less consideration than a missionary on the Las Vegas Strip. Democrats have been winning in the Land of Lincoln for a long while, controlling the state House for all but two of the past 38 years. But they see no harm in running up the score.

...Read more