Over the last few months, thenation.com has made an effort to foster a robust and thoughtful comments section befitting the mighty intelligence of our readership. We’re pleased to report that the shoe ads are gone, the name-calling is at a minimum and astute and witty commentary is on the rise. Here are our favorite comments from the last week. Let us know what you think — in the comments!

jsens: Yad061 points out a problem. How does one powerfully confront the financial system? Lunch counter sit-ins were directly confrontational; airborne troops challenging a southern governor in a schoolhouse doorway were too. But the financial industry exists on paper and in computer drives. In a sort of "cloud," if you will. We still need it. We still use it. Who is to be punished? If you can identify objects of scorn, how do you punish someone for something they did that was legal at the time, and may still be? How, in short, does one be civilly disobedient to a bank or finance company

In Response to George Goehl’s Rediscovering Civil Disobedience. October 17, 2011.

sheila62: The anger that the American people feel about bailing out Wall Street while those very crooks go free and got richer and will continue to get richer is being expressed by Occupy Wall Street. I read that it has a 54% favorable rating. People have the right to protest against these gross injustices. Obama made a big, big mistake when he sided with banksters rather than the American people. Dr. King used non-violent civil disobedience, but he was not the first. Susan B. Anthony voted and was arrested. She was tried, found guilty and never paid the fine. Alice Paul, founder of the National Woman’s Party used non-violent civil disobedience by having women picket the White House when Woodrow Wilson was president. The women did not engage in violence. However, the women were arrested and violence was used against them. I will not let my gender be thrown under the bus. Dr. King was a great man, but so were women such as Anthony, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances Willard, Anna Shaw and so on. Alice Paul is most credited with establishing the non-violent civil disobedience that would later be used by Dr. King and the Vietnam protesters.

In Response to George Goehl’s Rediscovering Civil Disobedience. October 17, 2011.

JamesNPA: This article points toward an emerging civil disobedience movement that is starting in parks and bank lobbies, but I see it moving to preventing wrongful foreclosures and evictions. Bodies will be on the line like the lunch counters in the civil rights movement, and this is about nothing less than Dr. King’s continuing work to save the soul of America. In Response to George Goehl’s Rediscovering Civil Disobedience. October 17, 2011.

chil43: Republicans have been making a push for voter suppression all across the nation so I wouldn’t be surprised if this bill is also an extension of the GOP’s overall national strategy to hamstring the Democratic parties success in the upcoming 2012 election, especially considering that the Hispanic population is the fastest growing minority voting block in the US today and they tend to vote democratic.
In Response to Ilyse Hogue’s Alabama’s HB56 and the Dark Side of Fake Economic Fixes. October 17, 2011.

Realword: Why is it people give a pass to the 300 filibusters the Republicans knifed the president with, and the now totally obstructing Republican majority house, and blame the President because he can’t get a jobs bill passed? That is like blaming an 80-year-old woman for not crossing the street, when five thugs with ball bats won’t let her. Come on. Call a spade, a spade.
In Response to Jamelle Bouie’s Obama’s Troubles in Virginia. October 18, 2011.

Bnerin: Is the time arising, as in 1968 when Senator Eugene McCarthy ran in the New Hampshire primary against LBJ and won 42% of the votes to LBJ’s 49% – enough to make LBJ say he would not run for reelection, for a true blue friend of the common citizen run against Obama?
In Response to Jamelle Bouie’s Obama’s Troubles in Virginia. October 18, 2011.