L ast Friday was a 4-20 to remember. Pat LaMarche played my song "Heartless Bastards" on the Pulse Morning Show, and she likes me on facebook "a lot". "Heartless Bastards" was inspired by Pat's notion about the latest attempts of Governor LePage and the Republicans to cut benefits for people in need.

While in real life I am a normal father and professional worker bee, for about half a day a week I transform into the political songwriter blogger comedian known as Jimmy Reefercake. I often write plain old angry protest songs like this one that Pat liked so much:

"Heartless Bastards, what are you up to now?
If there’s a way to screw the poor, I know you’ll find a way how.
Look at Governor LePage and his phony rage,
All propped up on his tea party stage,
He's a heartless bastard for sure,
and it don’t even matter that he grew up poor."

Listen to Jimmy's Song

"The only confusing part will be explaining why smoking tobacco is legal but reefer is not."You can find my first album, "Reefer Madness", in the comedy category on itunes. If only there was an anger category; I might be higher in the charts. Plenty of songs on my first album are plain old angry like "The 99%", "Police State", "Serf City Here We Come", "Reefer Madness"...but the magic ingredient in all my songs is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy makes me really angry, but there is joy in mocking the hypocrites that brings some satisfaction with a sprinkling of laughter. In two songs, "Dumb Ass Country Boy" and "Country Boys Ain't that Dumb", I mock the hell out of Hank Williams Jr. for his stupid golf game with Hitler comments.

Proving I am not an agent of the Democratic party, I have three songs about the Anthony Weiner incident. In "Twitter Your Weiner" I mock the fact that Weiner wants to continue marijuana prohibition, then I sing the litany of sex scandals that politicians have been involved with from Clinton, to Spitzer, to Larry Craig and many more. Mrs. Reefercake adds her signature back up vocals on this sexy track.

Marijuana prohibition is just another way that rich and powerful people keep an upper hand on the 99% of us, who are just working our butts off trying to make a living. We'd also like to enjoy life a little bit. Legal weed would give us some independence, some relief, in the same way that a decent wage and health benefits or a couple beers might help calm our nerves. Sure you can buy alcohol made at the factory, but that dried flower that you like to smoke is forbidden!

While inflicting pain in order to keep the masses down serves a certain purpose, most importantly reefer madness is huge the boogeyman that the 1% need so they can control the voting booth, you got the dirty hippies, the stoners, the gays, the immigrants, and my favorite, the horny women. Their list of boogeymen sounds like a good crew to party with from my vantage point.

It just so happens that a portion of my surname, reefer, is another word for marijuana. Weed, buds, ganja; there are so many names for this most awesome herb. They say that Eskimos have a hundred words for snow. This link from about.com has a table of hundreds of names for reefer....in the letter W alone there is all kinds of crazy bull crap..."Weed" is a word for PCP? "Wheat" and "White Haired Lady" are words for marijuana?

Imagine the parents who spy on their teen's conversations while consulting about.com. They end up putting the kid in lock-down, but he was only going to help the "white-haired lady" next door "weed" her garden in exchange for a nice loaf of Granny's home-baked "wheat" bread.

About.com also lists many words in the table that apparently are crazy cocktails that involve crack and PCP mixed with marijuana. I have smoked a whole lot of reefer in mixed company and no one has ever created any of these PCP cocktails. That is because we don't enjoy crack and PCP. We enjoy reefer. I am the generation that saw Len Bias and many others die. We saw Whitney Houston slowly decline and finally die. We know about cocaine. Why are these people at about.com conflating hard drugs with reefer? Am I crazy to think that there is a deliberate attempt to confuse the real facts?

"Reefer madness" is a 1938 propaganda film that claimed that marijuana induced violence and mayhem. The crazy list at about.com is just one of many examples of modern day reefer madness. Today's reefer madness is about a country that for 75 years has endured a cruel prohibition of the most awesome herb of all. I've heard the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, so the diagnoses in this case is clear. Reefer madness puts people in prison because they are found to be possessing too much of a good thing.

Fortunately, I know what marijuana smells like, so I won't be needing to consult about.com to spy on my children's phone conversations. I intend to be very clear when I talk to my kids about drugs. Reefer is somewhat outlawed, but normal people choose to smoke it at a certain age, while tobacco is legal, but something that you should never smoke at any age. All hard drugs, whether sniffed, or injected are bad and disgusting. OK? The only confusing part will be explaining why smoking tobacco is legal but reefer is not. I guess it will go along with my lesson about questioning authority.

Smart people are on my side about reefer madness. Under the pseudonym "Mr. X", Carl Sagan contributed an essay about smoking cannabis to the 1971 book Marihuana Reconsidered. The essay explained that marijuana use helped to inspire some of Sagan's works and enhance sensual and intellectual experiences. Albert Einstein said this about reefer madness.

"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this."

Hypocrisy lowers the prestige of any institution. Jesus Christ referred to hypocrisy as the "yeast of the Pharisees". It grows and multiplies like bacteria. Even though smart people and Jesus may agree that our government is a fermented stew of hypocrisy, I am astounded by the lack of urgency to end prohibition by liberals and libertarians. Put aside our philosophical differences and get something done for once!

Barney Frank and Ron Paul did so last year by putting together a bill to legalize weed at the federal level, but it was that "Jackass in Texas", named Lamar Smith, and other classic extreme right wing hypocrites, who were effective in blocking this bill. I support Maine representatives who signed on to support the bill, like Chellie Pingree. When a representative or journalist or talk show host turns their back on the hypocrisy of reefer madness, they lose my support.

I want to help great talk shows like the Pulse Morning Show. Pat and Don, just let me know what you think you need, I'll do what I can to help great progressive talk shows gain more listeners, and maybe sell a few albums while I am at it.

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