I had to travel, one of those city-here, city-there trips that leaves one waking at 3 a.m. and wondering what city this is. A friend recommends keeping a copy of the hotel's phonebook on the nightstand, binder facing the bed, as a means of short-circuiting the befuddlement. As a result, and because I still haven't quite sorted out the newfangled comments feature, several of you attempted to post comments that were held up, awaiting my approval. They should be up now, most of them.

A couple are not, and I'll explain why. I believe in a free-ranging debate, and if you're going to show me the courtesy of reading and thinking about what I have to say, then it seems only fair that I repay the courtesy by letting you have your say in the comments. Occasionally, however, someone leaves a comment consisting entirely of ad hominem attacks, non sequiturs, and other offenses to logic and civility so grave that only Latin phrases can describe them. One person, for example attempted to leave a comment on the abortion discussion below, denouncing all of us men, in unkind words, because men can't have anything worthwhile to say on the topic. This is, of course, nonsense, akin to saying that one who has never been or owned a slave should not engage in a debate about slavery, or that only those who have been to war can understand the current conflict's prosecution.

I thought about posting that comment, but decided against, because I've found that people who can't muster a rational argument on which to embark are very unlikely to discover one along the way, wasting precious time afforded to the rest of us. So in addition to screening out porn and advertisements, I'll also be screening out illogical rants. Yes, I suppose that's a subjective judgment, in the same sense that one must subjectively judge whether the light in one's room is on or off, or whether A is A. But there you go.

Soon we'll have things set up so that you'll have the option of getting a free Typepad registration, in order to allow authenticated commenters to comment without going through my screen first. Then we'll really be high-tech. And thanks, by the way, to those of you who've taken the time to compose an argument here, even when you disagree with me. You're wrong, of course, but I appreciate you nonetheless.

ps: for the humor-impaired, that last was something called a j-o-k-e.