of a very dispiriting day, Glenn, when you responded:

I should also note that it hurts my feelings when you say these mean things about what I'm writing and, through the pain . . .

I laughed so hard my clown nose flew off behind the monitor and fell off the desk.

who had his Mom paint over the note on the wall: I wish you would follow up on that. Interview him. Take his picture. Let us see who he is. If this really happened he is a disgrace, and he should become very well known to the public. I would love to see his picture up on the web, with his name below it, and below that a description of what he had the mom do. I was a captain in the Army once. This guy makes me want to puke.

who had the Mom paint the wall makes me sick. I was a captain in the Army once, and in my opinion this officer is a sick disgrace. What is the point of treating the family like that? It goes against everything I was taught to be as an Army officer. Please post a picture of this captain with his name beneath it, if he really did this, so I and all the others can look at a real disgrace to the uniform.

Thanks for you past work and good luck. You are the only sports columnist I have ever read regularly, and one of the two reasons I was a premium subscriber (the other was Glen Greenwald). Now that I have only Greenwald to look forward to, no need to subscribe anymore: so you have saved me some bucks, King. Thanks.

Thanks.

It's strange, but I think Obama has given the right-wing a really good choice from their point of view, if they would only stop and think about it for even a minute based on the evidence. Of course, that means the more I think about it the less I like the choice Obama seems to have made: one so moderate that if the right wing would only slow down and think a little bit they would be celebrating instead of frothing at the mouth. Obama more and more seems to me to be what real conservatives aspired to be (which I readily admit is a thousand times better than the radical Bush folks who have been in charge for far too long). It seems the only choice we have as a leader these days is a good conservative vs. radical rightwing madmen,while a truly left-wing figure seems out of the question. Makes me think of that Overton (sp?) window stuff Bucky used to tell us about. Sotomayer seems a fine choice for our corporate overlords.

And I mean that seriously (and sadly). Better to have a competently run empire with a tinge of humanity than an incompetently run one with no humanity at all. But how dispiriting it is to think that of all the energy and effort it took just to get someone in to maybe stop the ship from sinking--yet it is the same ship. Makes me think of when I was enlisted in the Army and thought I'd might as well become an officer because I thought I could make some small differences. But small differences in rather extreme circumstances can be very valuable. I think this is a point Chomsky made about the presidency: that small differences on that level play out as rather large differences down amongst us common folk. It takes a disciplined mind, though, to focus on the small good things in the midst of the howling storm. Its hard to see how things could be made very different--as if our little experiment in liberty did not end when corporations were recognized as persons with rights. As if we were not in a prison and only hoping for a good warden, with smile revealed a good heart indeed. But still the heart of my jailer.

"with a smile that revealed a good heart indeed."

I once heard Elie Wiesel tell a story about a man who shrieked in the streets against injustice in front of the castle of the king. And no one paid him any mind at all. And yet day after day he shrieked. And someone asked him: why are you doing this, if no one listens to you? Aren't you just listening to yourself shriek and cry out? And the man said: if no one listens, still at least I shriek to remind myself, so I do not forget what it means to be human.

And I would add: you never know who is listening.

Not quite sure who or what you meant about the folks on the blog who listen to themselves shriek, but your comment made me think of that.

was a crime against those who love the Bat, anyway. No once could trust the comments of a man who made such a movie.

Where has Glenn said that? That simply because she favors abortion she will be a great judge? And please do not copy and paste Glenn's whole entry (that has already been done :). Can you not see how tedious it is to have people make these claims with nothing to back them up? Tedious. Have mercy.

when you need him? Only he could possibly address Joel's lack of surprise that Glenn has decided to forget all about the torture issue. He is not surprised. At all!

Did you ever have a moment where your entire mind just blinks and gapes: one big mental gape of mentally openmouthed surprise?

Not surprised, no siree: not at all.