But it's not the ones who want to know more about the psychology of a Presidential candidate who earn my contempt.

No, it's you weak-and-trembling, oh so politically correct, ineffectually polite, fearful and just plain stupid citizens who would rather elect a madman to office then trample on your ill-perceived notions of propriety and dignity. Many of you seem ignorant of the very basic aspects of psychology, much less the complicated aspects of the brain's response to lengthy trauma.

We've had a national debate over whether torture is moral. Hidden in that debate are the various advance and discoveries we've made in brain science and psychology since the 1960s. We know, for example, that lengthy torture causes intense trauma which results in the psychological characteristics we call PTSD. No one who experiences a trauma avoids this. It effects each individual differently, and not every symptom occurs in every sufferer. But you can bet John McCain suffered numerous symptoms of PTSD, and may still be dealing with occasional nightmares and other reactions which demonstrate in sufferers *decades* after the initial trauma and treatment for PTSD.

Torture causes the type of extreme mental duress which can result in the formation of lesions in the brain. These lesions can occur in areas which are unnoticed until the patient experiences great stress. As a result of the lesions, the brain is unable to function properly in the areas affected. The dysfunction may occur occasionally without stress, but during stress will become predominant. (I know a vet who was tortured less than McCain who, when stressed, begins to stutter incomprehensibly. He has been receiving treatment for the condition since 1975. Would you elect him President?)

("Codsteb" has it right on the money, and is much less temperamental then me. Read his letter above re-think this, then continue with my rant.)

Do you people think a goddam bowel movement is more important than the psychology of your President, who has a vast military and nuclear arsenal at his disposal? Who can apparently, merely using the power of his office, cajole Congress into allowing him to invade a country?

These calls for "secrecy" regarding questions of McCain's mental stability are ridiculous and childish. Our President is not a King empowered by God: there is nothing Holy or Sacred about the office. The President is our leader, beholden and accountable to us. We not only deserve to know everything about the mental health of those who want the job, but to refuse such information is the very height of foolishness.

Additionally, you are the very worst kind of citizen if you believe in ignorance over knowledge. So every one of you who believes McCain should be able to hide his mental problems behind a veneer of "polite society" is a bad citizen, ready to stick your head in the sand because you're not comfortable with what you might see. That's the kind of thinking that gets us George W. Bush, a war in Iraq, and an economy that can barely compete with Bolivia. Keep following your type of thinking, and we'll end up nuking Tehran, putting immigrants in concentration camps, and paying through the nose for it. And all you pandering pansies will be wondering, How did this happen?

OK. I'll bite.

Lighten up. It's called comedy.

But you're voting for McCain anyway, right? That you begin your tirade with a straw-man swipe at racism says much about you. Much more than your lack of basic math skills, for example.

Does Salon have copy-editors who know HTML? Or do you lean on some WYSIWYG system? Has your actual editing gone as soft as your Walsh-led editorial policies?

They can't write or think as well as women. I know you did it for the beard - after all, if one of the Broadsheet women had written this, there would be pages of indignant flames from bitter, divorced men who paid through the nose in alimony, all accusing those rapacious, heartless women of wanting to eat their cake, still have it as well, and make the ex pay for it. Repeatedly.

... we've already had a woman President. After all, she claims 35 years of experience, eight years of it in the White House.

This gets better with each passing moment.

Joan Walsh is right: Hillary should - and must - stay in until the bitter end.

No reason to take anything they say with seriousness or respect, as neither of them intends the same.