Bolling's 3rd situation makes a good case for why we should reinstate the draft (only for guys shall I say to head off Darwinian sniping). The missing element in opposition to the Iraq war is the knowledge that YOU or YOUR OWN KID might be REQUIRED to DIE for your country's policy. This condition may create more informed voters/policymakers as it eventually did regarding Vietnam. --December

I'm witcha you, vaporland--it's great, and if Dave Barry were a cartoonist, this is how he'd develop his material!

achilleselbow, if you read the actual court ruling, you'll note that Scalia makes it clear that your solution would be unconstitutional--he specifies handguns. And fyi, there are many who hunt with handguns. You are right in thinking one is more likely to harvest game cleanly with a single shot from a rifle or shotgun--that't how I do it (I don't consider myself a "sport" hunter). But it's like extreme ironing--the harder it is to do, the more prestige one accrues. Or so they must think--I've seen these nuts out with scoped handguns hunting deer.

When are you going to start on the Illustrated Borges project?

BadReligion, go to for the real scoop: between 1954 through 1998 (with the exception of 1962, when it was second to David), Michael was the most popular name for male babies in the USA. Since 1999, it has been Jacob. As one of the millions of Michaels, I wish my parents had named me Antwan or Priapus or Shevek or just about any name that had a little individuality to it!

I'm a teacher and I spend some time with the first day's rollsheet, writing down each person's name phonetically. And by the end of week one, I don't have any trouble at all pronouncing them. I'm glad people are getting creative!

And just look at how all the people who write letters to Salon and everywhere else on the net sign them!

--December

Xanthro, whether Buss is some egomaniac who is callously exploiting his Mat-Su Valley residence to gain fame at Palin's expense or just a great source for the reporter, what he says is chilling.

The recent Wall Street failures are likely to create a few more undecideds who had maybe earlier been decided on the basis of race. Hannaham's point is good, and I have admired Obama's discipline in avoiding the Angry Black Man approach throughout the campaign.

I hope he can maintain it--he just might win a few votes.

Ah, get outta here, Koppelman! A local gangbanger threw in a plug for Obama here at his sentencing. But that didn't make me say "Wow, I can't put myself in the same boat with a murderer, so I'll vote for McCaine." Hitler's favorite composer was Beethoven. Does Hitler's endorsement lessen the achievement of the man who made the "Ode to Joy" famous?

The only time endorsement by so-and-so is relevant is when the candidate actively seeks the endorsement. You present no evidence that Sarah Palin had any connection with Jim Bramlett,

the presumed author of the letter you quote.

So your linking of Bramlett's letter is an attempt at establishing guilt by association by putting Palin and whacko evangelicalism in the same sentence. It's not different in kind from the McCain campaign's bid to try to get Obama associated with teaching 5-year-olds about sex just by putting Obama and the rest in the same sentence.

I'm not voting for McCain for many reasons, but to return to Palin, I don't support her because she thinks creation "science" should be taught in public schools. Divine creation is a powerful myth, and it's worth teaching in a mythology class. Or maybe philosophy. But it's NOT SCIENCE and the idea that such a faith-based project should detract from the already limited amount of class time given to science in high school classes freezes my blood.

The fact that some whacko thinks that Palin will do X or that some liberaly thinks she will do next doesn't mean a thing. It's what Sarah says that counts, and there's none of that in your thin post.

This is a mighty fast-filling blog, but I want to respond to an early post by Readerreader who cited Obama's "more than $20,000" donation to Reverend Wright's church in 2007 as evidence that Obama espoused Wright's views (including the notorious "God damn America" rhetoric). And it's a superficially strong point--why would anyone who didn't buy the rhetoric contribute cash?

I'm an agnostic. I don't believe in the divinity of Jesus nor the infallability of the Pope. But I contribute thousands of dollars each year to Catholic charities because independant monitoring agencies have shown that Catholic charities have the best record on actually getting the money to the poor.

One doesn't have to totally agree with an organization's philosophical underpinnings to support its work.