Quoting "R. Douglas Ezell" <rdouglas@iglou.com>:
> The current structure of navigation lists leave me with several questions.

<snip>example navigation list</snip>

> 1. How do you address only the links of a navigation list directly? They 
> do not have a dedicated containing element to do so.

  What?  Yes they do, <nl> is their containing element.

 If I wanted to 
> apply a style to the list items, would I have to address each one 
> individually? What if I wanted a simple outset border around just the 
> list items of a navigation list?

  nl li[href] { border: 2px outset black; }


> 3. Is the navigation list meant to be a menu bar or a menu, or am I 
> misinterpretting its structure entirely. Clearly they do not seem to 
> possess the rquisite structure for either to me.

The list can be presented as a menu bar if you wish, or a side menu,
or whatever else you can think of.  The structure is intended for any type of
navigation list such as a table of contents, site navigation, a blog roll, or
whatever.

--
Lachlan Hunt
http://www.lachy.id.au/