That smoke and haze hanging in the air is coming from the sizzling synapses of the RWNM and internet trolls wracking their brains to come up with a way to convince the average schlub that salary caps for WS CEO's is a bad idea.

Tell ya what, guys- relax and take the day off. I'll give you this one for free:

"It's NOT FAIR to punish the hard-working CEO's of WS Banks for the collapse of the global financial system, because it wasn't their fault! No siree... these guys put in an honest day's work and risk their capital so you can have a place to live and work!

The fault for this whole mess lies squarley on the shoulders of all the poor minorities who were unfairly given mortgages they could not pay back!

And what's really the crime, is that the little joe- the ordinary hard-working American who has to support his family- yes the crime is that Obama wants to pick YOUR POCKET to pay for it all!"

There. I'm done now. You can thank me later.

...based only on the findings of a chiropractor or crackpot "nutritionist" or healer?

(The quotes are intentional- there are real nutritionists out there, so I'm not talking to you.)

The point I'm simply making is that there are a lot of clowns out there who pretend to be doctors and who do stupid things like press a jar of peanut butter against your chest while trying to push your arm down- the "point" being that if you are "sensitive" or your "body doesn't like it" your muscles go weak and your arm can be pushed down.

This absurd pseudoscience is called "applied kinesiology" and it's a crock.

But there are lots of people who don't know any better (and many who should) who believe that AK is a valid diagnostic technique.

The point in all this being, get a tune-up for your bullshit detector, and always solicit as many opinions as you can, from a wide range of professionals of different expertise.

This is Glenn Becks job. He plays a very important role in the massive GOP/RWNM PR apparatus.

His puppet masters don't expect anyone to buy his bullshit. He is, rather, the guy who is paid to froth and fume and sputter at the far, far end of the batshit crazy spectrum, so that people in the moderately batshit crazy (Rush and Hannity) spectrum look reasonable by comparison.

This is an old, old trick.

Gosh, you'd think that someone who could craft such a screed would know how to use paragraphs.

Um, dude -

Paragraphs make things easier to read and understand. Why put in all the effort, unless you wanted people to read what you have obviously taken so much time to write?

Just sayin'

...and nobody really gave a shit about pot.

My (high-school, gr. 10-12) teachers would take us into NYC on field trips, drop us off (unchaperoned!) on Museum Row with a list of exhibits to see, a list of restaurants where we could eat, and instructions to meet at such-and-such a theatre at 8:00.

Naturally, as soon as we were left off, we'd all skip into Central Park, fire-up, and enjoy the rest of the day.

Nobody died.

Of course, we were honors students, and the teachers trusted us. Once in a while, they would give us a little obligatory warning, always said with a wink and a nod, "Now people, no smoking the "funny stuff."

My art teacher used to grub rolling papers from me.

There were dirt-bag stoners in the school who never amounted to anything, and there were nerdy stoners who went on to successful professional careers. There was only one guy in my circle who fucked-up majorly, but that was because of coke.

People should get real. Kids already know that pot is a very low-risk (legality notwithstanding) activity. It is such a disservice to lump all drugs together in one big 'ol bad category without a truthful explanation of the unique characteristics of each. That's been the real tragedy of drug "education."

I shake my head and wonder what the hell happened during the last 30 years...

When she asked how Obama could demonstrated his trustworthiness, he should have replied, "Well, you're here, aren't you? I know this will take some getting used to, but part of the change I represent is not shying away from hostile questions in a public forum."

I'd love to see that as the Sound Bite of the Week!

...if this silliness were true, then I guess the venerated St. Ronnie Ray-gun didn't do such a hot job destroying Communism, after all.

Don't quit your day-job, Nostradamus.

Following the shootings at a Tennessee Unitarian church last Summer (crazed drug and AM Radio addict) I would frequent several blogs to post comments. One was particularly gun-friendly. Now, I live in Eastern TN, and while I don't choose to own a gun, plenty of people in the styx do, and with good reason. I'm used to that, and it doesn't bother me. Anyway...

The subject of pre-purchase screening and restrictions on gun ownership came up, and I expressed my concern that these kinds of problems are going to get much more common as more and more PTSD suffers return from duty. I thought it common sense that someone who is mentally unstable (for whatever reason) probably ought not to have a firearm.

Naturally, all the rabid gun-freaks came out of the woodwork to lecture me how, in the words of one respondent...

"There is no such thing as PTSD. My WWII vet father never heard of it, nor did other family memebers who served in every conflict. Besides, it is a piss-poor way to treat someone who served his country by taking away his gun."

He really said that.

Probably not such a strange place to see that, after all.