Wow, you've really fallen off the beam, eh?

There's "no debate" that religious organizations do good? Maybe you should read a newspaper sometime. Watch a little TV. Read up on the internets. Because there is plenty and endless debating about how "good" religious organizations are. How about asking the thousands of kids molested by Catholic priests what they think about that? Maybe some victims of Islamic suicide bombers, or Hindu extremists? For someone who asserts others are closed-minded you seem to do a pretty fair imitation of a closed-minded person yourself.

I have lots of problems with Catholic teaching, much of which is jibberish as far as I can tell. Most everything they teach about morality is demonstrably wrong in my estimation. Since I'm not gay I have no idea why you'd guess Catholic bigotry against homosexuality makes me anti-Catholic, but it's as good a reason as any to dislike the church. I do have a problem with that kind of bigotry but I'm not offended by being called gay, so if you meant it as a subtle insult shame on you. I thought you religionists were supposed to be good and kind.

For a self-described lapsed Catholic yourself it's laughable that you would lecture anyone on religion or morality. It's really really good and moral and correct and everyone can agree...but you don't contribute yourself. You argue endlessly and mindlessly about these superior teachings but don't bother to follow them. I guess the church you fail to attend doesn't teach about hypocrisy, but really, how could you possibly know?

Finally, the reason you write on Salon where 90% of the people disagree with you is because you're a troll. And having read your contradictory and absolutist responses to comments made to you and from you on this thread I've come to the conclusion that you quite clearly aren't very bright - it's not just appearances.

They are, and always have been, the domain of crazy people. Frothing, foaming lunatics. Liberals and progressives blog for all kinds of reasons, wingnuts blog only because they're angry and they want to shout "you're not listening to me!" - so the reaction is to be expected.

In my opinion most Republicans (those who consider themselves "moderates") will embrace McCain wholeheartedly. The Christian zealots will be on board in the end - they sure as hell aren't gonna vote for a black Muslim or a pants wearing woman.

All McCain has to do is distance himself from the worst excesses of Bush (without saying so explicitly) and he has a good chance of beating Obama or Clinton. It will certainly be close.

If there was no LDS church and Joseph Smith came to town today with the same story you believe with your all heart and soul you'd laugh at him because it's so ridiculous.

The beauty of Mormonism (to me anyway) is that it's origins are so recent and so documented that you can't help but see what a fraud it is. An exceptional book on the LDS church is "Under The Banner Of Heaven" by John Krakauer, who started out to write a book about the abuses of polygamy and ended up with an indictment of the church in general. I challenge any open-minded person to read the book and dispute that the Mormon church is anything but a wealth cult, an Amway with Jesus if you will.

Whether you or other members sit around discussing if you are Christians or not isn't the point. Most mainstream Protestants and Catholics do exactly that (they do it with everyone BTW) and I can say most of them agree the LDS church is a form of cult - and they don't like it even a little bit. The evangelicals I know would no more vote for Mitt Romney than they would for L. Ron Hubbard.

Keep your chin up though, because as with all other religions and "spiritual" beliefs given enough time the Mormon Church will shed enough of the core principles so that it will fit into the mainstream secular world. It happened with polygamy and with the church's racist teachings so it seems the church is quite adept at jettisoning inconvenient God-given dogma when it suits their purposes.

Don't they?

I voted for Hillary? Wow, and I thought I marked the bubble next to Obama's name.

Seeing as Hillary only has a 9% lead over Obama in number of delegates and has just 44% of the total needed to win compared to Obama's 40% I'd say it's pretty much still up in the air.

Maybe we should all just calm down a little.

Her failure to vote on telecom immunity is an act without conscience.

The Dems had better make Obama their candidate because I've never voted for a Republican in my life and I'll never vote for Hillary Clinton either.

When my stepson was a senior in a public high school (four years ago) they had a mandatory assembly where the military came in and made their case for God and country and war and destruction. The only way my son could opt-out of the sales pitch was by written request from me or his mother. A bit heavy handed if you ask me, but it seemed to work out well for them in the end - he left for his second tour of Iraq last Sunday.

I realize the Marine Corps has always been volunteer but instead of whining and threatening when they don't get what they want (does that work on the battlefield?) perhaps the military and their ardent supporters should reinstate the draft. That seems a more honorable and straightforward means to the end. Or maybe that's not what they're looking for here?