Regarding Brooks, I've read him quite a bit as well. At this point it has become a source of entertainment to me to find out with each article how he will manag

Regarding Brooks, I've read him quite a bit as well. At this point it has become a source of entertainment to me to find out with each article how he will manage to take a factual premise and reasonable arguments to arrive at a nonsequitur conservative platitude. Around 3/4 of the way through the column he consistently takes a turn from reason, apparently hoping we won't notice that his conclusion does not follow from the rest of the article. I used to do the same on my homework when I didn't understand the material. If you aren't reading the articles to the end (not to suggest that you personally aren't) it would be easy to feel the commentators are unfairly jumping on him. But I think they have also observed the same pattern and feel that he is playing a softly-spoken rearguard for odious views and policies.