ArcaMax

You can't understand the presidency of James Earl Carter Jr. unless you contextualize it within the framework of the hysterical aftermath of the 1972 election. While the Republican Party brand suffered tremendous damage due to Watergate, Richard Nixon's decision to prolong the Vietnam War and his resignation, the GOP proved improbably resilient....Read more

NEW ORLEANS QUESTION: What did you do for those beads?

ANSWER: I got run over by a truck and now I'm lying in the street like a busted Barbie.

Yeah. I know. It wasn't Mardi Gras, though everything in the United States now leads uphill to the cross.

I call 'em "Watermelons," those columns that come in like a slow ball over the plate, aimed ...Read more

I enjoy crafting and sewing, but lately I've become hyperaware of the waste produced to sustain this hobby. When I walk into a craft and fabric store, I feel like I could pick up the entire store and dump it directly into a landfill. It's mostly plastic -- yes, even the fabric -- and it likely won't get recycled. But I love to craft and sew. I...Read more

There is widespread concern today about the use of generative AI and deepfakes to create fake videos that can manipulate and deceive people. Many are asking, is there any way that technology can confidently establish whether an image or video has been altered? A number of techniques have been proposed. They include -- most prominently -- a ...Read more

Sports stadiums around the country have begun using face recognition to identify ticket holders, threatening to normalize a uniquely powerful surveillance technology that has already been used for abusive purposes. Worse, companies involved are already planning big expansions, raising the specter of a world where our faces become not just our ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump has said that he intends to issue an executive order to end birthright citizenship for millions of children. Trump's campaign website states that, to qualify as a citizen, any baby born after his executive order would need to have at least one parent who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident. Scholars across ...Read more

From a young age, I enjoyed playing around with gender roles, but it wasn't until later in my adolescence that I started to have more complex thoughts about my gender identity. What I discovered, both in my childhood and later in my development, was that a lot of trans folks have similarly nonlinear approaches, or nonlinear journeys, to their ...Read more

Ladies and gentleman, here is your United States Senate, then and now:

Sen. Daniel Webster on March 7, 1850: “It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United States (with) a just sense of its own dignity, and its own high responsibilities, and a body to which the country looks with confidence for wise, moderate, patriotic, and healing ...Read more

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, Pennsylvania’s three-week-old budget impasse is the ultimate, binge-worthy summer drama.

There are great storylines, with real-world implications with fascinating characters in leading roles. And, like any addictive warm-weather series, the chances are pretty good that politics-watchers ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- "The king can do no wrong." That is the ancient legal maxim used to explain why a sovereign should not be held to account for misdeeds. President Trump and his lawyers are now making arguments that make this legal doctrine look wimpy. Their vision boils down to: The king can do whatever wrong he damn pleases, and there's nothing ...Read more