Rioting, Looting and Oklahoma Weed & More

Welcome back, my friends to the blog that will inspire, motivate and hopefully not bore you to tears.  Let's dive in and get wet, shall we?

Ferguson, MO

An innocent young man is shot and killed by an overzealous police force who is morbidly out of touch with its community and the world watches.  So, what is the result?  Rioting and looting and the police force pretending to be the National Guard.  People are losing their damned minds while the rest of the nation - hell, the world - watches and considers us to be babbling buffoons, unable to keep the peace in an otherwise peaceful community.

We hear daily of incidents where law enforcement gets too big for its britches and does something stupid, but in this case, a man is dead as a result.  And the response was unacceptable - there is never an excuse to riot, to loot and steal from your own damned neighborhood.  It's insane.  The police force should all be fired, the law enforcement aspects of Ferguson turned over to the County Sheriff and those who looted and rioted should spend a very, very long time in jail - and part of their punishment should be cleaning up the mess that they made.  It's a sad state of affairs, my friends.  Very sad, indeed.

Oklahoma Weed?

One of my favorite pictures of the Governor.

This week, the Governor of Oklahoma has done something that really no one ever believed possible.  She encouraged lawmakers to approve the use of medical cannabis oil for pain management as prescribed by a physician.  This is a very bold move for Governor Fallin and some have speculated that it was merely a campaign tactic because she is losing ground to former Representative Joe Dorman (D).  I call bullsh*t on that.  I believe it was as a result of some very creative lobbying and constituent calls that convinced the Governor to become a little more open minded.

Granted, this is a far cry from legalizing medical marijuana across the board, but this is a significant start.  Personally, I don't partake, probably never will.  However, it is painfully difficult to justify the regulation of alcohol with all of its known negative health ramifications and to turn a nose up at marijuana as a viable pain management alternative to big pharma.  It is intellectual dishonesty to argue one should be legal and regulated when the other is not. 

Kudos to the Governor for making the right call.  Of course, the Legislature will have to deal with the issue and you and I both know that Jesus would not approve of the evil marijuana, therefore it probably won't go anywhere.

Stop it.  Just stop it.

It's always been my thought that we often get caught up in the propaganda of issues and the joys of being pissed off, and it clouds our ability to remember that we're all human - like it or not.  We may disagree politically, but it's just politics - it's not a matter of life or death (generally speaking).  Then there's the religious argument...for many of my Christian brethren, it's all about recruiting new members to the club rather than making disciples of the ones already there (something Jesus commanded, by the way).  Of course, if we want to really tip the scales, we can contrast radical Islam with Christianity and before you know it, we just love the hell out of ourselves.

The fight to maintain the top of the food chain in self-righteousness is a bullshit goal and it destroys people and jeopardizes legitimate relationships.  I know a lot of judgmental pricks who are so under the guise of godliness and it's little more than an excuse to be an asshole.  The fundamental premise - something that is so real for the Christian faith that without it, Christianity doesn't exist - is that we are all sinners.  We have all failed, we are all a bunch of morons who constantly screw up.  If we just take that tack, if we just remember that we're no better than anyone else, imagine how well we could get along with one another! 

So, if you have the urge to judge someone, to look down upon them because of the clothes they wear, the number of tattoos or piercings they have, or you feel like brow-beating someone into submission to believe your worldview...stop it.  Just stop it.