Ethical Complicity

It should be emphatically pointed out to those who use illegal mind-altering substances that they are ethically complicit in all the crimes committed to get their drugs into their possession: smuggling, beatings, theft, extortion, bribery, and murder. And those who binge drink need to be constantly reminded of the horrible results of binge drinking: cirrhosis, fetal injury or death, domestic violence, broken family relationships, body-mangling automobile accidents and other emotional, financial, physical, and spiritual carnage.

Drug Use in the United States

The United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on Thursday (8 September 2011) released the results from an anonymous drug-use survey it conducted among 67,5000 randomly chosen people.  8.9% of college-age respondents to the survey reported that they regularly use illegal drugs recreationally.  The drugs include marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, LSD, inhalants, and narcotic prescription drugs taken illegally.  Binge alcohol consumption (five or more drinks on the same day), while legal, was still a problem, reported by 40.6%.

It should be emphatically pointed out to those who use any of the illegal substances that they are ethically complicit in all the crimes committed to get their drugs into their possession: smuggling, beatings, theft, extortion, bribery, murder.  And those who binge drink need to be constantly reminded of the horrible results of binge drinking: cirrhosis, fetal injury or death, domestic violence, broken family relationships, body-mangling automobile accidents and other emotional, financial, physical, and spiritual carnage.

Several Random Indications That we Live in a Morally and Ethically Bankrupt World

1. A woman being offended that I dared to open a door for her.
2. A policeman turning on his blue lights and siren so he can pass through a red traffic light, then turning them off and resuming normal speed.
3. Able bodied persons taking handicapped parking spaces, using their handicapped aunt's parking sticker; some even using counterfeit stickers and placards.
4. Millions of persons download music illegally from the internet, and the business in pirated movie DVD's is a billion dollar affair.
5. Americans and Europeans consume billions of dollars worth of illegal drugs annually, ignoring the fact that the drug trade is built on smuggling, murder, theft, bribery, the use of children as "mules," and the fact that a large portion of the financing for international terrorism comes from the illegal drug trade.
6. Thinking that the hip-hop/rap music culture (based on the glorification of violence and mysogyny) is somehow "authentically  black."
7. 95% of US high school students admit to having cheated on their school work at least once.
8. As many as 22% of married men, and 14% of married women, have had at least one extramarital affair even though up to 90% of Americans say that marital infidelity is wrong.
9. Sexual abuse of children by schoolteachers, pastors, and priests is increasingly reported worldwide.
10. Abortions in the United States: 193,491 i 1970; 1,429,279 in 1990; 820,151 in 2005.

The list could go on and on.

Common Sense Predictions for the Next Ten Years

Update on 13 February 2025. I mostly missed on these predictions though I still think that several of the events will eventually happen. The predictions which were correct are numbers 2, 8, 10. Prediction number 6 has been partially completed with the legalization of marijuana/CBD products in some parts of the United States.

1. Human cloning will be perfected in North Korea, with plans to create an army of identical super soldiers.

2. Israel and the Palestinians will still not have peace.

3. After Iran's bloody revolution, the royalty will be restored.

4. France and Spain will become predominantly Muslim.

5. After same sex marriage is legalized in the United States, a push to legalize polygamy and other forms of group marriage will begin.

6. Hard drugs will be legalized and their sale will be taxed. 

7. Numerous churches will renounce their tax-exempt status in order to prevent governmental interference in their affairs.

8. After the withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan both countries will fall under al-Qaida/Taliban style control.

9. A practical human blood substitute will eliminate the need for blood banking.

10. The tendency of religious denominations to fragment into conservative and "progressive" factions will accelerate.