Paul Waldman

(Flickr/adrienneserra) According to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, broadband adoption seems to have plateaued in the last year, after steady growth. The number of adults with broadband at home in this year’s survey was 66 percent, not statistically different from last year’s 63 percent. In one bright spot, broadband […]

According to Agence France-Presse, the Saudi government is almost ready to unveil a really, really big clock, in the hopes that “Mecca Time” will replace Greenwich Mean Time as the standard by which the world sets its clocks. Hard to see that happening, but what’s for sure is that this is one spectacular clock. Not […]

Today’s New York Times featured a profile of Congressman Paul Ryan, in which the author, Matt Bai, dismissed questions about the substance of Ryan’s vaunted budget road map, saying, “The more pertinent question is whether Mr. Ryan is the kind of guy who just wants to make a point — or whether his road map […]

Ben Smith wonders whether President Obama will see what a “teachable moment” the controversy over the Islamic center near Ground Zero is and weigh in with a characteristically sensitive and insightful speech or something. “He can understand the pain and anger of both sides, offer something that sounds like a synthesis but winds up roughly […]

Barack Obama‘s White House has plenty of problems these days, one of which is that they feel like they aren’t getting enough love from the left. The people who should have their back, who should be touting their accomplishments, aren’t — in their view anyway — doing enough to help. So press secretary Robert Gibbs […]

It’s always hard to predict what’s going to happen in a presidential race that’s a year or two away — back in 1991, when George H.W. Bush was riding high, somebody actually bet me $100 that no Democrat would beat him in the next year’s election. But if you’re a Republican today, there are two […]

(Microdrones GmbH) One of the things that comes through in the growing body of behind-the-scenes reports on Google is that the company sometimes gets surprised when people question its attempts at world domination. After all, they seem to think, our intentions are good, so why should anyone be nervous? Our motto is “Don’t be evil”! […]

Quick question: How many cell-phone chargers are there in your home? If you’re like most people these days, you’ve got a few surplus ones lying at the bottom of a drawer. You can’t use them, because they only fit a phone you no longer have. But it somehow seems wrong to just toss them in […]

Ross Douthat‘s job as a New York Times columnist, like that of his colleague David Brooks, is basically to be a conservative liberals will listen to. Douthat is famously conflicted about same-sex marriage; he’s opposed to it, but he has trouble articulating exactly why in a way that doesn’t come down to religious dogma. “I […]