Blog: TAPPED

PRIORITIES, PEOPLE. There’s a great op-ed in the Post about how Tony Blair‘s government managed to take a big bite out of child poverty and how America should do the same. A conservative, of course, would tell you that whether or not millions of children grow up in poverty is none of the government’s concern, […]

META-BROOKS. It was weird to crack open The New York Times this weekend and see David Brooks publishing not an op-ed column, but a meta-op-ed column. If he ever did publish a compendium of his columns entitled The Essential David Brooks, it would require only one page, on which would be printed Sunday’s piece. Brooks’ […]

THE POLYGAMY THREAT. Jonathan Rauch is all about gay marriage but says polygamy’s no good because it will generate excess unmarried men who bring with them social destruction. This seems a little dubious to me. As things stand, there are excess unmarried women because there are more gays than lesbians, more men die young (war, […]

THE POWER OF IMMIGRANT CATHOLICS. The Catholic Church’s welcome support for Mexican immigrants to the U.S., both legal and illegal, has occasioned much speculation about the potential of immigration policy to become a wedge issue driving apart Catholics and Evangelicals, who have been more united than not on a host of other hot-button issues in […]

TIME IS ON OUR SIDE. John J. Miller observes that “The person who invented the abomination that is Daylight Saving Time obviously was not responsible for getting children out of bed and off to school.” Indeed, DST is a huge pain in the ass for everyone. So who’s to blame? As is often the case […]

DEMOCRATS AND SECURITY. Two more brief notes related to the Democratic security plan. First, the Iraq material is, of course, some pretty thin gruel. The Dems’ position on Iraq involves calling for 2006 to be a “significant year of transition,” even though the party won’t have a chance to actually affect policy until (possibly) 2007 […]

SO MANY PLANS, SO LITTLE TIME. For those of you confused by the various plans out there (at last count, there are no fewer than eight, and at least four are seriously being considered), this side-by-side comparison (PDF) from the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute is the best summary you’ll find. Remember, too, that guest-worker programs […]

POST-PATRIOTIC PROGRESSIVES AND THE PUNDITS WHO LOVE THEM. I found this post of Michael Lind‘s, supposedly lampooning post-patriotic progressives who believe nation-states outmoded and all men to be brothers, notably absurd. Lind’s a sharp mind and a good writer, so it’s strange to see him swing and miss so widely. The question in the immigration […]

THE MUTE MAN WITH THE PLAN. One of my pet irritations is the long-standing, oft-repeated meme that Democrats lack ideas, or principles, or an agenda. Most often, the target is national security, which Democrats are supposedly rudderless on. At least they are if you listen to the media, which loves nothing more than to rewrite […]

THE SORT OF FOLKS YOU BRING HOME TO MOM. Got to love the American right. When a hostage gets kidnapped and killed in Iraq, they blast the left for insufficient outrage. When a hostage gets kidnapped and not killed, they speculate “something stinks,” predict that she’ll going to become a suicide bomber, and wonder if […]