I'm not a bit surprised by these comments.  Most of the commentors on this site and the Nation are conservative ditto-heads with little idea how the real world works.  Racism, sexism, classism, they promote it.  My dissappointment is that the people with honest thoughtful comments get dragged into moronic arguments with these people.  It would be better is they just selected to ignore the ditto-heads and converse with those who, agree or disagree, make an attempt at thoughtful discussion.  I find myself ovoiding the comments for weeks at a time out of disgust.