Don't you love the new, interactive world of the newspaper?

I mean, as a journalist, you used to never really know how your work hit the reader. On a good day you imagine some impartial, professor-type smoking his pipe and thoughtfully poring over page E6, where your latest genius offering awaits. More often, you guess, with some accuracy, that your life's work has been lining birdcages.

The internet smashes all illusions.

Honestly, the best thing about the new two-way street is that sometimes, what comes back around is better than what went out in the first place. Check out the comments section for this AP story in the Rapid City Journal.

OK, Rapid City. That's not being totally fair. And the story is a little hokey, about an inmate who is making demands on the prison authorities so he can practice Asatru. For those just tuning in, Asartu is a modern take on Norse paganism, which, by all evidence in the AP story, was big on tchotckes:

Hoadley’s lawsuit asks for 23 ritual items, 10 reference materials and other requests, including visits from people who also practice the religion.

Many of the items already are included in a Corrections Department list of property that inmates may have in their cell or in the religious storage area.

Among those items: Rune cards and tiles, altar and cloth, wooden wand, ritual drinking horn, apple juice, blessing bowl, candles and holders, feather fan, wooden hammer, drum, abalone shell, evergreen twig and dragon’s blood resin, a type of incense.

Other requests include an outside area with a tree and a sauna, special foods and privileges for religious holidays and a time once a week for studies, in addition to the one already allowed for rituals.

“This is no different than any of the various Bible studies, Hebrew lessons, Arabic lessons, etc., that have been or are approved,” Hoadley wrote.

First, the story. I know the prison systems in our country are brutal. I've made a good friend who is serving time (his father is a brimstone Baptist preacher down Kentucky way), and changing his religion is one of the only things he has freedom over anymore. Some of the only rights that remain to convicts are religion-related. (He was a Hare Krishna for a while. Then he decided he wanted to get away from the normal prison slop and onto the "Old Testament" diet, which is slightly higher in daily nutrients and fresh foods. So he recently became a Seventh-Day Adventist. Score one for cynicism here.)

But what's amazing is how clearly the article is fishing for outrage - and how balanced the debate is in the comments. A sampling:

Whether or not he practices True Asatru or Odinism is debatable but the issue is allowing him the items he has asked for to practice his version of it. No one is ever denied a bible crackers, grape juice and a cup. Why should he be denied his horn, apple juice, and plastic toy sword. Last time I checked my daughter could hurt anyone with hers, short of making her own eye water when she hit her self in that face flipping it around.

I am not one of those people who thinks that people who "find God" should be spared. But when someone starts claiming an arcane religious affiliation to get extra privledges, I draw the line.

I guess I'm amazed at how many religions and traditions there are out there. I guess I either nuts or very sheltered in my thinking about how simple religous practice should be

And on and on - for FIVE PAGES or so.

When they ask - where's the religious dialogue in this country? we can proudly say, ignore the journalists. Read the citizen commentary.