thanks to the haters who call themselves Christians. I mean, these guys give Christians a bad name.

I just hope that the targets of their orchestrated hate campaign do not respond in kind. By all means fight back, but do not hate. They are sad conflicted authoritarian apes, without self-awareness, worthy more of pity than anything else.

Execute the appropriate penalty, that is. But how to humiliate a group of people incapable of shame? How to exert moral suasion on psychopaths? How to bring down those already lower than slugs? How to place consciousness of guilt into minds calcified with hubris and stupid with cretinous ideology?

But don't count on the Democratic "leadership" to do anything useful - they are part of the problem, it is clear.

After reading 3 pages of responses, I'm amazed no one has made the obvious point: THE LAW IS WRONG! And evil liars have turned this poor woman's son into a hitler-youth informer by filling his head with their evil lies.

Cannabis is an effective medicine for many ailments (including Mom's chronic pain), can be grown easily by anyone, and has fewer side effects than most pharmaceuticals (save one - it makes you feel good!). Like most medicines, however, it isn't for everyone, and should be treated with respect and care.

So why is it illegal? Why are hundreds of thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens in jail for using a natural medicine from a plant? Well, who gains from prohibition? The law enforcement industry (police, courts, jails, probation officers) gain a steady supply of non-violent clients; the Federal government gains another lever of power over the people and source of funds to expand this power through enforcement (DEA, ONDCP); the pharmaceutical industry gains clients for its expensive concoctions through the forced destruction of a natural medicine; the petro-chemical industry gains from the suppression of competition from a natural source of fiber and oil, and the forest products industry gains from the suppression of an agricultural fiber source which could replace its environmentally-destructive wood harvest. It seems clear to me that the prohibition of cannabis is the result of a conspiracy of law enforcement and corporatist interests.

Who loses? Farmers, especially small farmers, who could grow hemp as an environmentally-friendly cash crop. We all lose respect for the law and for our government, which is, after all, supposed to protect us, not persecute us for the profit of predatory interests. Families lose because children are turned against their parents by lying indoctrination (DARE), in much the same way as the Nazis turned children into informers against their parents. And mostly, sick people lose access to a medicine which relieves pain and symptoms of many chronic conditions such as cancer, MS, glaucoma, and depression.

I feel sorry for this poor young man, whose natural youthful zeal and energy have been misused and appropriated to divide him from both his parents and the truth by unscrupulous and destructive prohibitionist policies. I feel angry at a government which is predatory, and grows increasingly so. And I feel sick at heart over the people who have internalized the lies and blame the victims, rather than the perpetrators.

And I'm sad that your advice, Mr. Tennis, despite Mom's obtaining a legal medicinal cannabis prescription, is for Mom to put aside her medicine. This appears to me to be supporting the worst elements in our society and their lies. Try telling the truth, and let this young man work it out, rather than fuzzily pandering to his bad ideas, put in his head by the fascists (yes, let's call a spade a spade) who would make us inhabit their cramped, soulless, mundane, unimaginative, fearful, violent, authoritarian mental world.

Peace and Love, and healing to the Nations!

it's MacK. So much anger, self-righteousness, scorn, contempt, and desire to impose his views on others. And if you disagree with him, you are a disgusting pothead.

Move over, Rush Limbaugh....

Yes, it is if you have allowed yourself to be swallowed up by the corporate machine, internalising their "ethos", blaming the victim, being a slave. Your words say it all: "I smoked to get over the stress of long weeks and slowly started smoking over weekdays, till it was clear it was interfering with my ability to be the corporate bitch - and you need to be the corporate bitch to take responsibility for yourself, parents children."

SO sorry you have given up on life to serve the borg.

This is the best Carol Lay effort I've read. Yay Hooray Yip Yip Yahoo!!!!

Hint to those of a literal persuasion - it doesn't make sense other than metaphorically. Grok?

Jury-rigged means repaired temporarily in an emergency with materials at hand. For example, a sailing ship caught in a big blow might have one of its masts break off half-way up. A jury-rig to limp into port for a proper repair might consist of a block temporarily mounted to the top of the remaining mast section, rigged with a reefed (shortened) sail.

This is not a derogatory term like "jerry-rigged", which is much more similar to terms like "red-neck engineering" or its racist counterpart.

Apollo 13 was jury-rigged to get home safely. TSA safety procedures are jerry-rigged, like most of the appallingly incompetent output of our Republifascist power structure. Remember - the most enduring characteristic of the common garden fascist mind is its utter banality, lack of imagination, authoritarianism, and mediocrity.

And it's very hard to resist - the dialog goes something like this: "OK, you're gone, here's the package. You get two years severence if you sign the agreement (which contains a clause that you can never say anything at all about Bush, his heirs and assigns, the Republican party, etc. etc.). If you don't sign, you get nothing, plus we assassinate your character in a very public and very nasty way."

What would you do? Odds are, elect to spend more time with your family, right?