ArcaMax

It's a funny thing. I had almost forgotten about the interview I did with my Columbia University professor 12 years ago.

Professor Henry Graff.

Graff was perhaps the most well-known Columbia professor of modern times. He was chairman of Columbia's prestigious history department, and he served as the Columbia historian. Graff kept a record of...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Vice President JD Vance spoke the language of love to cryptocurrency investors Wednesday when he proclaimed at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas, "We reject regulators."

As the veep sees it, Bitcoin is not just a good investment; it's also good for the country. Crypto, he argued, "is a hedge against bad policymaking in Washington."

And...Read more

On Wednesday evening, the world's wealthiest man announced that his sojourn in the nation's capital is almost over. "As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President (Donald Trump) for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending," Elon Musk posted to X, the social media platform he owns.

...Read more

Do taxpayers have a constitutional duty to bankroll Harvard University?

On MSNBC, David French argued that the Trump administration's defunding of Harvard is little more than "political retaliation." In the United States, we don't sentence people before hearing the verdict, the New York Times columnist said. Ignoring due process is "directly ...Read more

The U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that President Donald Trump had exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law, to impose tariffs on other nations. The decision was unanimous. One of the judges had been appointed by Trump in his first term. Another is a former President Ronald Reagan ...Read more

CBS News thinks the crown jewel of its news division is "60 Minutes," the alleged gold standard of investigative journalism on television. But when it comes to politics, their coverage isn't just slanted. It's more like a wrecked bus laying on its side, wheels spinning in the air.

Their stilted editing of a Kamala Harris interview weeks before ...Read more

"I'm not happy with what Putin is doing. He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin," said Donald Trump on Truth Social over the holiday weekend.

"I've always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a...Read more

ChatGPT is coming for your job.

That's the fear about the rapid advances in artificial intelligence.

In a headline the other day, Axios warned of a "white-collar bloodbath." The CEO of the artificial intelligence firm Anthropic told the publication that AI could destroy half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years ...Read more

American institutions are suffering from a collapse in public support. Among the institutions worst affected are government, the press and education. One could be forgiven for believing that government must be the most important, given its pervasiveness in our lives and its law enforcement powers; followed by the media, which -- of late -- ...Read more

All attempts by the government to evaluate the content of speech and deter or punish what the government and its benefactors hate or fear is un-American, unconstitutional and unlawful; and if not stopped, will reduce the American people to serfdom.

During the past three months, the Trump administration has sought to withhold the delivery of ...Read more

To understand where our nation's health policy currently stands, and where it is headed, one event enlightens our thinking: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s recent speech before the World Health Assembly, in which he outlined in stark detail the specific reasons why the United States has left the World Health ...Read more

The movie "The Big Short" -- dramatizing the reckless behavior in the banking and mortgage industries that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis -- captures much of Wall Street's misconduct but overlooks a central player in the collapse: the federal government, specifically through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

These two government-created ...Read more

Left-wing mayoral candidates and a newly launched "housing justice" group are promising a multiyear rent freeze on the city's nearly 1 million rent-regulated units. That's more than half the rental apartments in Gotham. It's a cynical political strategy: Pander to a block of single-issue voters almost too large to resist -- and capture the ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The status quo came tumbling down at Harvard after Hamas massacred 1,200 innocents on Oct. 7, 2023. As much of the world was revolted at the gratuitous slaughter, the swells at Harvard were working on a suitable statement. They deleted the word "violent" to describe the attack.

President Donald Trump will never forget how ...Read more

The House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill by a margin of one vote.

Well-deserved kudos have been conveyed to the masterful leadership of Speaker Mike Johnson, who navigated through a minefield to get done what needed to get done.

Now it's up to the Senate.

It's impossible not to think now of the admonition to not let the "perfect be the ...Read more

What does Russian dictator Vladimir Putin value?

My question's immediate frame of reference: Donald Trump says Ukraine war-waging, ceasefire-dawdling Putin is insane. Moreover, if Putin evades sincere peace negotiations, the Kremlin leader confronts "really bad things" and, ultimately, is "playing with fire."

"Really bad things" is a ...Read more

Bizarrely, 62% of young Americans hold a "favorable view" of socialism.

How can they be so ignorant?

Socialism has been tried by lots of countries. It's failed. It always fails.

China prospered somewhat only after they legalized some private enterprise.

Perhaps today's kids are ignorant because they're too young to remember the fall of the...Read more

The House of Representatives completed an overnight session on May 22 with a vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It passed by one very small margin -- 215 to 214.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer immediately condemned it -- and expressed anger that it would restrict federal funding of abortion.

"A few hours ago, while most Americans ...Read more