for a somewhat different explanation of how the stock market can surge in an environment of high unemployment, check out Crossing The Rubicon by Michael Ruppert.

This isn't the place for jokes in poor taste. This is a place for meaningful discourse. Please give this conversation the respect it deserves.

I can only wonder why the following message is absent from most conversations about drugs (apparently missing in this book as well). It is the premise that drives true discourse on the topic:

"...altering one's consciousness is a fundamental human desire." The craving to be more relaxed or more alert, more outgoing or more reflective, happier or deeper or even just sillier and less bored -- in one form other another, this drive has always been and always will be with us, though many of us refuse to admit it."

So true, so true.

It is so simple to decide whether or not to read something one finds on the internet. Those who protest frank, honest discourse on the topic of human sexuality ought to point their browser somewhere else. Salon is one of very few places where culture and society can be seen through so many lenses, yes...including sexual culture. Those who are offended by this subject matter simply shouldn't click on a title such as, "Lust and the lactating mother."

I wondered a little about this piece as I began to read, but then realized that this is a snapshot of real life. Maybe not the typical Salon reader's life, but a real life just the same. Perhaps we should all try to put on those other shoes sometime and imagine life as it could've been for any one of us. Last I checked, none of us get to pick our parents...

Aghast! Jeepers Creepers! Holy Misunderstanding Batman! This is about as interesting to read as an one of those 'Last Word' essays in the back of a Time magazine.

Glad to see you mentioned the live music aspect. I play in a band that hosts "Live Band Karaoke." Sometimes in a nightclub setting but more often for corporate functions. Participants can access lyrics to all songs we play through our website, print 'em off and bring to the show. If singers blow it, we either take over for the lagging vocalist, shift keys (on the fly) speed up, slow down; whatever it takes to keep the song from crashing and burning. It is truly a good time and a natural twist on the original karaoke flavor.

If "torture should be beneath us," why do you feel Graner is not being treated unfairly (ergo, he *is* being treated fairly)? Isn't Graner being tortured? I believe he is.

I am convinced that Graner is a pawn and a victim of the Bush Administration, not unlike those he tortured. If you haven't already done so, it would be instructive to look at what others have said about the parallels of Abu Ghraib and the Stanford University Prison Experiment. Here is a good site:

http://www.prisonexp.org/

Take a moment and consider (or reconsider) some basic aspects of human behavior as it relates to the roles, expectations, and behaviors we humans perform within our circumstances, then decide if Graner is being treated fairly.

I wish you all (including Graner and his family) PEACE~

I'm hard pressed to understand why Iran would not welcome a " a robust diplomatic engagement..." as opposed to the bluster they've been treated to over so many years. Since no one actually knows what the future course of events will be with regard to relations between the US and Iran, it is reasonable to expect that diplomatic engagement represents the simplest answer, and is therefore the one that makes most sense.

Agree with Harrison and other posters here. I'm wondering to what degree Europeans believe the obviously one-sided accounts being published. When this conflict began I had to read a lot of background in order to understand. At this point I'm convinced that control over a particular oil pipeline is the catalyst for this tragic sequence of events.

Too bad Spitzer couldn't just go to his wife and say, "Honey, I sure would like to play around with another female." Who knows, maybe his wife wants to play with another male. The fact is we humans are more than a little reluctant to acknowledge that we sometimes like to alter our consciousness and alter our sex routines. Fortunately, those who are open about these issues can often find safe and legal ways to satisfy their needs. Those who can't end up like Clinton, Spitzer, and about a billion and a half others who cheat, deceive, and sometimes, get caught.

Check out this link and ask yourself (as many sociologists already have) if we couldn't possibly learn something from our primate bretheren: http://www.primates.com/bonobos/bonobosexsoc.html

Although I support Obama, I must agree with those who say the media is overly focused on him at this point. Even in an article about Hillary, Barack is the subject of the final three paragraphs, only loosely relating to the intended point of the article: Hillary's stand in Ohio.

We needn't make too much of the attacks being made between Barack and Hillary. It is nothing more than political strategies being played out along a predictable timeline. Once the winning candidate emerges, the attacks will end and the party will coalesce. I say the media should stick to reporting what happens and help the rest of us by fact-checking claims they make. May the best candidate prevail.

Although I am an Obama supporter, I do not feel either side benefitted from the argumentative, back-biting portion of the debate. I do appreciate that they both managed to contain the nastiness to a specific portion of the debate. Too bad "John" is not even considered a remote threat by the Obama or Clinton campaigns. He has some excellent ideas, though they seem to have lost their relevance, thanks to the spin doctors.