Just had to acknowledge "a platform for his sleazy grunts"--now that's fun, inventive, and apt. Perfect!

Tabula Rasa has it right. No one who has played golf seriously or who follows the game would think it is anything but a sport, and a highly demanding one. The pros are much, much better than your scratch-playing buddy--certainly more so than the casual viewer imagines. The courses pros play are ridiculously difficult; on his best golfing day of his life, a serious amateur might play 10 over. Maybe. These guys are precision athletes who work at least as hard at their game as their rough-and-tumble counterparts. I love football, hockey, what have you--and have played well at many sports--but golf is the greatest and most engaging challenge I have undertaken. The coordination, stamina, and mental toughness of the best are first rate--and rare. The fact that golf can be played--usually poorly--by the out of shape; and the fact that golf is enjoyed by the elderly, and the handicapped, and the mildly drunken--is a John Daley-sized plus.

James, like many here I have missed you, but I am firmly in the Yeti's camp. I fear the sea, because the sea is dangerous. If I am eaten by a shark (presumably after my tenth scotch, as little else--save shipwreck--could compel me to swim with said beasties), well, that sucks for me. I would have failed to protect myself, and possibly others, from a creature I can't have had any expectation of behaving otherwise; I don't see why my failure should entitle me to (rather after the fact) revenge. And keep in mind that several independent organizations have confirmed that I am, in fact, Special.

Vindication is sweet. Thank you for your generosity of mind and spirit, Mr. Yoo, and congratulations! --Jack

Mildly interesting, but I'm not getting why this is supposed to be so great. Other than the paintball angle, I feel as though I've read this piece a hundred times.

Normally I am wary of italicization, but putting "moment" in italics raised your joke from "cute" to "snigger-worthy." Well done.

Holding that precision in writing is a self-evident Good seems to have become a Conservative tell. My occasional defenses of the need for clarity elicit reactions from my Liberal friends ranging from bemused tolerance to sputtering rage. The Liberal condition, or what leads to it, seems to be at odds with the very notion of Standards, which may stem from an aversion to any tenet or tool that might impede the flogging of Notions. The frailty of notions requires that they be held aloft by aggressive and gapless assertion; analysts need not apply. And so I suspect that Liberals, not being stupid, sense the need to avoid staging battles on hazardous ground. Though it's quite a stretch, I suggest that Ambiguity Creep might be not just a component of the Liberal mode, but also an active means of disabling discourse.

Where are folks downloading the book onto their iPads? I have tried Amazon a couple of times but the Kindle version remains "unavailable." Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am excited to read this book.

Since someone who votes on a matter is bound to the result, you cannot rationally deny that person access to whatever is produced by the vote. The vote's results are binary and summary, producing a single class of result-bound persons; having voted against a successful measure confers no special ability to resist the outcome.

Fair enough--but my main point is that it's not worth my time to monitor airwaves chatter just so I can "know" something 3 minutes faster. No impact on my decision making or well being. --And please do keep up the fine reports from abroad. Most illuminating.

Re Twitter: Yes, it's true that I could have had the information several minutes faster than if I had waited for the news; but I am not sure how much benefit this access to raw data would really confer. Ms. Berlinski, I admire and follow your high-quality work, but then it is your job to monitor and report on raw data, not mine. As a person not employed as a reporter, it does not make sense for me to remain plugged into Twitter so that I am constantly interrupted by information spasms of unknown quality; I would rather check occasionally via trusted intelligent filters such as that you provide.