ArcaMax

During the Christmas season when I was a boy, my mother used to take my brothers and sisters and me down to one of the roughest neighborhoods in San Francisco -- to visit some animals that were gathered there.

This was the Tenderloin District, which attracted drug dealers, drug users and a sad number of homeless people.

Our destination was ...Read more

It started with a suicide bomber.

On Sept. 4, 2013, a terrorist group launched an attack on a profoundly symbolic Syrian village.

"The dawn assault on the predominantly Christian village of Maaloula," reported the Associated Press, "was carried out by rebels from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group, according to a Syrian government ...Read more

When President George W. Bush stood in front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2005, and gave his second inaugural address, as this column has noted before, he argued that maintaining freedom in the United States would require spreading freedom all around the world.

"We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion," Bush declared. "...Read more

When the first Congress met at Federal Hall in New York City in 1789, there were three days in September that saw a telling sequence of events.

On Thursday, Sept. 24, the House of Representatives finalized the language for what the states would later ratify as the First Amendment to the Constitution.

The first part of this amendment declared...Read more

President Joe Biden met last week for the third time with Chinese President Xi Jinping -- the leader of a regime Biden's own administration has repeatedly declared is engaging in genocide.

No White House statement about any of these three meetings has indicated that Biden specifically made this genocide an issue with Xi.

The day before Biden...Read more

The National Center for Education Statistics, which is a part of the U.S. Department of Education, released some data last week that revealed a problem plaguing this nation's public schools.

It is marijuana -- the dope that can make someone a dope.

NCES published a table derived from the 2022 National Crime Victimization Survey's School ...Read more

The 1972 presidential election -- which pitted incumbent President Richard Nixon against Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota -- was an absolute wipeout.

Nixon won 49 of the 50 states, losing only Massachusetts.

In Delaware that year, Nixon took 59.6% of the popular vote and McGovern took only 39.2%. But the incumbent Republican senator ...Read more

Vice President Kamala Harris and the 16th-century British monarch Henry VIII share at least one trait in common: The belief that the government can force an individual to act against his conscience and in violation of his faith.

Henry VIII demonstrated this in his treatment of St. Thomas More.

More, a brilliant lawyer, experienced a meteoric...Read more

With the November election approaching, much attention is focused on the presidential contest -- but at least as significant are the contests that will determine who controls Congress.

That is because Congress controls federal taxing and spending.

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay ...Read more

The great sportswriter Grantland Rice would eventually call them the "team of destiny."

But when that 1922 Princeton University football team headed West to play Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg's University of Chicago team, Rice had predicted they would lose.

"The Tiger will give Chicago a first class battle, but the heavier attacking Maroon team ...Read more

The state of Florida had a population of 22,610,726 as of July 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That ranked third among all states -- exceeded only by Texas, which had a population of 30,503,301; and California, which had a population of 38,965,193.

As of this September, federal, state and local governments in this country employed ...Read more

It was seven-story building that sat along the Mediterranean and looked out over the sea.

That was the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983. On April 18 of that year, it was targeted by a recently formed Iranian-backed terrorist group.

"Lebanese police and witnesses said the front of the embassy was blown out by 500 pounds of explosives ...Read more

When Brian Buescher, whom then-President Donald Trump had nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, appeared at his confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Nov. 28, 2018, then-Sen. Kamala Harris did not ask him any questions.

A week later, however, she did submit written questions she wanted him to ...Read more