... and, of course, given the size of our military, we can do more damage by starting a war than any other country on the planet. So even though we're still fighting two of them, apparently not starting any more is enough for the Nobel. Makes a weird kind of sense.

... stop trying to explain it. Everyone seems to have an explanation full of sociological meaning.

It's a fad. Zombies are fun. Pirates and ninjas were fun, too, for a few years, until everyone got sick of them. People will get sick of zombies too, and then it will be something else. In the meantime, play along and enjoy your nice serving of braaains.

... and track how many users do so. I suspect you'll find an overwhelming preference for the current clean, elegant design, and that the number of people who like the new jumbled mess is a pretty small portion of the readership. I doubt I'm the only subscriber who may no longer be able to justify paying for Salon's still-excellent content if it's presented in such an unreadable way.

the ususal activist practice of blurring the distinction

Um, what the hell are you talking about, dick? Can you provide some specific examples? Or are you just engaging in the usual Broadsheet troll practice of responding to the imaginary dialogue in your own head?

And tinwoman, you're being a disingenuous twit. Those who support legalized prostitution believe that it's a legitimate job for people of legal age to make that decision, not for kids who -- as another letter writer pointed out -- can't even legally make the decision to have sex without the exchange of cash involved. Enticing or coercing kids into prostitution is wrong for the same reason that "recruiting" kids into armies is wrong; like child soldiers, child prostitutes simply don't have the maturity to decide for themselves whether to accept the risks inherent in their line of work. I suspect you understand this perfectly well, but acknowledging this simple fact would have denied you the opportunity for your pathetic attempt at satire.

Young, good-looking, athletic, and with a smoking-hot wife; no wonder these pudgy chickenhawks can't stand him. W was such an obvious wimp that they didn't feel threatened by him.

Did you actually just compare yourself to Jesus?

Wow. I'm pretty sure even your buddy Benedict would consider that a little over the top.

Real health care reform -- something that would actually get affordable health care to people who currently don't have it, and hold down premiums for those who do -- would be about the biggest economic stimulus the federal government could possibly create. The current health care mess is an insane drag on employment. A good health care bill that passes this year might not show broad economic effects in time to help the Democrats in time for next year's midterms, but it would certainly have an effect by 2012. Obama at that point would have so much "political capital" he wouldn't know what to do with it all.

Of course, if all we get is a few "reforms" full of Big-Insurance-friendly loopholes, and a public option "trigger" that will never be pulled, then your gloomy analysis will be right: nothing will improve economically, and Obama will have spent whatever capital he has left over from 2008 for nothing.

Is there anything more tedious than an Algore interview?

Indeed there is: right-wing rants about the subject, complete with the childish use of "Algore" as an insult.

I can't speak to why the military is not universally armed but since they fall under the control of Congress and because Congress is packed with liberals I suspect there are some zany laws are in place to forbid it.

The circumstances under which military personnel go armed are generally a matter of regulation, not law; these regulations come from the DoD and are interpreted and applied by the post commanders. I.e., the commander of Ft. Hood could certainly have ordered his troops to carry locked and loaded M16s everywhere if there had been an obvious reason to do so -- but at stateside bases, generally there isn't.

I served under three Presidents (Reagan, Daddy Bush, and Clinton) and control of Congress changed hands several times during my service, but it has never been standard practice for those not on specific duties requiring a weapon to walk around armed.

Whenever a liberal politician dares to compare any action of the right-wingers to the actions of the Nazis, the ADL is all over it as being disrespectful to the victims of the Holocaust. But apparently right-wingers can make all the Nazi comparisons they want without criticism. Good for Wiesel, who has consistently been one of the strongest and sanest voices in the ongoing conversation about how we should deal with the Holocaust and the aftermath of the Nazi era; it would be nice if he had some backup.

PETA is a fringe organization, considered by most liberals and most Democrats -- hell, by most vegetarian, Prius-driving, soy-milk-half-caff-latte-drinking, East-coast-dwelling liberal Democrats -- to be a bunch of nutcases who have no part in serious political debate.

The "Obama is a Kenyan-born socialist Nazi Communist Muslim" Teabagger crowd is apparently in charge of the entire Republican agenda.

See the difference?

I thought the new format couldn't get any worse.

I was wrong.

(Good comic, BTW.)

Ingraham, Coulter, Limbaugh, Paglia, Beck et al. ... they're not interested in rational conversation. They have their narrative and they know how to stick to it. Any attempt at actual debate with their ilk is doomed to failure; all it accomplishes is to give them a credibility they don't deserve. Treat them like the bum on the street mumbling about the CIA beaming alien thought control rays into his brain -- smile, nod, back away slowly, and then go about your business.