Interesting take on the report. When I read "don't smoke" I understood that to mean neither pot nor tobacco nor anything; that they were simply attacked because they probably looked like hippies. I'll check that out, but it'll probably take a day or two...

With regard to the apology, yes, I think it stinks that in our litigious society, jerks have a plausible excuse not to apologize. Doctors, for example, may lose their mal-practice insurance in cases where they apologize to a patient after making a mistake.