How about Oklahoma is NOT okay?

Incidentally, I drive an automobile because I have to and ride my bike when I can. When I find myself behind a bicycle rider, I do not pass until I am absolutely certain it is safe to do so, and I swing wide when I do pass. After all, bicycles are much smaller and lighter than automobiles. How much of a threat could they possibly represent?

How much time does this behavior cost me? Very very seldom more than a minute. If my life were so rushed that a minute's delay would ruin it, I would consider myself to have a miserable life indeed.

Quite sure many others behave in the same manner. It is not only the law, but required by simple courtesy.

Driver does not necessarily mean bike-hater, and bike-rider very seldom means lawbreaker. Yes, I have had close calls on my bike when one or another idiot passes within inches, apparently unaware of the damage a tiny mistake could cause.

Have long felt no one should be allowed to pilot any ground vehicle with horsepower higher than his or her IQ.

"I can see from the hostility and allusion to violence that some people here have toward Glock, that trying to intimidate people into conformity is not solely relegated to the right."

Hostility and allusion to violence, huh? And exactly how many anti-abortionists have been murdered by pro-choice people?

Read all the letters yesterday, haven't read them since. Has anybody pointed out, not the craziness of calling Obama "the antichrist," but the fundamental insanity of thinking there IS such a being?

If there is, in any sense, that which is antichrist, it is manifestly that which opposes and violates the teachings of Jesus. He taught love, refusal to harm others no matter how wrong they think you are, and the return of good for evil.

So, hatred, anger, torture, murder? Would a sane person think of these behaviors as Christian or anti-Christian?

A pretty good rule of thumb is this (and obviously, except to the mentally deficient, a rule of thumb is NOT absolute--there are exceptions--that's why it's a rule of thumb): If it rants about the antichrist, it probably aint Christian.

It's a very tiny thing compared to the other issues under discussion (Glenn's correct--or perhaps more importantly, human), but it gladdened my heart to see that someone is still aware of the conventional spelling distinction between the word "callus," used as a noun, and the word "callous," used as an adjective.

Bullies and thieves are the same the world over. Those who think they can maintain power by force are irremediably stupid. Far worse words might apply, but they ARE stupid.

Thank you for reporting to us, in what must be a dangerous behavior for you, requiring courage and a devotion to spreading the word.

These guys are not the threat they seem at first glance. Angry, violent, and stupid is not a good formula for success or even survival. These are the sort of goons who self-select for prison. Eventually most of them will do something that would force even a racist white cop to arrest them, let alone the thousands of decent and fairminded police personnel.

Dear Mark: I was raised Southern Baptist in Mississippi in the 50s and early 60s, my father a preacher. I too am more nearly Buddhist/zen now in outlook. I too honor my parents, though I cannot accept the terms of their creed.

I roll my own, as I am sure you do, mindful of the fact that I do not have the cultural heritage and not wishing to flee to yet another mindless set of unquestionable dicta. Contrary to the usual proclamations of both atheists and fundies, I do not see faith as "believing in things that don't make any sense" (as a fundie friend of my daughter's put it).

For me, reason is an aid to faith, not its enemy. It seems clear to me that the universe is alive and full of being, though I have a great deal more in common with those who do not think so but follow reason than I do with "true believers."

This comment is not on topic, though I am, as always, grateful for Glenn's clarity and good sense. Just wanted to say that there are others of us. A LOT of us, I suspect.

Delightful, as a few noted. The day is a commercial fraud.

After reading the other comments, though, I am forced to ask: Don't ANYBODY get self-deprecatory literary whimsy any more?

Used to love the Friday openings in Santa Fe. Same kind of scene. Don't really have anything to say, but you deserve some sort of response for such a funny and clever piece.

The point is NOT that we have a lot of freedoms left. Indeed, my son-in-law, a naturalized citizen from El Salvador (who had to learn "the rule of law" to become a citizen, incidentally), is delighted that we may criticize our political class (I cannot honestly call them leaders) without being jailed or assassinated (though that latter, if freaks like Brunner and Roeder are any indication, seems to be changing.)

The point IS to stop the violations before they go any further. If somebody comes at you with a gun and shoots your toe off, you don't say, Well, it's just a toe, maybe he'll back off. You take the gun away.

That's where we are now, and Glenn is NOT inciting the troops. He's calling it like it is. Yes, the truth makes me angry, but I have not resorted to murder or lies. I stick with reason, evidence, and the constitution of my beloved country.

Glenn renders an extremely valuable service, and I thank him.