On Lifetime Pensions for Members of Congress

I rather think it would be a good idea to provide substantial lifetime pensions (say 90% of the salary of a sitting Member) for all Members of Congress that have won elections that would have allowed them to sit for 8 years or more. 4 elections for the House and 2 for the Senate. All I ask in return is that they would be banned for life from holding any sort of position or accepting any sort of contractual employment relationship with a lobbying firm.

Thoughts?

On Restructuring

From The Chronicle Herald 

But when NovaScotian Crystal president Rod McCulloch announced in mid-February that the company he successfully steered through a restructuring in 2009 was going under, Campbell told her husband, developer John Lindsay Jr., that she had to take a look.

I don't know about you but in my book if you are back in bankruptcy after less than 4 years you didn't successfully steer anything.

On settling down

I figure I have one last move in me before I am done. Looking for free advice.

Where should I live?

It has to be somewhere that has a corporate headquarters or two within commuting distance (45 -  60 mins) since that is where I generally work.
I would like somewhere that I can at least theoretically use the bicycle and kayak every now and then.
I would like 350k to buy me a nice little house with a plot of land for some flowers, herbs and maybe a tomato plant or two.
It has to be somewhere that after I retire I am not going to want to move again.

My short list right now is narrowed down to a few states but within them I haven't really gone that far. So here is my list thus far: South Carolina,  Florida,  Texas, California, New Mexico,  Arizona.

Any and all advice is welcome. 

On the rights of the unborn

A question for my pro-life readers - are there any circumstances where the right of an unborn child to life is not the paramount issue or can other considerations sometimes make abortion an option?

If the latter, what would those considerations be?

On A Member of our Pundit Class

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD destroys Maureen Dowd THusly. 

If Maureen Dowd’s evisceration manqué of President Obama’s gun control strategy in the New York Times is any indication, Ms. Dowd is in the wrong line of work. She doesn’t understand American politics. She doesn’t know how votes are gained and lost, she doesn’t know what presidents do or understand what powers they have, and above all she doesn’t understand how politicians think.

On conspiracy theories

They are uniformly stupid and generally require a level of coordination that is never seen in the real world.