I had a few interesting conversations as well. I'd rather not post the conversation I had with the APD commander on the scene, as he was very polite and I don't want to cause trouble for him. I will be happy to tell you in private, but not in public.
The protesters were a mass of ignorant, unwashed, uneducated, uncaring fools. Being nice and polite to them simply made them more angry and irritated. It was fun.... ;-)
As one protester started throwing insults towards one of the ladies with us, I leaned in to her (and made sure he could hear it) and said "Isn't it ironic that the peace protesters are the ones who are filled with so much hate?"
The best one, though, was as we were leaving. They had been calling us racist and sexist, amongst other things. I asked one of them why they hated Arabs and women so much. One fellow almost popped a blood vessel, "Whata you mean Hate women?" I replied, "Heck, our side's given more women the right to vote than yours has. I guess that means we care about their freedom." I thought his head was gong to explode.
Good FReep today tarawa, thanks for letting us know about it. 500 of them to 17 of us makes it pretty much even I'd say.