ArcaMax

Early on in "Fiddler on the Roof," Yente the Matchmaker tries to sell a villager on Rachel, the shoemaker's daughter, as a suitable wife for his son. "Rachel?" the man responds incredulously. "But she can hardly see! She's almost blind!"

"Tell me the truth, Avram," Yente parries, unperturbed. "Is your son so much to look at? The way she sees, ...Read more

A dear millennial friend and I once had a fraught conversation. It came back to me upon reading that the demographic most receptive to socialist candidates and their far-left agenda was the urban "downwardly mobile elite."

My friend, the son of hard-working immigrants, possessed an Ivy League degree. He was miffed that a couple he knew ...Read more

The National Institutes of Health -- the world's largest public funder of biomedical research -- began an ideological purge of its grants in February. Without warning, hundreds of research projects were abruptly canceled.

The NIH targeted research that was purportedly connected to "gender identity" and "diversity, equity, and inclusion," or ...Read more

It's not just Trump being Trump. We -- and by "we" I mean both the public and the media -- have gotten so used to Trump repeating outrageous lies that we tend to dismiss them out of hand. But this is much, much worse. For Trump and his top officials to accuse former President Barack Obama of treason, much less to call for an investigation by ...Read more

In media, does satire generate profits? Or do profits permit satire? Causation is elusive. But there is a correlation between how much money a media organization generates and how much funny it publishes or puts on air.

When print newspapers were dominant and highly profitable, satire was a significant part of their content. Based at The ...Read more

I first met Elise Carter at a public meeting in spring 2021. Elise sat with her colleague and friend Trinity Walsh in the auditorium of Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, where I had graduated in 1993. The community assembled to talk about a social equity course Elise and Trinity were slated to teach as a high school elective. ...Read more

A guy I know, another writer, read one of my columns not long ago, and had a little advice.

"You shouldn't say how old you are," he said, giving me the worried/wisdom look.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because editors are gonna think you're writing a senior citizen column," he said. "Pretty soon, your stuff's going to be running next to the ad for the ...Read more

Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" galvanized support for the American Revolution. It mocked the English monarchy, calling hereditary succession "a degradation and lessening of ourselves" and "an imposition on posterity."

Were he still with us, Paine might weep at the sight of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. heading the Department of Health and ...Read more

Until last week, most of us had never heard of the data company Astronomer or its then CEO, Andy Byron. That was before he attended a Coldplay concert in Massachusetts on Wednesday with a woman later identified as the head of human resources at the company. The two were caught by the "kiss cam" at the concert; he was embracing her. When they ...Read more

In 1516, a 7-acre section of Venice, Italy, was designated as the area where Jews would be required to live. As it was located where a copper foundry had been, it was called by the word for "foundry" in the Venetian dialect: "geto." The practice of forcibly concentrating Jews into such "ghettos" grew, reaching a brutal, murderous climax under ...Read more

The missing Jeffrey Epstein files triggered MAGA and me.

Hopefully, Washington correspondents will have a rude awakening too.

Lurid details about the late Palm Beach sex trafficker -- and links to Donald Trump before he ran for president -- are bubbling up.

Only now. This "news" is old.

Next to the relentless reporting on Watergate by ...Read more

From the Lowdown's "Early Political Warning System" comes this Code Red alert (BRRAAAPP) ... a fast-moving front of corporate corruption is sweeping westward from the White House ... (BRRAAAPP) ... Residents are urged to seek higher ethical ground immediately ... (BRRRAAAPP).

This is not a test, but a warning of an unnatural disaster: A ...Read more

"Fear is the tool of the tyrant," wrote suddenly former Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey to her colleagues after she was abruptly fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi last week, no basis given, no justification suggested. The surprise is that it took Donald Trump six months before garroting Comey. Since returning to office, he's been focused...Read more

Zohran Mamdani's ideas are Bernie. But his political maneuvers are Donald. The similarities between the Democratic Socialist running for New York City mayor and President Donald Trump -- as well as their respective bases -- are fascinating.

Like Trump, Mamdani's playbook is heavy on culture and grievances that have little to do with the ...Read more

Remember when candidate Donald Trump went on and on about all the rapists and murderers who were invading our country and he said he was going to deport them? It was his favorite issue, his answer to everything. It was enough to frighten anyone and helped him win the election. People believed him: According to exit polls, even many Hispanic ...Read more

Reacting with borderline hysteria to demands that the government open its files on Jeffrey Epstein -- the deceased pedophile and financier who once described himself as Donald Trump's "best friend" -- the president has aroused suspicion even among MAGA cultists. Few Americans believe the excuses Trump and his appointees in the Justice ...Read more