George Washington Might Not have been Pot User

My hero, you say, smoked pot? Him and Thomas Jefferson, both?

"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
- George Washington

"Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country."
- Thomas Jefferson

I was running scared and hurt when I heard George smoked pot. But, a check of a few websites revealed he and Thomas Jefferson might not have been pot smokers, afterall, but rather just a farmers who raised hemp for its other uses: making paper, making rope, etc.

Here's one of the links:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2912/did-george-washington-and-thomas-jefferson-grow-marijuana

I also found out the above quote from George is not altogether accurate, being a shortened version of the words he actually said.

Alcohol Far Exceeds Pot in Traffic Deaths

About 1 percent of all traffic deaths are attributed to marijuana-alone-impaired driving. Marijuana and other drugs are factors in about 18 percent of vehicle driver deaths. Marijuana often teams with alcohol in those deaths.

Alcohol? It accounts for 32 percent of traffic deaths. Don't know whether that is alcohol-alone, but I believe that might not be just alcohol-alone.

But then again, I did find a website saying alcohol was found in 52 percent of  driver fatalities, so maybe that is the figure for alcohol when other drugs are also involved. Fifty-two percent! That is a whopping percentage and makes a strong statement as to the damaging affects of alcohol.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_Number_of_traffic_deaths_due_to_Marijuana#ixzz1yX6LoKQh

So, You've Heard No One Ever Died From Marijuana

So, you have heard no one ever died from a little marijuana. So, you have seen the posts, such as this one: 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151011369346023&set=a.10150985891481023.476233.61064026022&type=1

Next time you see such a post, ask how that can be possible. How can it be that the risk of a heart attack increases fourfold within the first hour after smoking marijuana, yet no one has ever died from the stuff?

http://alcoholism.about.com/od/pot/a/effects.-Lya.htm

So, people die by the minute (I would guess) from heart attacks, and marijuana causes a fourfold increase in the risk of a heart attack, yet no one has ever died from marijuana use? There must, indeed, be something magical about marijuana that it increases the risk of a heart attack and yet none of those who have the heart attacks, none of them ever die.

Truth be told, documented cases of death by marijuana do exist:

http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000231

Heckler v. Chaney

So, it turns out Obama's right to act on immigration does have basis in law, of sorts.

In fact, less than three weeks before Obama's decision, almost 100 law professors sent him a letter, appealing to him to take exactly such action and laying out the legal basis for doing so.

If I could, I would stand up to the law professors, and tell them they got it wrong.

They cited Heckler v. Chaney, a 1985 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that inmates on death row could go ahead and receive lethal injections, even though the Food and Drug Administration, by law, was not suppose to allow the use of any drug that was not "safe and effective."

The law simply said all drugs needed to be "safe and effective," with no provision as to what they were being used for. The inmates argued the drugs clearly were not going to be "safe and effective" on them, so, therefore, the FDA was obligated to step in and disallow use of the drugs.

It does seem a stretch, to me, to say that since the Court ruled the FDA should not be required to enforce rules where they never were intended to be applied, then that means the executive branch no longer has to enforce any law it doesn't want to. It is a little much that Heckler v. Chaney is being used to justify "administrative discretion" to not enforce other laws.

Obama Got Away with Calling them Americans

From the lips of a president, as persuasive a voice as I have heard for these people.

"These are young people who study in our schools. They play in our neighborhoods. They are friends with our kids. They pledge allegiance to our flag. They are Americans in their hearts and in their minds. They are Americans in every single way but one: on paper."

Obama went on to note they are here not of their own choosing, but because their parents brought them here. They grow up, only to suddenly face sudden deportation to a land they know little about and to a language they often do not even speak.

Obama not only made a change in policy, but his words went a long ways toward persuading a nation that what is being done to these people is wrong, and must be changed.

"For all intents and purposes, they are Americans," he said. For most every time in the past someone has suggested that these people are Americans, there has been a quick and bitter response of outrage.

But, I read of no such indignation at Obama's calling them Americans. By the time the president got to calling them that, he had already built such a strong case that his listeners were much more inclined to accept the term.

Americans, then, are these young DREAMers. Let us not call them illegal aliens, but undocumented Americans. They are a paperless people, but Americans, the same.

When No Earthly Father Around, Heavenly Father Remains

Some grow up without fathers. Some lead solitary lives without families. But, those are earthly fathers and earthly families. Through prayer, every person can have a Father, and Family.

"A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitations. God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains." (Psalms 68:5-6)

I heard a story today, from a young woman who was kidnapped, in essence, in 2005, and (thinking she was but taking a job in Tijuana) forced to come to the United States. She fears telling her story, lest she should be deported. And, she fears going back to Mexico, lest the cartels might extort or harm her.

Who did she turn to when she arrived in America? She made contact with her church, and eventually escaped her captors in a wheelchair. (Her leg was broken when she was forced to jump the border fence to get into America.)

She has not seen her family since, although she has, of course, been able to speak to them. She has, in some ways, had a "solitary" life and a life "bound with chains."

Who has she had to turn to? I would say God has been family to her, and provided family for her, giving her one family and then another to live with, and then a husband to be with, while she has searched for comfort in a land that refuses to accept her.

God has been her father. On Father's Day, I would say no person has a better father than the Father of us all.

Saying it is 'Prosecutorial Discretion' is Not Enough

We cannot do this. For the same reason that states should not take authority on naturalization if it belongs to the federal government, the executive branch should not take such authority if the matter belongs with the legislative branch.

http://www.ice.gov/doclib/about/offices/ero/pdf/s1-certain-young-people.pdf

Saying it is "prosecutorial discretion" is not enough. Does the executive branch have the authority to pick and choose which laws it will implement, and which ones will be ignored?