That Little Spark of Celestial Fire Called Conscience

Conscience, and the genuine sense of humility that can only be taught by suffering, are really what makes the man (or woman), you know. Because it's actually when any one of us gets too big for our very own britches that we tend to lose sight of the bigger picture, and our true place in the grand scheme of things.

Because it is often at the very height of vanity that we tend to be surrounded by the usual coven of obligatorily attentive sycophants and yes-men, who may very well grin and bear our arbitrary outbursts of self-righteous rage, but lest we forget that it is then that the king may truly be bereft of clothes.

It is then that he becomes little more than a pauper, impoverished of even the benefit of simple truths that those of more humble stature tend to take for granted. In fact, our very first president was offered a crown on many an occasion. And yet, every single time, he refused it.

So perhaps it was actually the numerous setbacks and outright failures that George Washington suffered throughout his life, and specifically when he was often forced to retreat after being outgunned or outmaneuvered time and again by often better trained British forces, that eventually made him so very fit to become the true father and very first president of our great nation.

"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience."

~ "110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation"

It's Not the 80s Anymore, But... I STILL SAY, "HELL NO TO DRUGS!"

One thing that's been bugging the hell out of me recently is this whole "legalization" issue that's taking America by storm. Some dude from a country north of my own, who also has a Korean wife, who also lives in the same slummy, littered up Korean high rise my wife and I are on a loooong government waiting list to get out of, recently "friended" me on Facebook. And in person, unfortunately. But I didn't find out exactly what his agenda was until it was too late. Unfortunately.

It always seemed like every damn conversation was about hemp! Hemp, hemp, hemp, man! Hemp, hemp hooray! Grass. Pot. Pud! Okay. Yes, Mr. Canuck, I do know that George Washington, the father of my country, grew hemp. In fact, in all those years on his plantation, he probably oversaw the growth of all sorts of your beloved ("My precious!") hemp. Actually, he farmed it, see. So people could make cloth and rope and useful stuff like that, see.

But that doesn't fit snugly enough into our little agenda, now does it?

But maybe... just maybe... good old George didn't sit around toking up all damn day in his mother's basement. And maybe he never baked it in brownies and spent days or just hours laughing it up with Martha while they had a curious case of "the munchies." And it's not like pot smoking could really impair your driving skills in "the olden days," now could it? All you could really crash was a horse or two. And maybe the family buggy. But maybe... just maybe... there simply weren't as many people sitting around trying to get high in the late 18th century!

Ever think of any of that, dude?

Maybe people in British colonial times weren't trying to use "medicinal purposes" as an excuse to stick it to "the man." Whatever... man... that may be. I don't think, even since the drugged up glorious 60s, we've yet learned just exactly which man it was that all the hippies were sticking it to. Nixon?  Sorry. Nice try, but he resigned in disgrace. And he's been dead for a while, you know. Psst! Put the roach clip down and read a current newspaper. Maybe? Might help.

But damn! I mean, we were just getting to the point where a lot of people around the world are beginning to realize that it's just not fair to make everyone around you second hand smoke tobacco, just because, when you were maybe 10 to 12 years old, which research clearly shows is when people become addicted to this very toxic drug - when they are still children, for God's sake!

So now, you want to legalize something else that, when smoked, is harmful to the Ozone Layer?   Crikey! Is everybody dumber than ever these days? Crazier, maybe.

Okay. Sure, "legalize it!" Let chemists extract the beneficial, non stupidity inducing parts of good old Mary Jane and put it in pharmaceuticals, just like every other potent drug that should be regulated and used responsibly (as in, not recreationally).

I mean, come on, people! Tell all this happy hemp crap to some dummy who is buying. On the corner. Or in the alley. From the dude who's probably also been selling Crystal Meth for quite a while, too.