They just can't bring themselves to respect their audience -- to the point that they are probably turning their backs on circulation-boosting, money making opportunities. All so that they can still be cordial when they bump into one another in line at Dean & DeLuca's.

-- Holly McLachlan

This became painfully obvious when Newsweek hired Rove after Time decided he was a legal risk they couldn't afford (remarkable in and of itself). The financial infrastructure appears to be secure enough that the 'paying circulation' is no longer a concern of merit.

Pedinska, I believe you grow a banana tree in your back yard. Just prove it with some ripe baboon for a ride in the plastic ice-cream boats. If not-you, you are to be selected to be the first to be thrown overboard to appease Poseidon, the sea goddess's, angry wrath.

No ripe baboons or bananas here. The season is just not long enough (for bananas, would have to check with the local zoo about baboons), and I hope it never is. It's sort of scary that I can even grow banana trees! I've never been a sacrifice before. Who shall toss me? And I thought 'Poseidon' was a 'he'!?

This group of GOP will be proved vain too, and fail. Light always shines in the dark.

Klein's current huffing and chuffing is entirely about the fact that his vanity has been revealed so ably by Glenn. His vanity, not to mention his corporate masters, won't allow him to admit his error, so he piffles around trying to make the situation something it isn't in order to squirm free from the rock on one side and the hard place on t'other.

Did you ever see such a preposterous site as two grinning hippos making love at a zoo? Pedinska, forgive me?

Never been quite fortunate enough to witness amorous hippos, though I did once see a pair of Galapagos tortoises gettin' it on at the National Zoo. Apart from an occasional very loud groan (the sound travels a truly remarkable distance when a tortoise is excited) it was a pretty boring scene. ;->

Ondelette - nice synopsis of al Neocon. We won't have much success getting them on the State Department list, but I bet they're on a lot of similar lists that exist in other countries around the world.

Once you've decided that universal surveillance is the cure for this or that threat, it becomes awfully difficult to allow any exceptions.

WT - the shooters in this country have absolutely no problem making 'exceptions' to the Consitution in order to allow universal surveillance. The reading comprehension they apply to the 2nd amendment is extended in order to totally pervert the 4th. Makes you wonder why they have such a big problem with licensing of guns.

What if the commenters you all say you do like and appreciate (e.g. not onesy-twosy commenters like me and all you complainers, but the heart-and-soul folks like WT, Holly McLachlan, Pedinska et al.) also take their leave if 'bop does?

Paul Daniel, you must have been reading my mind. There is indeed a feast to be had here in the comment section. Glenn's meticulous analysis and the special chemistry of those who comment here is what makes it all so extraordinary. Bebop is integral to the recipe.

If B were left out, the nutrition would still be good but the flavor just wouldn't be the same. Like eating cookies made by someone else, using your Grandmother's favorite recipe, but missing the 'secret spice' that she added to make it extra special.

I don't know that I would leave, but I certainly wouldn't relish the feast as much.

(BTW, thanks for the enormous compliment. There are so many phenomenal writers here, way more knowledgeable and articulate than myself, that I blushed when I read that!)

No worry about refuting a slanderer, and it is their own anguish, that I see as very severe.

No defend, realize, sometimes,

it is their own sorrow, it is,

their hurt, that is so severe.

It's a shame they don't understand.

Because this is beautiful, and sad, and true.

I would definitely leave. It would be you, me and W.T., in a canoe, paddling off into the sunset whilst drinking blueberry whine.

He had a chance to tell the president and much of important (and self-important) Washington things it would have been good for them to hear.

And he did. And after being in such close proximity to the truth most, if not all, of them broke out into severe rashes.

Cohen's a self-described 'funny man'. I would describe him as an 'acerbic little turd'.

First, let me state my credentials: I am a funny guy. This is well known in certain circles, which is why, even back in elementary school, I was sometimes asked by the teacher to "say something funny" -- as if the deed could be done on demand.

Really. What can one say?