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The Fifth Column highlights provocative and insightful reader comments from around globeandmail.com. Don't see your own pearl of wisdom? Check back later.

Nov. 5, 12:06 p.m. ET: In Globe Life, David Eddie says it's okay to discipline other people's kids, but at least one reader, RHoltslander, takes issue with the notion that today's brats are any worse than those of yesteryear:

"There was no golden age. There has never been a time when kids were little angels."

Nov. 5, 7:51 a.m. ET: Oh no, not another Yankees World Series win ...

Reader Shiyam Pillai: "I ask you baseball fans out there - Is it for the good of the game to have 1 franchise win 27 Championships and basically go into every season taking it for granted they'll make the Playoffs in the AL East?"

Reader Ed Flynn: "I'd say it's about time they got what they've been paying for. This was, yes, the best team money could buy."

Nov. 4, 1:57 p.m. ET: Columnist Margaret Wente explains her MO and the thought behind her new book, You Can't Say That in Canada. Suffice it to say, reader reaction is mixed.

James Phieffer: "Margaret Wente, keep up the good work. The cow of groupthink is seriously in need of more gadflies."

bano: "I think what more accurately angers people about her columns is faulty argumentation, and a failure to weigh evidence in the balance."

michael_d8: "I like Wente a lot, but that is probably because I almost always agree with her."

The Work Farce: "Margaret Wente's columns are very entertaining. Far from keeping her down as just another well-informed writer with a lot of provocative ideas, however, the G & M should reward her considerable talent by making her their humour writer-in-residence."

Nov. 4, 1:03 p.m. ET: An Italian judge convicts 23 Americans, most of them CIA agents, in absentia for the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect in Milan. Reader Stephen Harrington says any American who supports the practice of extraordinary rendition "has seriously forgotten what it is American's are supposed to be fighting for. Liberty and Justice _for all_. That was not meant to preclude the rest of the world. It was meant to be a utopian ideology that would serve as the great backdrop for freedom, democracy, and yes even capitalism."

Nov. 4, 11:32 a.m. ET: Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair makes a plea to keep the long-gun registry, bringing howls from its many opponents among our readers, plus a few voices of support.

Apocalypso: "Of course the police want the gun registry retained -- it makes their work much easier. So would revoking habeous corpus, allowing illegally-obtained evidence, or confessions obtained under duress."

RMacD: "Phase 1 was the Firearms Acquisition Certificate, phase 2 was the gun registry and phase 3 is when they confiscate all firearms. Don't let it happen."

Sam Y.: "Read the examples given in the article: Do you really oppose the ability of police to know, when answering a domestic dispute, whether there are guns in the house?"

Dwight Winger: "What is freaking hard about registering your rifle? You register your marriage! You register your birth! You register your car! You register your mortgage! The only thing I can possible gather from this is that you don't want the police or government to know you have a gun. Why is that?"

Takunaktiit: "... the degree of violence using a gun [in the North] is high, but any cop willing to tell you the truth will tell you that the gun registry will never stop that. As any experience police officer knows, you MUST approach every situation with extreme caution and assume the worst case scenario. Your life depends upon it!!!"

Nov. 3, 9:47 a.m. ET: A very readable piece in Globe Life compares office politics to standup comedy - think about knowing your audience, controlling the setting, dealing with hostile colleagues and the like. Reader CKS sees another parallel:

"Robin Williams also has a trait that helps him get ahead: he's a notorious joke thief. That's a valuable trait in corporate culture, too. Steal someone else's good idea and use your charisma to make it your own."

Nov. 3, 8:47 a.m. ET: Margaret Wente says it's hard to know what to do about global warming when experts' estimates of the climatic effects of livestock vary so widely. Hornsworth Portswiler (possibly not a real name) is among the readers with opinions on the impact of our meaty diets:

"Just eat less [of it] ... Meat was a handy food source when we were scavengers or struggling farmers, but those days are past. Meat two to three times a day is unthinkingly excessive, probably not healthy to you or the environment, and a by product of an enthusiastic meat industry that like all industrialized things needs to be checked occasionally. If everyone had meat a few times a week at most, variety would be appreciated more and there'd be no environmental problems."

Nov. 2, 7:32 a.m. ET: Whatever happened to soft power? Diplomacy? That's what Gordon Gibson asks in an op-ed piece today. A sampling of your answers:

Reader Jack1059: "The military is a necessity, but its usefulness is limited to specific tasks. Something a wise politician knows. Even the world's largest most powerful superpower lost to a tiny determined nation in SE Asia because it used military might almost exclusively."

Reader Hocking: "Perhaps the author of this piece should do a survey: schedule meetings with the Taliban, have a real good chew over of their issues pertaining to women, human rights, the rule of law; give them our position - leverage that soft power you were referring to - and once they're done spit roasting you perhaps you can do a follow-up article on how it's all worked out."

Oct. 13, 11:49 a.m. ET: Ever wonder how much you'll get for that car you're buying? An interesting article details the 10 worst resale auto buys. Several readers think they have it all figured out, but Kevin * 18's method is only for the true skinflints:

"so if i paid $600 for my '82chevy caprice classic 2 years ago and i can sell it for $1000 today after spending $1000 on it it's almost like it was free ... plus it has an am/fm stereo cassette deck which you just can't get in a 2009 BMW..."