Yesterday...I threw my common sense away

1. I provide two short clips from the Walter Martin website, and a clip from the album Satan is Real (1960) by the Louvin Brothers. Dr. Martin gives his opinion on a well known religious book often advertised on television. In the second clip, Dr. Martin confuses Williams and Simons! It is Menno Simons.

martin and book

menno williams

Intro to the song Satan Is Real

2. The song Bluebird from Wings is a pleasant tune that persons of all ages could potentially enjoy. This You Tube clip, apparently from 1976, has me grin because Paul McCartney states that the Minister of Justice in Japan will not let the band enter the country. I did not find the exact reason for this ban on the web, but the link below should assist in making a deduction. McCartney was in 1980 arrested in Japan for possession of marijuana. For such an intelligent musician it makes me wonder how four years after producing the Blue Bird video, he is arrested for carrying 219 grams of marijuana into Japan. He states concerning the 1980 incident, that he did not realize how strict the Japanese attitude to illegal drug use was, but it appears quite possible, that four years earlier he had been banned from entering the country for the same issue according to the article. The satirical lesson here could be that McCartney lacked the common sense to realize that if he was banned from entering Japan in 1976 because of illegal drug use that he would very likely be checked for drugs in 1980, and sure enough was checked and arrested. Could it be that the use of illegal drugs, such as marijuana altered his perception of reality and his use of common sense? Consider the video clip and written article presented as advertisements against the use of illegal drugs!

Proverbs 2:11-12 from the New American Standard Bible discusses the rewards of wisdom:

Discretion will guard you,
Understanding will watch over you,
To deliver you from the way of evil
From the man who speaks perverse things;

A way that I look at life, is that since human beings are already imperfect and limited in nature, one should not add to problems through the use of foreign substances for recreational use.

Yesterday...I threw my common sense away
And now the criminal record is here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday

http://www.taima.org/en/hemplib3.htm#mccartney

McCartney used to be an active supporter of the Legalise Cannabis Campaign, the British NORML, whose current sponsors include rock star Commander Cody, actress Julie Christie, and classical guitarist John Williams.

Prior to the mishap in Japan, McCartney was busted three times for pot. He paid a $2000 fine for smuggling hashish into Sweden in 1972, was fined for pot possession in Scotland that same year and was fined $240 for growing pot on his Scottish highlands farm in 1973. His wife Linda was arrested in Los Angeles for pot possession in 1975, but the charges were dropped.

These busts had resulted in Japan denying McCartney admittance to the country on previous occasions but Japanese Immigration Bureau officials changed their minds after continual pressure from music promoters such as Udo Music, which eventually booked the Wings tour. McCartney's arrival in Tokyo was his first visit since a Beatles tour in '66, and Japanese police confirm that he was a marked man because of his past busts.

On January 16 McCartney was arrested by Japanese customs officials at Tokyo International Airport when they found two plastic bags in his suitcases containing 219 grams of marijuana (approximately 7.7 ounces).

"I didn't try to hide [the pot]," says McCartney. "I had just come from America and still had the American attitude that marijuana isn't that bad. I didn't realise just how strict the Japanese attitude is."

McCartney was taken in handcuffs to a government office while Japanese officials decided what action to take. There is no immediate bail in Japan. Customs officials quoted Paul's first admission of smuggling after five hours of questioning: "I brought some hemp for my smoking."

The next day, says Paul, "I was taken to the narcotics headquarters, handcuffed and a rope tied around me, led along like a dog." While McCartney was interrogated for six hours, 200 fans held a vigil outside the bureau, some weeping, others screaming "Paul! Paul!" Linda and other Wings members were also questioned but not charged. Narcotics officials say McCartney was "relaxed and cooperative," insisting to the narcs that he brought the pot into Japan for his own use.

After the interrogation, narcotics agents tried to return McCartney to jail but were forced back into the bureau by hundreds of screaming fans who blocked the way in a hysteria reminescent of early '60s Beatlemania. Riot police were called in to restore order, and McCartney was eventually taken away.

On January 18 the Tokyo District Court permitted the public prosecutor's office to detain McCartney for up to ten days for questioning.



Listen to the above if you need an energy boost...

http://thekingpin68.blogspot.com/2007/12/thoughts-on-preference.html

http://thekingpin68.blogspot.com/2007/12/social-justice-biblical-wrong.html