Live Q&As

Listen to Southern politicians when they are on the national stage.Look at the way Rick Perry dresses and acts in Texas. It's not uncommon. It's pandering - it's what politicians do.

I think you've stated that you don't like tattoos and do not understand why people permanently mark up their bodies. The other day I was discussing things with my hair stylist and we both agreed that when we visit new towns or have moved to new places, or are just somewhere we haven't been before, we feel far more comfortable if there are lots of people with tattoos around. For example, I am a shy person who just started taking some classes. When I noticed that most of the students have quarter sleeves of tattoos, or tattoos on their wrists, necks, feet, etc. I immediately felt safer than I had before. It doesn't make a lot of sense but it still works for me. So do you, as a person who doesn't like tattoos, feel less comfortable around tattooed folk?

Without realizing it, I just conducted a 45 minute job interview with a rather large piece of chicken from a chicken salad sandwich on my shirt. The person I was interviewing never mentioned it once. I kind of don't want to hire him now, because I feel like he should have said something. Is that fair?

So as a lifelong Yankee fan, are you getting more into the Nationals lately? This is gonna be a reeeeeally good team. I was at the home finale, and it's obvious these guys are enjoying the ride -- fans AND players. It says something to me when even the role players are already talking about how much they want to be back here next year.

I have a son with a severe allergy to peanuts. He literally can't breathe if he eats anything containing peanuts. I used to enjoy peanuts before he was born. Now the very smell of them makes me nauseous and anxious. I think your reaction of the fish breakfast was simply human.

Last week you commented on how the rightwingers shorten the second amendment by removing a key clause. They also want to shorten the first amendment to "Congress shall make no law."

I must confess to thinking the Krauthammer tweet was a joke. I had no idea he really was paralyzed.

Like you and others at the Post, I was outraged by the "drum major" quote on the MLK memorial. Not only is the misquote absolutely horrid, but it is also personally insulting . I was the the drum major for my high school marching band, and I am simply astonished that MLK would assault my dignity. I was proud to wear a two-foot tall fur hat with its matching foot-long blue plume, and my white buck shoes, and my scarlet breastplate with its four dozen brass buttons, all while carrying a 5-foot long chrome stick and running around bent over backwards like Olga Korbut so that I could direct such sophisitcated musical classics as "The Theme From Hawaii 5-0." I demand an apology.

Don't know if we're still talking about this topic, but I'm curious if you can pinpoint when you no longer felt tempted by the wiles of teenage girls. Presumably when you were in high school that was not the case, but when did they cross into your automatic "not interested" zone? My guess it was fatherhood that was the trigger, making the high school girls more like children to be protected (even from themselves) rather than women to be ogled. Plus, studies show that testosterone drops with fatherhood.  I'm also betting the 33-year old man who quit teaching high school because of the unbearable temptation was not a father.

Gene, I have a question about airplane etiquette/safety that I know you can answer. More than once, I've had someone next to me using a portable electronic device well after the flight attendant has announced they must be turned off. The most recent incident was last month when taking off from San Francisco. The man next to me had his iPod on. He told the flight attendant it was off when she asked, but it was not--I could hear the music coming out of the earbuds. On one hand, I'm terrified of flying and the thought that something could go wrong because of some selfish jerkface is distressing. On the other hand, what are the chances an iPod will actually cause my plane to crash? I don't want to be a tattletale (and stuck next to the person I tattled on for a 5 hour flight). But I want to feel safe and like other people respect the rules enough to turn off the music for 10 minutes. What say you?

I am an atheist. I have thousands of reasons for being one, but one of the most profound, I think, is poop. So we were created in the image of some god. Why on earth wouldn't this god make us slightly better? Why do we spend so much of our time pooping? Why do we get indigestion, tummy troubles, loose stools? You think god was just sitting on the can one day, feeling kind of sorry for himself and said, "Hey! I should make some little people who will have to poop too!"? Do you have any bizarrely over thought reasons for your atheism?