This is a fascinating race, and I appreciate your coverage of it. Please have one of your regular political reporters write the next article about it. Thank you.

Sorry, Tim, but if Ned Lamont was in an all-white anything, I think that's relevant. You and I would have both thought it was relevant to, say, Sam Alito. The flyer is harsh, but totally fair. I hope Lamont's mistake (if it was one) gets broader coverage.

Not that it really matters -- Lieberman will win anyway. But the scare he's gotten may do some good.

I thoroughly enjoy your in-house blogs, even when they go off the deep end (maybe especially then). However, I am not paying to read the work of guest bloggers, and I am concerned that the practice of having them fill in is becoming too routine. I'm sure people need vacations, and I'm all for them taking them, but it's really OK to close up shop for a few days, especially on War Room. Let the other chickens guard their own bloghouses.

Thank you again from a long-time subscriber!

I give the Closer credit for an original premise, even if it is another Law & Order knockoff. It needs retooling and might turn out OK, I'd give it another season.

You're dead on right about Nancy Grace, though. Somebody remind me why CNN is better than Fox? Rita Cosby is a great humanitarian compared to Grace.

Rebecca, someone has to ask (and I apologize if someone already has), if this article were in Marie Claire and advised women to not marry career-minded men because (mathematically) they're likely to cheat and/or just not be satisfying husbands, what would you say then? If Marie Claire then took down that article after complaints, then what would you say?

By the way, welcome back from vacation, and I do enjoy your work.

The person who called this article "anti-Catholic" has a point. I read the letter first and didn't find the article as bad as the letter made it sound, but she is clearly biased against the church.

That said, the author is quite right, the pope knows better. I'm not sure where the "academic" context comes in, but he knows his remarks will be broadcast.

And that said -- "reverence for the Prophet is non-negotiable" -- yeah, I got a problem with that. I'm from the culture where "Jesus Entering from the Rear" can be played on college radio. Sorry, Muslims are going to have to accept criticism. I'm sure most Muslims do accept it, but their fanatics seem to get most of the attention.

At the risk of rambling -- is this a problem with Muslim regimes? Do leaders of Muslim countries have to be, so to speak, more Catholic than the pope?

Great piece, Rebecca, very balanced. A much better read than a nitpick of the Sunday NY Times.

Personally, I like Hillary, but my view is muted by her flaws, which are really apparent. I've never understood why she provokes such strong reactions.

Lauren, excellent article. I'm just wondering if you had a follow-up question on that cities on fire quote from Ryan Dobson? When the son of an influential evangelical starts using the same rhetoric as Charles Manson, well, I get a bit concerned.

... couldn't you find the child of the green alien chick from the Captain Pike episode?

Bravo to Salon for erring on the side of publishing this. Personally, I am truly torn.

On one hand, it embodies the best of Salon, with its contrarian defense of Judith Regan and its unsparing language.

On the other hand, Debra, who entitled you to dispense justice? Did you suffer more from the trial than the rest of us did? You seem to imply that you did. And why does the fact that Judith Regan got battered grant her the moral authority to exploit the killings by publishing this book? If, as you say, it was her way of getting his confession, why was he allowed to disavow his confession with the conditional title? And like you, I tend to believe women who say they were hit, but Judith Regan has squandered my trust by building a career on publishing books by right-wing liars. So even though I do believe her, I refuse to grant her the moral authority to make money off this.

O.J. Simpson is a troubled man who needs help, not false-pretense empowerment from the likes of Judith Regan, and not condemnation from the likes of you, Debra. Maybe the next time you feel like recommending suicide, you should pitch it to Nancy Grace.

I like Keith Olbermann a lot, and I like Rebecca Traister. But the fact that he said THAT, on television, and that she quotes him not as evidence of him going off the rails for a moment but as evidence of Paris's alleged malevolence -- well, something is amiss here. Paris is an opportunist, and as Rebecca says, we create the opportunities. But let's not have Keith Olbermann indulging in mean-spirited misogyny and Rebecca Traister nodding along with him!

As an aside, why is Salon so protective of Britney Spears? It doesn't bother me, but I also don't get it. Yes, she does look innocent, but, by her own admission, she isn't.

Thank you for this article. I had heard of Perez, but had no idea he was such a jerk.

Whenever anyone claims they're doing something good for the gay community, we should ask ourselves whether it would be good for the gay community if Pat Buchanan did it. In this case, I think the answer is pretty clear.

I was a little skeptical until I read the article, but Michael convinced me. Excellent choice.

... and not the word, and maybe that way we'll keep the insight but lose the useless comic book metaphors.