DISQUS

Looks perfect for me. Smaller the better.

Navigation is stuck into a sidebar down the page instead of up front.

This is correct architecture. The visual appearance is easily changed with CSS. See attached link.

Try preferences -> display options -> allow reddits to show me custom styles.

easily.
if they can't handle a small class like this, fire them.

Does Barney get an extra bullet?

I hate reddit vs the others because of the incredible amount
of duplicate submissions. It seems like it would be a trivial
task to get rid of duplicates, but they don't seem to care. If
they could bother to fix this, it would be a huge improvement.

Before you go hanging everyone who's shown as "delinquent" on the treasurer's website, note that it appears that when they reverted the amounts to the 2006 level they also backed out any payments they posted after January 1, 2007. So there are folks who the site shows as delinquent who actually aren't (today) although they were (earlier). (Wilson appears to be one of them.)

The answer to the question is totally obvious and that would be give users the ability to modify whether or not a sound plays and if so what plays. The *user* knows best what they want and what would be best in their computing environment. I honestly can't imagine why anyone would be on the fence.

[Okay, back to topic]

"...in the long run de-regulation will bring more diversity of opinion to media..."

I don't buy this, and here's why: It hasn't worked with "programming" (or technically, "formats") why should we expect it to work with "opinion?" One of the arguments used to sell the first round of deregulation was that multiple-ownership would encourage diverse programming types because revenues from the "stronger" (more popular, higher rated) operations could be used to support the "weaker" ones. (So Clear Channel, for example, could use the "excess" revenues from it's #1 rated pop station to support its jazz or classical station in the same market.) This ignored the reality that publicly-held corporations have a fiduciary duty to their stockholders to maximize profits. And that duty militates against the creative or the different: "More of the same" is easier, more predictable, and safer too, because if you fail, at least you failed trying something that worked before (somewhere). (How many classical stations does Clear Channel operate?)
Meanwhile, the jazz buffs, or the classical listeners, could try getting together to start their own station, but because of allocation limits in most markets they'd have to buy a frequency from one of the existing owners. And for the chain owners, the potential consequences of selling a frequency outweigh any benefits: Even if one of your stations is an "underperformer," at least it'd not a "competitor." Another, more creative, operator, might find a program mix that would displace your #1 station, and how would you explain that to your shareholders?
These same arguments apply to news, opinion, or anything else. So I'll predict that instead of more diversity, we'll get more sameness (because of the drive for maximum revenues which come from maximum "popularity") coupled with poorer quality (caused by lack of competition). The key indicator will be local news coverage.
Come back in 5 years and see who's right.

"...another blogger has crossed-over into the ranks of the Working Journalists."
Is this any surprise? I've been reading weblogs extensively since 9/11, and have been endlessly amazed by the amount of excellent writing (much of which is far superior to what's to be found in the "real" media). If I was an editor, I'd be reading weblogs every day, not only to get a sense of the latest "buzz," but also as a way of spotting good (unpublished) writers.