The Factor began Friday's show by reporting that Cpl. Jon Hammar begged off a scheduled interview at the last minute. Hammer, of course, spent four months in a Mexican prison on a trumped-up gun charge until finally being released just before Christmas. The former Marine's father, Jon Hammar Sr., entered the No Spin Zone to elaborate. "This afternoon the pressure got to Jon a little bit," the senior Hammar explained. "He's physically great, but he is definitely apprehensive about what he can say publicly, he doesn't want to bring any danger onto his family or himself. He wants to thank you and he wants to thank the American public for helping him get out, but he wants to do it in a way that makes sense for everyone." Hammar also explained why he chose to drive his son home from Texas to Florida. "I wanted some time with him to figure out what he needed, but then it became clear that he was very sick. We made it to Lafayette, Louisiana before we had to go to an emergency room. We didn't realize how bad off he was." The Factor expressed total understanding with Cpl. Hammar's decision to stay out of the spotlight: "He was threatened in prison with decapitation by fellow prisoners and the prison is infested with a drug-dealing gang who murder people with impunity. He's a tough Marine but anybody incarcerated for four months in a Mexican prison would be fragile."

Former New York politician Mark Green, never shy about seeking publicity, has actually compared legal gun owners to convicted sex offenders. The Factor invited Geraldo Rivera to react. "That's a grotesque comparison," Rivera said, "and Mark Green should know better. One thing has nothing to do with the other. But putting aside that preposterous comparison, I don't really have a problem with the newspaper that published the names and addresses of gun permit owners. I'm a parent of a 7-year-old and I'd like to know what families own guns before I let my kid go to play or sleep over." But The Factor contended that the newspaper was absolutely wrong when it printed the information about gun owners: "This is a privacy situation and I disagree with you, this newspaper is obtrusive and wrong. You can't be trying to embarrass people for a legal activity."

After a tepid jobs report showing that December's unemployment rate held steady at 7.8%, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs provided his outlook for the U.S. economy. "I think we're going to see things improve enough," Dobbs said, "so that we'll at least be able to say we're on the way to prosperity again. That's because I believe we're going to see an awareness descend in Washington. The Republicans have surely learned a lesson about the limits of power, and this President has surely learned a lesson about what he can get away with and what he can not." The Factor was far less sanguine about the economic outlook and President Obama's intentions: "I think he's going to go pedal to the metal on the left-wing business. He doesn't care about public opinion any more and he's going to take as much money from Lou Dobbs as he can possibly get. All the job creators are getting hammered by regulations and taxes, so I'm very worried about a reversal."

The Factor welcomed Boston University student and newly-crowned Miss Universe Olivia Culpo, who has spoken out against marijuana legalization. "I think the legalization of marijuana," she proclaimed, "tells people that it's okay, that it's harmless. For medicinal purposes it can help and it can help terminally ill people, but everybody has a different reaction. Some people get paranoid and marijuana has even been shown to increase schizophrenia. There's so much about it that we don't know and legalizing it would be telling people that it's acceptable." The Factor warned Culpo that she has made herself an inviting target: "You're going to be criticized, people will call you a 'square.' The mentality on the other side is that there's nothing wrong with this, let's be stoned all the time."

Greg Gutfeld and Bernard McGuirk returned to engage in their regular Friday repartee. First on their agenda - demands that conservatives who doubted the severity of Hillary Clinton's illness step up and apologize. "If you want to apologize to her it's okay," Gutfeld began, "but never apologize to people who are criticizing you over being skeptical. These people don't really care about her health, all they want is a scalp of contrition. And you'd have to be an idiot not to be skeptical of anything that's going on related to Benghazi." McGuirk theorized that even Secretary Clinton's supporters probably questioned the timing of her illness. "They didn't really speak out until Hillary Clinton was hospitalized with a blood clot because they were skeptical themselves. If you were not skeptical of the Clintons, you were either a sucker or a sycophant."

Returning for a second segment, Gutfeld and McGuirk turned to Al Gore's sale of his left-wing cable network to Al Jazeera. "Al Gore spent eight years as a lookout for Bill Clinton," McGuirk said. "Bill Clinton got the girls and the glory, Gore thought he was going to take over and he didn't, and he's bitter. But this takes it to a new level, he is a selfish, greedy quisling." Gutfeld then remarked on the news that FBI files indicate that Marilyn Monroe was investigated for having close ties to communists. "She's now going to officially be a heroine," Gutfeld predicted, "because it's cool to be a commie in the 50's. You're the rebel even though the ideology you ascribed to killed tens of millions of people."

Scott Sweetow, Atlanta, GA: "As an ardent free market supporter, I don't begrudge good business strategy. But I was dismayed by Al Gore selling his network to Al Jazeera. Spare us this hypocrisy, Al."

Jim Donovan, Braintree, MA: "Al Gore will make more money from the oil industry than Bush and Cheney combined."

Maurice Person, San Jose, CA: "Al Gore exercised good business sense and the action is not hypocritical."

Keep an eye out for the movie version of "Killing Lincoln," which will be on the National Geographic Channel later this year.