"Just Say No to Tiny Tim" I think there's a whole song there, MJS, with a brilliant title already created.

Everyone click through to read Romney's response to an actual sick person.

This is the best evidence so far of what so many have commented on, that aspect of Romney which feels slick and phony. I wouldn't even mind so much that he stuck to his "guns" about not legalizing medical marijuana, if he'd been able to actually engage with a guy suffering from a truly horrible disease, instead of Romney turning himself into an automaton, repeating his talking point over and over.

I don't care how wide his shoulders are, he's a putz of a truly high order, sort of a putz's putz.

there's a title that plainly cries out for a lyric, in the whiny, Billy Rae Cyrus style...

A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner

for you, hermano.
You just need to share it with us, here!

We can admit that we're killers ... but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes! Knowing that we're not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0

weighs 80 pounds and is suffering from muscular dystrophy. Clayton Holton, whom I thought of as a political Tiny Tim for the compressionate(sic) conservatives to step over on their way to their gold bars, needs an answer from Romney.

Mitt Romney: will you have the eighty-pound Clayton Holton (and the doctors who prescribed medical marijuana for him) arrested for possessing a plant--a plant that, when ingested or smoked, relieves the symptoms of his muscular dystrophy and stimuates his appetite so that, unlike Terry Schiavo, he doesn't die from malnutrition?

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I wish he could have lived to see that kid stand up, in the only way his disease and political disempowerment would allow, to that bastard.

"Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?" Then give Wackenhut and Halliburton some no-bid contracts to start cranking them out! And that guy in the wheelchair? Probably just a plant by some leftwing outfit trying to make Romney look bad. (you all know I'm kidding, right?)

I myself have a relatively mild form of muscular dystrophy and, personally, pot has always seemed to (temporarily) WORSEN the effects of the disease. However, I do not have the symptoms of MD that pot is typically said to treat (spasms, muscle pain), so I am not qualified to say one way or the other.

But the medical marijuana argument is completely bogus. It NEEDLESSLY attempts to make marijuana "legitimate." How's this for legitimacy: arresting people for using marijuana - sick or not - is tantamount to arresting people for exercising their personal freedom. Is this not reason enough to decriminalize the substance? The medical angle may be more "politically correct," but let's not shit ourselves; it's a war on personal freedom, no more, no less.

And yes, read the book of Mormon and tell me the Joe Smith WASN'T high as a kite when he wrote it. Magic glasses? Native Americans = lost tribe of Israel? Black people are black because of past sins? MAGIC UNDERWEAR?!? Romney does NOT have the moral high ground, here.

Some time back I suggested at a couple of political blogs, on postings regarding the Mormon religion, that it was indeed possible that the founder of Mormonism, Mr. Joe Smith, had tasted of the psychedelic mushroom psilocybin.

This did not go over too well with a few commenters, who were insulted/offended/enraged at such a hypothesis. Oooh, aghast! Don't let me forget to mention that one in particular was aghast! Admittedly, I based my comment on a conversation I had with a shroom lover some years ago, who was familiar with Upstate New York's farming communities...

The idea that a farm lad in upstate New York in the early part of the 19th Century (as Joseph Smith was) might have access to Psilocybin mushrooms seems reasonable as one can harvest this fungus there at certain times of the year to this day. Combining imagination, fervent religious idealism and hallucinogenics is a frothy mix indeed...or perhaps he was a sort of Andy Kaufman of his day, pulling the collective leg, hatching a new chapter of an old myth and banging a lot of young girls in the bargain. Hallelujah!

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through much of the 19th century, never mind the 20th. Every sect, organization, proponent of radical social organizational change, and sex club seems to have headed up that way to create their new world.

Oneida Colony, the Karezza folks, assorted communal-living groups, the Shakers, miscellaneous Millerites (okay, they were more Midwestern now that I think about it, but there could have been a few in NY) and assorted Anabaptist groups (Amish, Mennonite and that ilk) all seeme to head up that way.

I did a paper on this once for a religion class at college, I'll have to see if I can dig it out and check for details. Could kick myself now that I didn't think to toss J. Smith and his merry band in with the rest, it's around the right time period. Is that considered Second Great Enlightenment or Third? I can never keep those outbursts of mass hysteria straight, including the one we're currently in.....

I called it "Sex, Silverware and ....." something else I can't remember that started with an S. My religion teacher loved me. Try as I would I can not master the academic style of prose writing so I have no choice but to be entertaining. Accurate, mind you, and properly sourced, but fun. :)

Xan:

I hope you find (and then share with us) your college paper on that perfervid bit of real estate. Shrooms, brooms, doom & gloom...vroom! vroom!

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Joseph Smith was a true prophet..called of God and he has done much for us..and through the Lord Jesus Christ..restored the TRUE christian church

who told the story to the guy who penned the book of Revelation, certainly give readers at several years' remove (never mind science or cultural differences) the impression that whatever the long list of pious things they might have been includes, sober wasn't on it.

Hence my raised eyebrow about The Rapture, which is not in the Bible (NKJV, KJV, NIV or Douay) that I can find. But the Believers, now, they've got Scriptural references to its effects on their bumper stickers.

And nor is much of Sharia law in the Quran, which also does not discriminate against a woman as so many fundamentalist Islamists demand in the name of "holiness". Yes, glad I am that I live in a world where I'm not apt to be burnt at the stake because I wear blue jeans (common ordinary Wrangler and Rustler blue jeans, not the specialized women's designer jeans, at that; a pair of $30 Wranglers is pricey enough for me, thanks!) -- aka "men's clothing," a major taboo in most paternalistic religions.

Joseph Smith had some truly funky notions.
Read his book if you don't believe me.