I wonder if any of these brave defenders of the Second Amendment have considered the company they keep. Carrying weapons to public fora to make your point? Let's see: Yasser Arafat and his pistol at the UN? Osama addressing the infidels with his trusty AK-47 at his side?

These men were protesting at a debate about health policy, not about gun policy. How is the weapon relevant to the debate except as intimidation?

Is this columnist being willfully ignorant in order to keep the comments section vibrant? A stimulus package consisting of ridiculous statements.

For starters "If the answer was simply to field candidates who were more moderate, McCain ... would have turned in a much better performance than he did"?

You didn't even acknowledge the effect that Sarah Palin had on the McCain campaign, completely negating any shift to the middle that McCain might have effected. That is, if he hadn't used his campaign to burn every middle-right bridge he had ever built and instead push Rovian lines on God, gays and guns.

Oh, and about The Gays, here's another one that defies explanation - "America remains a center-right country. ... And our social values are equally center-right, as could be seen as so many people rose to the defense of Miss California, Carrie Prejean, after she stated her opposition to same-sex marriage in the Miss USA pageant."

Can you not see that the pragmatists believe there is nothing wrong with two people being in a long term committed relationship, regardless of their gender? The GOP will continue to be on the losing side of history, and elections, as long as they pander to the religious right on this statement. Carrie Prejean came off as nothing better than a bigot with poise.

That wingnut screwed so tightly over your oculars must account for how you come across as completely blind.

There is nothing at all new about the US military drawing its recruits from the poorest and most disadvantaged segments of our society. I'm surprised at the author's surprise. We have been sending them into the meat grinder at least since those lucky Irish famine escapees were conscripted on the docks and sent to die in a heartier fashion at Antietam.

Military service has been a means to a sort of respectability for 2000 years - from the Roman auxiliaries who had to do 25 years hard service, to the lucky Pashto speakers of today who can go from green card to US citizenship on the new fast track system. If you live so long.

And what is new about our imperial ambitions? A continent wrested from its aboriginal inhabitants, the west taken from a competing empire through conquest, outposts throughout the world gained either by outright military victory or in treaties with much weaker powers. Look at the architecture of our capital. Look at our currency. We have always aspired and striven to empire.

Please stop pretending that America is a special case - stop pretending that we're the underdogs. We have always used the needy to further our goals, just like the past empires that we always wanted to be. To think that the last 8 years has been any different is to suffer from a blinding case of nationalistic and historic myopia.

One way of getting airlines to raise their game, and help consumers think about something other than "how cheap can I fly" would be to mandate that airlines post their on-time rate next to the fare for a particular route. If this information was immediately available and listed alongside fares, consumers might be convinced to shell out anohter $10 for a route that they are more likey to be able to depend on. It would be an incentive for airlines to reduce flight frequency and concentrate on getting flights out on-time, though perhaps less often.

I flew from Sydney to Vancouver on United in December 2001. Unbeknownst to us, a brief stopover in Honolulu was thrown in for free. In the middle of the night we were herded off the plane, gathered our luggage, re-checked our luggage, and lined up outside to have our shoes removed and 'sniffed', all while 19 year olds with M-16s looked on.

Granted this was three months after the Death Knell of the Bill of Rights, but just flying via Canada is no guarantee that you'll circumvent the Land of the Fearful and the Home of the Paranoid.

I'm surprised Patrick didn't bring up the short runway at Lexington as a contributing factor to America's last air disaster.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072700250.html

Farhad is just upset that he never got his Guinness bar towel.

Adding to the list of airports within 30 minutes of downtown: DC National is a 15 minute metro ride from the middle of DC.

Someone asked about Seoul-Incheon - this is the equivalent of putting San Francisco's airport in San Jose. It is a looong drive, especially in Seoul's anarchic traffic. No rail link. On the other hand, you can take the subway to good ol' Kimpo. Incheon is new and bright and airy and totally great for Duty Free shopping but not much else.

For all of O'Hare's problems, the fact you can get a Berghoff's reuben and rootbeer makes up for it all.

Lagos - Anyone who ranks Dakar below Lagos has never had to make an international to national connection there. Two different airports, the international one a concrete shed full of thugs and pimps, the national one a cinder-block shanty full of more of the same. Bribes to 'security' personnel a matter of course.

CDG - The CDG experience was summed up for us on a recent transit as we debarked, ran the gauntlet of gendarmes at the end of our rame, cast about wildly for a means to get from 2E to 2F, found the shuttle, took a meandering tour around the outskirts of the entire terminal, arrived at 2F, found our gate, then boarded another shuttle that took us back along the same route to our plane, which was parked at 2E.