Oh, but Michael Scherer is an idiot, as I agreed with Gov. Richardson at the time of the original article.

And, Mr. Shapiro, while you may not be the idiot your journalistic colleague is, you, too, should be ashamed to write an article with a major subtext about "the tenor of the coverage of the presidential race" while failing to even utter the name Dennis Kucinich.

Your oblique dismissal of Mr. Kucinich's candidacy by referring to Gov. Richardson as the only "mainstream Democrat" besides Chris Dodd in favor of a complete withdrawal from Iraq is tantamount to journalistic malfeasance!

Mr. Kucinich is THE ONLY Democrat who had the courage to speak loudly, and eloquently against the war long before it was ever waged. He was the only Democrat in the race with the courage to vote against authorizing the president to use force in Iraq.

Only when progressive journalists and outlets like you and Salon begin to have the courage to take Mr. Kucinich and his ideas seriously will this country have hope for the kind of "tenor" to the coverage of the presidential race that might begin to roll back the darkness the Bush years have left it in.

John Yoo sounds like a yoo-yoo...

...to you, until we meet again...

Digby, you are great. It's been a pleasure getting your incisive take on the madness swirling about us.

Peace -- Lonbud

Al Pippin and any other "anti-war"-skeptics who might be in the audience: I'll not mince words.

The surge has failed. The war is not winnable. Iraq will not produce a stable democracy in your lifetime, nor in that of your unborn grandchildren.

The depredations of the Cheney-led neocon cabal will affect the standard of living in America negatively for a generation or more.

Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama, nor any Democrat or Republican who might be elected in 2008 will make anything better -- at all.

We have seen the enemy and he is us.

Don't take it personally, Ms. Walsh, it's just a reference to a late-night comedy show that was quite popular and well-done between the mid-70s and mid-80s...

In any event, Barry Bonds has put 756 baseballs over the wall during a twenty-some-odd year career in the major leagues. I don't give a good g*d damn what he's eaten, drunk, popped or shot into his body during the process, there's only one other human being who's ever come close to doing that in the nearly two hundred year history of the game. Among active players, the next closest player needs to hit more than 150 more home runs to tie him. Give the man his due.

As to the whole "invite him to the White House" non-controversy, Mr. Obama showed by his answer to Keith Olbermann that a) he's not much of a sports fan; b) he doesn't think too well on his feet; c) both of the above.

I mentioned earlier this evening in a comment on Juan Cole's excellent piece on the spinning of the surge, neither Mr. Obama nor Ms. Clinton, nor any of the other Deemocrats or Republicans running for president are going to fix the Iraq problem, so we'd do well to start thinking and speaking of things that really matter.

What will be marginally interesting in the near term is whether Mr. Bush invites Mr. Bonds to the White House, and whether Mr. Mr. Bonds, if he's invited, decides to attend.

Ceci below is absolutely right. Just because babies don't come with an owners' manual doesn't excuse us from understanding some of the basics about brain development, especially if we're purporting to give our kids a leg up on genius status.

Infants' and toddlers' brains have as their prime directive development of the neural net upon which a lifetime of thinking and action will depend. A crucial process during this time is the production of myelin, the protective, strengthening coating along the neural pathways that transmit the information we all need to survive and thrive in the world.

"Screen time" in front of a TV or computer has been shown to retard the production of myelin in the brains of infants and toddlers. Sitting your kid in front of a TV or computer in the hopes some Baby Einstein program is going to pave his or her way into MENSA will have precisely the opposite effect.

Or, as a friend of mine likes to say, ipso, ergo, hosen

You want to make your kids smart and confident as an adult? Hold them, love them, play with them, make them feel secure. Don't pawn them off on nannies or stick them in front of TVs.

Mr. Lomborg appears to be well-read, thoroughly familiar with his subject matter, reasonable, measured in his speech, without an axe to grind or personal gain to make from promoting his viewpoint (other than royalties from sales of his book).

We should only be so fortunate that in 20 years "everyone will think this way."

Farhad, I think you're a pretty good reporter and I generally enjoy reading your column, but, the, uh, making moon eyes at Apple is getting a little embarrassing, isn't it?

I can't tell if the "best tech exec ever" and "Oh, isn't that man just dreamy?" comments are intended to be tongue-in-cheek or not, but I can tell you your column would be taken more seriously by more people if you went about it with a little more professionalism and a little less pre-pubescent excitability.