Afterthoughts on Intelligent Design and Evolution

After reading Bianca's article discussing how students should be taught the origins of life, there are a few things I want to add concerning the topic.
I completely agree that evolution should be taught in the classroom. Once certain things solidify in the mind, especially among the youth, they naturally form patterns of perception that continue to progress throughout a persons life. Religion is a great example of this kind of pattern. If evolution is taught to children at a young age, they might be able to put those ideas together with that of what their religion has taught them, and thus be able to form opinions and ideas about the origin of life for themselves. While I am a proponent of allowing evolution into the classroom, I can't say the same for the idea of teaching "intelligent design" or other forms of creationism as well. While evolution remains a theory, there is much more scientific proof behind the basic claims of its ideas than any type of creationist theory. I also disagree that evolution is simply an atheists explanation of the origin of life. Atheism is the absence of belief in the existence of deities, and such religions as Buddhism can be considered atheistic. Therefor, I don't believe that teaching evolution is a violation of non-atheists rights.
I agree that the interpretation of the Constitution is an ongoing process, and it is also my belief that the Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state and should thus allow the teaching of evolution in schools, rather than that of "intelligent design".

Legalize the Green Stuff

The proposed question that proved to be the most numerous during President Obama's recent online chat session with the country was whether or not the US government would finally come around to legalize Cannabis. While Obama neglected to discuss the matter directly, the question still remains up in the air. The American economy has seen better days, and legalizing Cannabis could offer a little slack under increasing pressures. Not only would it serve as another source of tax income, but it would open hundreds of thousands of new jobs to employ American citizens, ranging from the growing and cultivating to processing and packaging to marketing... the list doesn't end there. Aside from the huge amount of money Cannabis could dump into the economy, it would also ease burdens currently being placed on our prison system and save countless dollars in the war against drugs. Regulation could be fairly simple if the government placed constraints on the purchasing of Cannabis similar to that of alcohol. And the danger of buying the product off the streets would be completely eliminated, and drug dealers everywhere would lose all of their business naturally through the ways of the market -- law enforcement wouldn't even have to track them down! The demand has been and will always be around in this country, and the only thing the US government has to do is harness some of that potential and turn it into gold. The process has already been done in places such as the Netherlands, why not in the land of the free?