ArcaMax

This was the week that was supposed to be celebrated for the accomplishments of President Donald Trump's 100 days in office. It didn't turn out that way. The president rained on his own parade. The two biggest crises facing the new administration -- the rule of law and the economy -- according to him, have nothing to do with him. Blame the ...Read more

My mom had an uncanny ability to size up current events and accurately predict their long-term effects. Fifty years ago, I sat in my mom's colonial dining room and watched the fall of Saigon on her black-and-white TV with two folds of aluminum foil dangling from the rabbit ears. America was not riding high. A year earlier, gas rationing went ...Read more

When you know where you belong, it's easier to be yourself. As an adult with autism, Sara Lamb's search for belonging has been a long road, which is why I wanted to talk to her. Sara described herself as "quirky" and "shy." When she attended public school as a child, she felt like a "lone wolf." She said, "I just didn't have a lot of lasting ...Read more

A word on generations. I'm from the "his mom found his pot" generation, which, speaking in substances, comes after the "Spanish fly makes girls crazy" generation and the "cocaine isn't really addictive, like heroin is" generation.

In other words, I graduated from high school in a proudly all-white, working-class Midwestern suburb in 1975.

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Most remarkable about the recent Canadian election is that patriotism rather than raw economic interest propelled voters to resist Donald Trump. Canadians rejected the MAGA-fied Conservative Party, despite an economy suffering from anemic growth and high housing costs, all pinned on Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party.

Trump's devastating tariff ...Read more

What do you do when you've screwed up so badly that any competent president would be demanding your resignation? Easy. Attack women.

That's the solution Pete Hegseth, reeling from an unauthorized disclosure of war plans to his wife (and his brother and his lawyer), adopted this week. On Tuesday, in what his leaking-like-a-sieve aides ...Read more

May Day, May 1, has long been a day of protest, and this year is no exception. Protests are happening across the country, against President Donald Trump and his attack on the social safety net, on immigrants, on people of color, the LGBTQ community and more.

On May 1, 1971, massive protests against the Vietnam War engulfed Washington, D.C. ...Read more

I'm not Catholic, but the pope's death hit hard, compared to a living president.

Pope Francis, a champion for peace and the poor who crossed borders in his inclusion, showed how it's done, winning hearts all over the world.

Donald Trump showed up at the Vatican funeral wearing a bright blue suit amid a sea of black. The least of his sins.

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The federal budget is not only about money, but fundamentally about our country's morality -- our commitment to fairness, equality and unity.

Which brings me to, of all things, our nation's Farm Bill. This sprawling piece of legislation, updated every five years, is intended to combine the interests of farmers with consumers, production with ...Read more

Addressing Congress in 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt warned Americans about being lulled into unconsciousness by those who pooh-poohed the dark clouds over Europe created by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. "I hope that we shall have fewer American ostriches in our midst," said FDR. "It is not good for the ultimate health of ostriches ...Read more

I have been deep in conversation with ChatGPT, asking all kinds of questions. Are there direct flights between the U.S. and Queretaro, Mexico? Will Apple give me credit for a 2014 iMac? What color goes with teal? What was France's GDP in 1998?

My fascination with ChatGPT has become a household joke. "All right, Froma," we imagine Chat saying....Read more

Since January, the Trump administration has abducted several international students and faculty and detained them thousands of miles away from their loved ones all because these scholars have spoken about Israel and Palestine in ways the government doesn't like. But criticizing U.S. foreign policy, or voicing any other opinion, is protected by ...Read more

There is the secretary of defense sharing battle plans with his third wife, a former Fox News producer, on Signal. His top aides have all quit or been fired. The department is leaking like a sieve about its leader. Disarray, they say. He was stunningly unqualified for the job in the first instance (joke of the week: the cardinals should choose...Read more

Wars end. Bombs remain. In December 2020, the crew of an English fishing boat was pulling in a string of crab pots 22 miles northeast of Cromer, a town in Norfolk, England, when they noticed a tug on the main line. An explosion blew the Galwad-Y-Mor into the air, injuring five crew members, one of whom lost an eye. The cause was a bomb dropped...Read more

When Patty Mitchell wanted to design a product around the abilities of special needs workers, the response she got was, "These people will never make anything anybody would want to buy." That shortsighted attitude plays into the social construct that limits people with intellectual or developmental disabilities to employment workshops that pay ...Read more

When news stories about bedbugs started showing up a few years back, I wrote that bedbugs were out of my father's world, the 1920s world of immigrant tenement dwellers.

My father told hilariously about his mother's battles with bedbugs.

"After she boiled all the sheets, she'd paint the bed slats with kerosene, and she'd put all four legs of ...Read more