I would love to see someone take control of our government debt and stop the deficit spending completely. But who is going to do it? Normally, we would turn to republicans for this type of thing but they badly disappointed me the last time they controlled the government. Though during Bush's term they controlled the house and senate, they made no attempt to control spending and instead found time for No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part B. No suddenly republicans are raising the roof about deficit spending and debt. They only seem to care about the subject of debt when they are out of power. I voted for Romney, but with little faith that he would do anything about our pitiful financial situation.

Don't American presidents always stay in 5 star hotels? I would bet they do. Obama has brought a bit of glamour to the White House by inviting musicians to come and perform. It's OK with me and most other Americans. I would enjoy seeing these performances online somewhere. What is wrong with a president who is literate in popular culture? Trying to drum up outrage for these types issues is not going to work. I would rather see the focus be on the unemployment rate and why Obama has not gotten it down to 6 percent. And what is going on with the budget? What is the plan to balance it? The rest is a not very useful distraction.

If you have cloistered yourself away in a Christian right church, I can see how you might believe there are no democratic Christians. You would be wrong, however. What is the largest Christian denomination in the US? It is the Catholic church where the majority of members vote democratic every year. There are several other denominations that tend to attract more democrats than republicans as well.

I hear that "Hitler was a socialist/lefty" quite a bit. I am confused by it. Can you name a few actions that Hitler took that were socialist? Not his words, but his actions?

Wait, what? These are germans were talking about, right? Because Mr Connor is talking about them like they are Americans, or like it is our responsibility to provide home schooling to the entire world. The germans seem like a pretty democratic-minded group. Do we really need to refer to their anti-home school ideas as: "utterly repellent to everything we believe as Americans" A better approach for this family would be to educate germans about the wonders of home schooling and try and change the prevailing attitude and/or law. How did we get in the middle of this german disagreement?

I thought the concept of limiting certain types of weapons was well established in American law. After all, no one can own a 50 cal machine gun or fire an RPG launcher. There are other limitations on assault rifles so they cannot operate in automatic mode. I am sure the vast majority of Americans approve of keeping military grade weapons off our streets. I am confused by the conservative attitude which seems to be that any weapon invented by man should be legally available to us to use as part of our arsenal for armegedon. Does conservatism envision any limits of weaponry for home us?

These activities by public school officials seem ridiculous and like an overreaction to the problem. On the other hand, Daniel Mitchell might think differently if there had been a spat of massacres at the the offices of conservative editorial writers over the last 15 years in which hundreds had been killed and wounded. Mr Mitchell might begin to take precautions that to the outsider might appear ridiculous. I acknowledge that what school administrators around the country are doing is futile and not helpful, but I understand their desire to at least do something.

I continue to be amazed at how conservatives sincerely believe that their beliefs are always the 'truth'. Why are they so sure that their perceptions of reality are correct and everyone else is wrong? Why are they always so smart and everyone else is a low information voter? Could there be a relationship between their constant arrogance and the fact that no one likes conservatives?

I am not sure what is wrong with the Tea Party reps in the house. Around 60 TP representatives were elected in 2010 and yet in this years house speakership election, Mr Boehner won easily. In fact, there were only 9 dissenting votes and a handful of abstentions. Where was the Tea Party caucus? Why didn't they vote as a block and support one of their own? This was an important issue and the Tea Party showed they are not a serious player in the house.

There are currently 63 million registered democrats versus 47 million republicans. Combine that with the trend of hispanics and African Americans reproducing faster than whites and the lead in democratic voters is likely to increase. Note that the Republicans continue to win their share of elections even though they are outnumbered. Neither party is going to disappear or even lose significant support. Democrats represent people who want to use government to help people and solve social problems and republicans represent those who focus on personal responsibility and traditional values. Are either one of these world views likely to disappear? Not likely.

Mr Goodman, I spend some time on Google looking for quotes from these members of the chattering class that think unequal is unfair. I couldn't find any. I am sure there are some, just not very many or of any distinction. Another straw man you can easily knock down. I agree with you, though, that there really isn't a firm connection between unequal and unfair. The job market guarantees by its nature unequal, but we try to make it fair. For the most part it is. The most unequal and unfair is in the criminal justice system. Sentencing for selling crack is much more severe than for cocaine. One is a black man's drug, the other for whites. Blacks get sentence to death alot more than whites for similar murders. That's unequal & unfair.