The day started with another ride on a C-130 transport plane, which included a rapid descent (3,200 feet per minute) that brought our stomachs into our throats.

A persistent narrative about the Vietnam War is that anti-war protesters of the 1960s and 70s vilified the troops, spitting in their faces upon their return to the United States. Despite its implausibility, the "spitting image" lives on.

If Matthew Marsden is really honored to hang out with anti-gay, religious-right hate mongers -- and that's who he flew halfway across the country to be with in private -- then he should do it in the light of day.

While ending the steroid era in baseball proved reasonably straightforward once the will to act was present, we as a country have yet to face, no less curtail, our ongoing steroidal celebrations of pumped-up patriotism.

Watching President Obama and former Vice President Cheney duel on terror suspects: can Spock replace Rambo in the approach to Gitmo?

... assuming we just watched her audition for bodacious wrongwing talk show host, not Vice President of the United States of America. The Republicans...

McCain has been tweaking his P.O.W. story, with some variation, for many years. For Democrats, critiquing its overuse is too little, too late.

The imagery on the cover of the New Yorker represents the quality of conversation on race and religion in this country: mixed messages, nothing decoded.