It's clear to me that the policy of posting banned IPs and their comments in question may only be making things worse. I have turned off the comments in the prior post, and have turned off comments on all new posts across all other pages, until Michele and I can huddle and decide where to take this element of our site, including the feasibility of comment authentication through TypeKey.

Frankly, I've had it with the disrespectful and un-civil commentary ... from the left and the right. What's more, I believe it will only get less civil between now and the election (a depressing prospect indeed).

My father always has said: "If it feels good, do it. If it don't, stop." Our comments no longer feel good, and I no longer have fun reading them … primarily because I now read them to police them, not to learn something interesting, or to hear a compelling perspective from someone with a different point of view.

Didn't used to be this way, but now it is.

I didn't start this site so it could be a pain in the ass, and what I won't do is be a subject to my reality; rather, I will choose to act upon it. But this is a partnership, and the future of our comment functionality is something Michele and I need to determine together.

Until we can do so, which will begin tomorrow morning I'm sure, the comments are off. Everyone should get familiar with TypeKey in the interim.