Brad Plumer

I ACTUALLY VOTED FOR PHASE-OUT BEFORE….Sam Rosenfeld reports that 50 Senate Republicans just voted in favor of “steep benefit cuts” and/or a “massive increase in debt.” Nicely done, all of you! I wonder, though, why Craig Thomas and especially Lincoln Chaffee (who’s up for reelection next year; maybe he’s tired of politics) both voted for […]

INVESTIGATE DELAY?….In the National Review today, Eric Pfeiffer is pushing yet another round of “advice” for liberals: If Pelosi continues to push for an investigation of DeLay it will backfire on her and Democrats. Aw, and no doubt he has the Democrats’ best interests at heart! Pfeiffer’s argument, though, is that Democrats have also been […]

JUDICIAL TERM LIMITS….Since courts and judges are obviously going to be on the debate agenda over the next few weeks (wonder why?), let’s talk courts and judges. Gary Becker wants term limits for the judiciary: [T]he average tenure of a Supreme Court Justice has increased from about 16 years to almost 26 years, and the […]

SIDELINE THIS….The Washington Post today has one of the more uplifting articles I’ve read all week. It looks like seniors aren’t willing to sit on the sidelines in the Social Security debate, where, you know, George Will thinks they belong: By and large, the elderly do understand the president has promised not to touch their […]

“ROGUE STATES”….In the post below, I used the term “rogue state” somewhat unthinkingly, and several commenters called me on it. I confess: it was sloppy writing, and normally I try to avoid the phrase. And since I don’t think I’m the first person to use the term loosely, it’s probably worth clearing up. Wikipedia has […]

NUKES OF HAZARD?.Okay, enough about evolution and mental stress, and back to more serious matters. Tuesday’s New York Times is reporting that President Bush wants to rewrite the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), because the darn thing makes it way too easy for rogue nations to develop nuclear weapons: At the heart of Mr. Bush’s concern […]

DEEP IN THE HEART OF TAXES….A few days ago Kevin posted on the tax reform bill percolating through the Texas state legislature. As he put it, “this is literally a tax bill that openly cuts taxes on the rich and raises them on both the poor and the middle class.” At any rate… it just […]

WE HAD TO SAVE ID IN ORDER TO DESTROY IT….Let’s get this out of the way: Every time I hear someone say that evolution is “just a theory” or suggest that there’s plenty of evidence for intelligent design, I can’t help but do the little eye-roll/snort-of-derision thing blue-staters are so famous for doing. Sad but […]

DEATH OF ONLINE NEWS?….Via Susan Madrak, it looks like the New York Times online edition may finally be gearing up to go subscriber-only: The New York Times on the Web, which is owned by The New York Times Company, has been considering charging for years and is expected to make an announcement soon about its […]

WHY SO STRESSED….While we’re talking about global competitiveness, Richard Florida’s new book, The Flight of the Creative Class, is relevant and quite interesting, and I’ll try to write more about it later today. But for now, take a peek at some of the book’s fun statistics about stress levels in various countries. The numbers are […]