who said: 'Alcohol is very much a mind altering drug but we do not label it as such. Indeed we say "alcohol and drugs" rather than "alcohol and other drugs". This is a ploy to separate alcohol from the other mind altering recreational drugs in our discussions and it has worked very well.'

My dad had opined that 'alcohol is not a drug'. That's because it is called 'alcohol' and not alcocyllin or methylalcopam, or some other druggy sounding word. It's actually sorta funny.

who mentioned: 'like jon stewart says, they'll write weally weally stwongly worded emails in ALL CAPS to their kongresskritters...'

I'm glad you've reduced the number of caps in your posts. Makes them more readable. Keep up the good work.

Wes, thank's for the shout out on Coach Cal. UKites here are giddy. Should be a hell of a UK - UL game next year.

Sorry about how the cigs got a hold on you. Maybe you could (over a period of a few months) reduce the number you smoke each day. If you can go 10 or 20 minutes more each day without smoking the next one, you can cut out 4 or 5.

Anyway, I do want you to post for many more years. I think you have a great sense of humour.

is the alcohol industry. I think they think that pot is so easy to grow that most users would 'grow their own' and not want store bought pot. I think they overestimate the gumption of the average pot smoker.

If pot was decriminalized & made an eqivilent to alcohol (in legal terms), I think the alcohol companies would have a leg up on everyone else when it came to the distribution, legalities, ability to start growing alot on farms, etc.

Conversely, the industry known as 'Big Cheetos' has been working behind the scenes for years to get pot legalized.

You should smoke more pot & less cigarettes. Pot is nowhere near as bad as cigarettes when it comes to your health (and I want you to be the first Salon poster with 10,000 entries).

Algernon will come back someday.

I think Tukla in Iowa has a better understanding of the way our Democratic party generally operates than the Italian Stallion does.

although I think in reality his security goons would assault you, if you performed a 'citizen's ambush' on him.

another one of those New York Times magazine articles on the vapid rich & their spawn. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Salon readers don't have the cake to contemplate all the spa treatments required to turn their children into future JonBenets.

It is a shame that for some rich young girls, childhood ends at 5.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, HughAnderson, but I think humans can eat certain raw grain crops. May not be very nutritious or taste good, but I don't think they'll kill you.

Now I'm only talking about eating the parts of the plant that we use to make grain products, not the stalks, etc.

Just start going on about loofahs & how much did Bill pay that girl, etc. etc. Just repeat that as long as the cameras are in your face & I don't think they'll air that 'ambush'.

(dusts off hands) There, that's taken care of...

Your mom has tremendous willpower.

looks pretty hot to me. She was very, very attractive back in her sitcom days so she had a good base to work with.

on your Izzie. Nice to see your tireless work get recognized.

about the descent into 'theater' and coarseness that characterizes our representative bodies.

It reminds me of the way the Imperial Russian Duma acted right before the revolution. Most all of the representatives then were popinjays & preening idiots who relished the gotchas & histrionics & had no desire to perform the actual tasks of sober governing.

I'm sure Mr. Santayana would say there's no parallel between the two.

Congressman Frank is entirely correct. The flamboyant protesters just become 'useful idiots' for the Repubs to propagandize against. Read 'Nixonland' for a memoir on how they became so good at it.

who asked: 'Maybe his entire media personality is an elaborate ruse, joke on us, and he laughs like a lunatic when writes stuff like that.'

I know I end up laughing like a lunatic when I read his crap.

It's like '1984' was a how-to guide...

is Realname, Electro, etc. etc.

who had this gem 'If Iran can't find its "rightful place among the community of nations...through arms..." then why is it we think we can?'

cause we're special...

I stand by my editorial shorthand (pummeled) of your interactions at Balloon Juice. One can read the cached messages over there & see if I was being unjust to you or not.

but it was a sorta dicky thing to say. I agree that if Pres. Batshit McBananas had said it (with a characteristic smirk & a heh heh heh) that I would have been (justifiably, I think) slamming him.

I know he has compassion for the less fortunate & I hope Special Olympics will reap some tangible benefits out of this.

(hope I didn't miss a vowel there) is a regular at Balloon Juice. He/she is routinely pummeled by the other posters.

I don't think this person is the same as Electro et. al. If they are, they use a different writing style.

IMO, they have about as much to offer to the discussion (and I would even say that Electo has more germane comments, every once in a blue moon, than this joker).