ArcaMax

The little girl had to go to the bathroom. They went into the cafe, one of a small chain, and the barista was happy to help. The father, who wasn't really thirsty, bought a cup of coffee anyway and added a tip to thank her.

A few hours later, a picture of the man, apparently taken from the store's surveillance camera, appeared in an Instagram...Read more

In his clueless and clumsy style, JD Vance has unmasked the cynical corruption at the core of Donald Trump's White House. Speaking at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum on June 25, the vice president said, "As I joked ... backstage, if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have ...Read more

During the pandemic, I did something stupid: I published a book. Bookstores were closed, so authors obviously could not promote their books by going on tour. Like a lot of other titles that came out in 2021, "The Stringer" -- a graphic novel written by me and drawn by Pablo Callejo -- got lost in the shuffle.

Too bad, and not just for my ...Read more

Last weekend, our family participated in the local pride parade with a group from my husband's work. Before the parade, our son wanted to get a pride flag to wave. He has always loved flags and can identify the flags for most countries of the world. Flags are powerful symbols of identity, which is why the artist Gilbert Baker chose to make a ...Read more

I mowed the lawn the other day.

Well, I kind of mowed the lawn. I missed a lot of spots, and I didn't weedwack the borders or trim the shrubbery.

Mostly, I sat on the front steps and drank beer. I drank eight beers, if you wanna count. I say that because if you drink while you work, somebody usually wants to count. I threw the eight empty ...Read more

Yes, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's socialist picks just knocked off some Democratic incumbents in New York City. They included surprising defeats, especially that of Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Espaillat lost to Darializa Avila Chevalier, whose social media swims with past calls to abolish the police, free ...Read more

So much for a peace treaty. President Donald Trump is back to making threats.

In a phone interview on Sunday with Fox News, Trump threatened to attack Iran and take over the Strait of Hormuz if Tehran interfered with passage through the waterway. He told Fox's Trey Yingst that he warned Iranian officials, "You close (the Strait of Hormuz) and...Read more

What a glorious day in June.

The Barack Obama Presidential Center opening in Chicago gave us a complete contradiction of the times we've been living through. Community rather than chaos, lightness versus darkness, and hope instead of fear.

I might add: beautiful music and language that lifted up instead of tearing down. A garden, a library, ...Read more

Once upon a time, conservative ideologues opposed government interference in the holy magic of the marketplace.

Take energy policy, for example. Right-wing cheerleaders of fossil fuels demanded that the government keep its fat thumb off the scale of free market competition between Big Oil and those frilly new "alternative" sources of energy. ...Read more

There was a time when lying all the time was frowned upon, and when easily demonstrable lying all the time could get a fellow into trouble. If President Donald Trump has succeeded at anything, it is in proving that those days are over. Pathological, even felonious, lying did not impede his 2024 election and doesn't appear to have shaken his ...Read more

MS NOW commentator Ali Velshi was not alone in complaining that women are "underrepresented" in Congress. It is true that women account for 51% of the U.S. population but only 29% of the House members.

To which I say, "So what."

Basing the notion of fair representation on racial, gender or ethnic identity needs to be put in a folder -- a ...Read more

A defining feature of the mid-20th century was the government-wide panic over Communism, anarchism and other leftist beliefs known as the Red Scare. However, what many don't know is that an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 government employees were fired or forced to resign during that same time period solely because they were suspected or confirmed ...Read more

In a new interview this week, Hillary Clinton identified the key decision that resulted in President Donald Trump's election in 2024. It all boiled down, in her view, to a "terrible miscalculation" - former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s decision to run for re-election. Mr. Biden made a "terrible mistake for himself, his legacy and for the ...Read more

Every person who has either participated in or witnessed a fight understands the doctrine of "he started it." The fight begins with a provocation followed by a response. That same reasoning extends to politics and war. What has gotten lost between third grade and the septuagenarians who determine our fates, however, is an equally common-sense ...Read more

An elementary school in Louisville, Kentucky, sits on land that was once the Farmington hemp plantation. That fact gutted me as I stood before "Childhood Interrupted," an art installation depicting enslaved children on the lawn of the historic home.

My son attends this elementary school which is now embedded in a neighborhood just one long ...Read more

OK, so I'm a small-timer.

This column runs in some papers around the country, but I'm not the most popular columnist this syndicate employs. I've written a few books, but none of them have been bestsellers. I've been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize twice, but I didn't win.

So, I figure if things get worse in what was once the greatest ...Read more