Marijuana Meals: A Major Mistake

Mainstreaming marijuana is one of the worst ideas ever. Although it provides a large market for large profits, supporting the legality of a nationwide "high" just for kicks and bypassing government laws to do so is just morally wrong. Today, we are seeing testy chefs around the world try to pursue this cause through the creation of recipes consisting of the marijuana plant. Because they recognize its inherently repulsive taste, they say they desire to "improve" their cooking skills by trying to mask, not enhance the flavor of the weed. Sounds like they are trying to mask their sin instead. Boiled, sauteed, grilled, or smoked, sin is still sin.

I feel that creation and consumption of mind bending substances is equal to abandoning reliance on God. We have drugs, doctors, and even ear buds that give us so many instant reliefs, distractions, and pleasures that the average human really doesn't need God in order to survive or is too starry-eyed to see his or her need for Him and his son Jesus' redeeming love. In fact, anything can be a distraction/idol when we value it over God, and that is wrong to ignore the King of kings.

What I see here with the open creation of marijuana meals is also utter defiance to the law. Nebraska and Oklahoma teamed up to sue the marijuana-legal state of Colorado for its high sales of weed to tourists, who then bring it back to their marijuana-illegal home states only to be paid a "visit" and a costly fine under the drug control federation regulations. Pathetically, they basically pay money to lose their weed. These underhanded marijuana-legal countries are forcing the drug control federation and other law enforcement agencies to expend valuable time and money where it could be spent elsewhere. One main issue to draw out from all of this is that no one is responsible enough. Colorado is just one example where a group sees a get rich quick scheme and doesn't care about its effects as long as they receive the cash. And if one could be trusted, it's only a matter of time before a brother tempts him or her to smoke and get addicted. Romans 4:21- It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

I'm afraid there is no middle ground for marijuana in terms of morality, either it stays or it goes. Although I would have this overly-abused drug go, I would allow it to stay. I hate seeing so many people waste their selfish lives just trying to get a bit of weed. Whether they want to consume it and get high or sell it for green, if they want it so badly I would give it to them as God has handed the people over to their sins. Proverbs 26:11 states this timeless truth of addictions, "As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly." There is no use fighting this battle to win in total victory, but to protect and prevent our country's generations of irresponsible fools. This result, in my opinion, is the best trade-off in exchange for its maintenance cost. 

Sticks and Stones Hurt. Words Don't.

Last Thursday, three known, well-trained terrorists flawlessly attacked and killed one police officer and eleven employees of the Charlie Hebdo comic headquarters in Paris, France. To top it all off, they calmly drove away and hijacked a car with only but one currently verified witness. That has to be one of the most successful terrorist attacks that I have ever heard of. But enough praise for needless murder. These three men killed to avenge the founder of the Muslim faith, Muhammad, who was mocked by a series of satirical images of Charlie Hebdo. If someone were to mock God with comics going out across the world (but viewed by few), then I would get a bit mad too, but certainly not enough to murder people! Murder of innocent people is wrong no matter which way you look at it. Murderers need to receive extra punishment, not extra protection of religion under the law. They don’t have special privileges to go against the law, which allows by the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the U.N. Universal Declaration of Rights for the harmless freedom of speech. No one does, especially because of something as insignificant as a comic strip. 

Freedom of Speech
Not as bad as you think

The omission of freedom of speech will soon catch up to bite hard in the end. Without freedom of speech, endeared by many, I predict war for the deprivation of this certain quality. For example, if we took away the freedom of speech of the LGBT community, you can bet that either unofficial/unlawful secret relationships will transpire or the people will riot near numerous government buildings until their rights are returned. We've seen the latter occur already, but what would it look like if every LGBT took up the cause? Scary. Freedom of speech is necessary so that awareness of hot topics or danger such as terrorists become known and people will know how to handle these situations in the most economically effective ways possible.

After the massacre, various news sites such as ABC and MSNBC reporting the attack have censored the Charlie Hebdo comics to avoid stirring up additional terrorist rage and future attacks. But terrorists will kill at any time for any reason. Censorship is a form of apology, and this may only slow down the attacks but never abolish them. In fact, this backing down will give strength to terrorist organizations. When a strong front or confident self-image is put up, the enemy will be less likely to attack. The entire world must never turn a blind eye to what others including pro-LGBTs, pro-abortionists, and most importantly gospel-proclaiming Christians etc. have to say and never quit stepping in and expending its resources such as money and soldiers in exchange for the protection of the world from all universal enemies that murder innocent people or violate the God-given rights of mankind. 

Statistically-minded Oil Price Dispersion Theory

From late 2014 through early 2015, the United States has been experiencing a price drop in oil and crude petroleum not seen since 2009 when one gallon of gas was around two dollars. This kind of thing makes many Americans happy. More money stays in the pocket. Unfortunately this means more money is also leaving the pockets of those who help recover the products from mining and fracking plants. Too bad virtually every course of action that is taken demands an opportunity cost, in this case money and peace. 

At first, the US rose to the number one position in the world for producing the largest yearly yield of natural gas, even outdoing Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries famous for producing vast amounts of gas etc. We in the US had plenty of this foreign gas, but due to the failing economy, bills to pay, and much needed jobs to fill, we turned primarily to our own land in North Dakota and Texas for home-fracked shale oil. Now there is an overabundance, the Middle East decreases its prices to keep its business dealing with the largest oil consuming nation in the world (us), the US along with Canada continue to produce an ample supply of oil, and no one can find a solid average gas price to keep producers from simply breaking even and/or gaining nothing.

If the western hemisphere can "fend for itself" and keep its oil supply eternally strong, then it should cut off its foreign imports from the eastern hemisphere to restore and preserve its strong economy. "U.S. oil output will surge to 13.1 million barrels a day in 2019 and plateau thereafter," according to the IEA, a Paris-based adviser to 29 nations. (Read here http://goo.gl/tMjUBJ) And it's somewhat of a relief to hear that we only consume 8.8 million barrels a day. It's nice to know that a renowned expert at oil predictions says that we could still end up with four million extra barrels a day. So why are we still doing this business with Middle Eastern oil companies? We don't need them. Shaving off extra oil bought with much-needed US money from another country means that prices should stabilize quite nicely for both local US producers as well as its consumers.

Ignoring the notions that Middle-Eastern based terrorists such as ISIS etc. might benefit from oil we do not purchase and that purchasing oil from these other countries helps us retain more peaceful relationships with their often mis-managed governments, I think that the current American economy could greatly benefit by consuming its own resources of which there is currently an over-abundance and not spending its money on oil that it does not need.