Well, the problem is that you can't take David Brooks' statements of "fact" at face value, as he's been known to provide rather one-sided arguments. I could und

Well, the problem is that you can't take David Brooks' statements of "fact" at face value, as he's been known to provide rather one-sided arguments. I could undoubtedly read the original papers, but my interest isn't that high and I don't necessarily have the right background to appreciate them. What I need is a precis produced by a knowledgeable, relatively unbiased party. That's not an uncommon situation. The idea that we should all evaluate statements "regardless of who made them" is naive.