Pubdate: Sat, 26 Sep 2015 Source: Trentonian, The (NJ) Column: NJ Weedman's Passing the Joint Copyright: 2015 The Trentonian Contact: http://www.trentonian.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1006 Author: Ed Forchion, NJWeedman.com For The Trentonian WHAT A TRIP: CHRISTIE'S HYPOCRISY AND THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE I hear the Pentagon ordered Gov. Christie to tell his National Guard commander to lose weight. At first I thought it was an Internet hoax, then I had to take a couple bong rips to stop laughing so hard. Ummm, can you say "Pot, meet the kettle." The late-night TV hosts have had a ball with this one. I can only take that as a funny scenario. Is it political or intentional? As far as timing goes it was perfect - right in the middle of his presidential campaign. I'm with the "just say no to Christie" pot-smoking crowd. You see, just as the president is "commander in chief" of the U.S. Military, the governors of each state are the "commanders in chief" of their respective state's National Guard units, thus Gov. Christie is the civilian boss of Brig. Gen. Michael Cunniff - commander of the New Jersey National Guard. But even the state's national guardsmen must meet minimum U.S. military standards, and Gen. Cunniff failed his last known physical then hid this fact from Gov. Christie and avoided numerous other physical tests. The Pentagon contacted Christie and told him to order his fellow chubby-buddy to lose weight. Just when you thought the Christie sideshow couldn't get any better! Closing a bridge to punish a Democrat for not supporting him, giving billions to Exxon, making stupid remark after stupid remark about marijuana, and now this - being ordered to tell someone else to lose weight as he's still overweight himself. "The Governor has expressed directly to the General that his failure to meet that standard or to provide notification of his formal reprimand is both unacceptable and disappointing," Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts said in an emailed statement. "The governor has given Cunniff 90 days to slim down and meet his obligations," Roberts wrote. Now normally I don't fat shame; I don't make fun of fat people, especially women - I'm a chubby chaser. I admit, I love them big girls, so I personally don't want to offend any biguns by publically fat shaming anyone. But I have a Christie exemption to this rule: He's fair game, because to him I'm fair game - for using marijuana. In the past I have in jest invited him down to my shop to have a healthy salad, and I've also renamed my Jive Turkey burger The Christie after him. But in this instance I'm just opining on a current political news story. The pope is in the country, and the country is going insane. I admit I don't get it. He's a man, not a walking deity. I know there are many who will resent what I'm about to say, but so what - I've said saner things and been jailed for it. The very first thing the Founding Fathers of this country did was protect the secular institution of government with the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." This whole treatment seems like a colossal violation of that. Is the pope the leader of the U.S. government, too? It sure appears to me that our government has chosen one religion above others. The pope is traveling between Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York City, and local governments as well as our federal government are spending tens of millions of dollars for this "religious event." Personally, I wish the cash spent on the pope would have been spent on the inner cities of the cities he's visiting. I wonder if any non-Christian government employees are refusing to participate, like that village idiot in Kentucky did earlier this month: County clerk Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licenses in same-sex relationships. "I can't put my name on a license that doesn't represent what God ordained marriage to be," Davis told ABC News's Paula Faris. So many Republican types think she was right - I have my own opinions on same-sex marriage, but this lady is whacky. Republican presidential candidate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee actually championed that nut. That was worst than Christie's anti-marijuana rhetoric, and coming from me, NJWeedman, that's bad. If I took a government job then I wouldn't bring in my own religious beliefs to dictate what I did as a government employee. Really, I wouldn't give everyone this Ganja I'm smoking now as a mandate to share the herb as my religious belief. All smoke aside, imagine a Quaker getting a government job dealing with weapons and then refusing to enforce any gun laws because of his religious beliefs against violence and he considers guns in violation of that. Or a Muslim Motor Vehicle Agency employee refusing to handle any documents with unveiled women pictured on them. If any pothead gets the chance to ask the pope a question, I suggest you ask him if Genesis 1, verses 11 12, would also include the herb Cannabis? There's nothing I can do to avoid this weekend's chaos but go to Boston and enjoy myself at the Boston Freedom Rally one of the oldest marijuana-legalization events in the country. There will be a cloud of freedom hanging over the Boston Commons this weekend, while traffic smog will be lingering between D.C., Philadelphia, and NYC. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom