ArcaMax

In the 1960s, the conservative intellectual James Burnham wrote a book arguing that the decline of Western civilization was a self-imposed choice.

The volume, famously called "Suicide of the West," desperately needs to be updated with an epilogue about the U.S. dependence on China for the mining and processing of rare earths, which ranks as ...Read more

On Thursday, Senate Democrats voted for the 10th time to prolong the federal government shutdown. They also voted against funding the military, thereby necessitating that the Pentagon initiate some innovative accounting in order to ensure service members are paid on time.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended his caucus's ...Read more

The president is still riding on global goodwill for the release of hostages from Hamas. On stage in Egypt, the president of Pakistan praised President Donald Trump for bringing peace to what could have become a nuclear war between Pakistan and India. The Israeli people love him more than they do their own leaders. But here at home, Democrats ...Read more

"What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass." That was the mordant comment of Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria's first prime minister, on the failure of a liberal reform to achieve the results promised with great assurance by the articulate liberal eminences of the day.

With ...Read more

Liberals always present themselves as smarter than conservatives. But even their attempts to "own" the conservatives can mangle the facts. On CNN's "NewsNight," 22-year-old MeidasTouch Democrat Adam Mockler compared President Donald Trump to Hamas terrorists because they were both "elected democratically."

Earth to Mockler: Hamas had one ...Read more

In one of his classic New Jersey ballads, Bruce Springsteen sings of the sun "rising over them refinery towers."

If New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy had gotten his way, the Boss would need to update the lyric to rhapsodize about enormous wind turbines looming on the horizon instead.

Murphy's obsession with wind power is one of the reasons that ...Read more

What if the whole purpose of the Constitution was to establish and to limit the federal government? What if Congress's 16 enumerated powers in the Constitution no longer limit Congress but are actually used as a justification to extend Congress's authority over nearly every aspect of human life? What if Congress bribes the states with cash, the ...Read more

Amid discussions about furloughs and firings of federal employees, we often forget that most are ordinary citizens trying to make ends meet. Some hold these jobs for the benefits they provide, and others because they genuinely enjoy helping people and take pride in where they work. We must not lose sight of the people behind these jobs, nor ...Read more

With yet another round of tariffs taking effect this week -- this time on cabinets and other furniture, timber and lumber -- the White House insists that its policies are about "fairness" and "reciprocity." The evidence now tells a different story of higher prices for Americans, lower margins for U.S. firms, collapsing exports in flagship ...Read more

The 1950s were apparently the "Golden Age of Flying." My mother loves to recall a time when airlines served full-course meals on china, with actual silverware and linen napkins. Until I was in high school, I thought you had to be dressed up to get on an airplane, because my mother insisted that we be in our Sunday best to travel.

That era is ...Read more

When Chuck Schumer first took federal office as a member of the House of Representatives in January 1981, the Monthly Statement of the Public Debt for December 1980 reported that the federal debt at the end of that year was $930.21 billion.

As of Oct. 10 of this year, according to the U.S. Treasury, it was $37.885 trillion.

During Schumer's ...Read more

This week, I had the opportunity to visit the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, to hear President Donald Trump speak. Trump, who had just brokered a ceasefire deal involving the release of all 20 living Israeli hostages from Hamas -- without a full Israeli withdrawal, and with a stated commitment by Hamas, backed by erstwhile allies like Qatar ...Read more

S.E. Cupp will post on Friday, Oct. 17.

©2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

At this writing 20 remaining living Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas. Thank God.

Twenty-four dead remain still to be released.

These of the 251 taken hostages on that infamous Oct. 7, 2023, day.

President Donald Trump is taking legitimate credit, thanks to his insurmountable will and prodigious negotiating skills, for this ...Read more

How fortunate for peace and stability to have an American president who knows how to use American power to achieve positive change in supposedly intractable international problems.

Aside 1: Thank the U.S. Air Force, its B-2 bombers and Operation Midnight Hammer for destroying the Iranian nutcase ayatollahs' nuclear weapons threat. U.S. ...Read more

What does it take to get locked up?

Two men allegedly stole a Dodge Charger muscle car and led cops on a wild chase through Harlem streets, driving up on sidewalks, endangering pedestrians and slamming into other vehicles. When the cops finally grabbed them, one of the men had a loaded, unlicensed pistol in his waistband. All of this was ...Read more

The government is "shut down." Media call this a "crisis." A "crisis (with) no deal in sight," says Fox News. Reuters says it's a "key risk to US stability." But when I look around, I see business as usual -- families raise children, workers work, people play music ... The media act like government is the most important part of life. It isn't. ...Read more

The "fact-checkers" who pick apart Donald Trump on a daily basis took exception to this recent presidential overstatement: "Portland is burning to the ground, it's insurrectionists all over the place." PolitiFact instructed that there's a few arson convictions, but all the protests are "largely confined to a two-block area" outside the ...Read more