ArcaMax

AUSTIN, Texas -- In 2006, mystery author and musical humorist Kinky Friedman ran for governor of Texas as an independent on the slogan: "Why the hell not?" He lost, but Texans seem open to the same concept with a different candidate: Matthew McConaughey.

The Oscar-winning actor says he's seriously considering a race for governor next year, and ...Read more

For most of the past 20 years, the United States has had a clear policy in Afghanistan: avoiding reality. We kept telling ourselves that if we stuck it out a while longer and did one thing or another differently, the outlook would brighten, paving the way for us to leave in the glow of victory. But that improvement never came.

President Joe ...Read more

Driving has gotten much less dangerous over time, thanks to new safety features in cars, better highway design and a decline in drunk driving. But that's no solace to motorists who face dangers of a different kind -- not when they are driving, but when they are stopped on the side of the road.

Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old African American, was ...Read more

The Biden administration has grand dreams for mass transit. In its blue-sky vision, subways and buses will do everything from reducing traffic congestion to curbing climate change. But like generals preparing for the last war while failing to imagine how the next one will differ, it has the perfect strategy for an era that has passed.

The ...Read more

Mitch McConnell has been presented with the spectacle of giant American corporations taking sides on a political issue, and his eyes were seared by the sight. The Senate Republican leader could not have imagined Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, much less Major League Baseball, coming out against a piece of legislation. Processing the trauma may ...Read more

If there is any fundamental belief that has always united conservatives, it's the central importance of property rights. James Madison wrote: "Government is instituted to protect property of every sort ... (T)hat alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own." Said economist Milton Friedman, "Nothing is ...Read more

The U.S. mission in Afghanistan is nearly old enough to buy a beer, having gone on since 2001. Two presidents, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, promised it would come to an end, but the war outlasted them both.

Trump's administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that committed us to leave by May. That obligation was conveniently scheduled ...Read more

Many national problems have simple, effective solutions. To curb global warming, reduce fossil fuel use. To combat child poverty, give money to families with kids. To end a pandemic, get people vaccinated. But some problems are impervious to any plausible remedy. Mass shootings are one of those.

In the days after the bloody carnage in Georgia ...Read more

This is a time of pandemic, economic turmoil and mass shootings, but no issue has galvanized the American public more than President Joe Biden's long refusal to hold a press conference. The deafening chorus of popular outcries, however, finally forced him to schedule one for Thursday.

Just kidding. Americans have a lot of things on their minds ...Read more

In 2014, the Obama administration was faced with a surge in unaccompanied minors from Central America showing up at our border and seeking asylum. In an effort to reduce the number of kids trekking across Mexico, it created a program to let them apply for asylum in their home countries. Some 13,000 did, helping to ease the rush.

You can guess ...Read more

Donald Trump did many bad things as president, but he deserves a smidgen of credit for what he didn't do: go on an infrastructure spending binge. He vowed that under him, our roads, bridges and waterways would be "the envy of the world." He said that in 2016 and was still saying it in 2020. But his main achievement was to make "infrastructure ...Read more

Difficult tasks often don't get done, because they are, well, difficult. It's easier to ignore them, delay them, hope they'll go away or give up on them. But the city council of Evanston, Illinois, has the idea that the formidable nature of one obligation isn't an excuse for doing nothing.

The task it has taken up is providing a measure of ...Read more

Anytime I'm driving down the highway behind a semitruck, I look for the horizontal metal bar that spans the space underneath the trailer. It makes me feel a bit safer. And it reminds me of Jayne Mansfield.

She was a well-known film actress who died in a traffic accident in Louisiana in 1967. Her car rear-ended an 18-wheeler and slid underneath ...Read more

Eliza Orlins gained a measure of fame years ago as a contestant on the reality shows "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race." But if things go well for her, she could be remembered for something slightly more consequential: moving the nation toward decriminalizing sex work, commonly known as prostitution.

Orlins, a veteran public defender who is ...Read more

There are many instances when it sucks to be a Democrat, and the emergence of claims of sexual harassment against Andrew Cuomo is one of them. Just months ago, the governor of New York was a shining liberal hero, upholding facts and common sense in combating the coronavirus -- in stark contrast to the reckless idiocy of the 45th president. Now ...Read more

This month, the United States recorded a horrific milestone: 500,000 deaths from COVID-19. Someday, historians will look back at the pandemic and note all the mistakes and failures that helped make it the most deadly outbreak of disease in more than a century. But if they are wise, they will also note this past year as one in which Americans ...Read more

In an era of global climate change, Texas has retained an unshakable allegiance to fossil fuel production and use. It brings to mind the joke about the man who tells his psychiatrist that his brother thinks he's a chicken. The psychiatrist asks why the family hasn't gotten him help. "We need the eggs," the man replies.

Texas has long been ...Read more

For most Americans, being asked if they favor a higher minimum wage is like asking if they like sunshine and ice cream. What's not to like about increasing the rewards for low-paid workers -- especially for anyone who has ever been a low-paid worker?

This is one of those ideas that you might think would generate disagreement along partisan ...Read more

One of the most familiar lessons of the Donald Trump era is that no matter how bad today is, tomorrow can always be worse. We learned over and over that there is no bottom to his capacity for outrageous conduct, and there is no limit to his party's tolerance for it.

Jan. 6 was one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of the American ...Read more

Over many years, Mike Pence compiled a stellar record as a conservative Republican, most recently as a faithful servant of former President Donald Trump. When he refused to try to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's election victory, his decision was bound to alienate many former allies. But it did more than that. It provoked ...Read more