ArcaMax

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

We can thank China that gasoline prices aren't higher than they are.

By last month, China had cut imports of oil by 3 million barrels a day, the daily consumption of Italy and France combined. China's economy, meanwhile, hums along.

Americans agonize over how the price of oil affects gas at the pump. Were it not for China, a tank of gas ...Read more

The president wants us to put the war in the "rear view window."

Who can blame him? Thirteen American servicemen and women have given their lives. You and I, the taxpayers, have spent upwards of $29 billion. But did we "win"? Win what? Is it a more dangerous world, or a safer one, because of this war? Are we getting any more out of this deal ...Read more

I swam in the beautiful bay water three times that day. Salt on skin does wonders. Six of us had a sundown dinner on the roof, with a homemade almond cake a la creme and fruit for dessert, a ferry and lighthouse in the distance.

Everyone around the table at the house party was a true-blue friend. Some I'd known forever, so it seemed.

Our ...Read more

Step right up, folks! Please don't crowd! No need to shove, plenty here for everyone!

Welcome to the Bonanza Extravaganza of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) "BOOM." Silicon Valley billionaires are now proposing a scheme to deliver an unbelievable windfall to "every citizen." Tech titans like Sam Altman of OpenAI are pushing the federal ...Read more

When workers scraped Donald Trump's name off the Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, they should have kept going. They should have taken Kennedy's name off as well and restored the building to its original, simple title, the National Culture Center.

After President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Congress ...Read more

For Americans traveling in Western Europe this summer, it's a time of real humility, and some humiliation. You have to be quite the American exceptionalist to defend America these days, when what seems truly exceptional about our country is a presidency that is openly, even flagrantly, corrupt. It's a strident word to use, but it is, as the ...Read more

Conditions at Delaney Hall are so reprehensible and degrading that detained individuals resorted to starving themselves to bring attention to their inhumane treatment. An open letter signed by nearly 300 people brought light to the medical neglect, spoiled or inadequate food and other "torturous" conditions at the facility. The hunger and ...Read more

I'm not one to generally quote Senate Majority Leader John Thune as my authority on Cabinet appointees, but when it came to Bill Pulte -- the housing chief with no national security experience who was President Donald Trump's first choice for Director of National Intelligence -- he was right to express concern. Pulte has no business in that ...Read more

Even if you haven't geeked out over the "boy problem," you're probably aware of the well-documented evidence that boys and men are struggling.

Boys lag behind girls in school and graduate at lower rates. Women now comprise the overwhelming majority of college students and graduates. Boys are far more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, get into...Read more

Most times when I'm invited to speak at a conference, someone introduces me by reading the short bio provided. But this past week at the Southeastern Writers' Association Conference, my friend, the Georgia judge and novelist Lori Duff, introduced me. She started off by warning she might embarrass me, then proceeded with the most generous and ...Read more

I don't fix things.

I'm a man. I don't fix things.

I pay people to fix things, is what I do.

In general, the people I pay to fix things do not fix the thing on the first try.

Being unable to fix things on the first try doesn't hurt your fixing-things career, though.

Nearly everyone I've ever had to call back to fix the same thing twice ...Read more

Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna conceded at a rally for the Maine senatorial candidate that Graham Platner's actions have not been sterling. Voters considering Platner don't like his "shameful" actions against women, the Californian said, but "they are willing to extend him grace and redemption."

Maine Democrats have just chosen Platner to challenge ...Read more

I woke up early to catch the latest news on the election results, only to find that the first text message I saw was not a news alert from Maine, but a warning from Apple Customer Support. Someone in Moscow, Russia, was trying to access my Apple account to make a $329.49 purchase on the AliExpress Marketplace. The transaction would be ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- June 27 is coming up, the date of the 2024 debate when America watched Joe Biden tank the election to Donald Trump.

Remember? It would be hard to forget Democrats' pain when we saw a ghostly Biden self-destruct and grope for words. Jill Biden tried to pretend otherwise, but the damage was done.

America is still paying dearly ...Read more

Remember long, long ago in the old-timey days of politics, way back ... maybe 10 years or so?

In those olden times, if someone or some corporations gave a million dollars to a political candidate, the donation was scandalous news -- a bribe!

Ahhh, I miss those innocent days when ethical outrage could erupt over a mere million. These days, a ...Read more

In a 2011 Los Angeles Times column titled "When Unity Was All-American," writer George Skelton marked the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor by recalling a time when Americans respected those whom they elected. "What I remember most," he recalled about America during World War II, "are home front adults pulling together, willing to sacrifice, ...Read more