Posted on 06/23/2011 6:30:24 AM PDT by shortstop
On six packs of beer they will put pictures of gosh-awful ugly women who you will be tempted to sleep with if you drink the contents.
Ice cream containers and packages of steaks will have photographs of cottage-cheese thighs and clogged arteries.
Table saws will have pictures of severed fingers and New Year's champaigne will have images of crippled livers.
The possibilities are endless. The government has decided that it has the power to put images on the packaging of consumer products in order to protect the public health and the public good. So, it seems natural to speculate a bit on where this new-found power will take us.
Yes, cigarettes sicken and kill people. But, then, a great many things sicken and kill people.
Like alcohol. It has a far more damaging impact on American society than does tobacco. So does saturated fat. So do automobiles.
You wonder when the government will decide to warn us away from those products.
The background is that this week the federal government released various images it will require cigarette manufacturers to carry on their packaging. On both the front and back, at least half of the surface area must contain one of these government-mandated images. And they must be at the top of the product, for maximum visibility. This is done in the name of protecting the public from the wiles of the tobacco companies.
Never mind that government is the prime profiteer from cigarette sales -- in New York, for example, $4.35 of the $9 price of a pack of cigarettes is state tax. Never mind that there's not a person left on the planet who doesn't know that smoking is bad for you.
Just put the pictures on the packs, because we're the government and we said so.
That was announced this week, and there wasn't a whimper of protest or discomfort.
In spite of the fact that we have the government telling a private company what it must put on the packaging of the legal product it sells. Not just a warning, not some nutrition information, but what specific pictures how big and where.
Which just goes to prove the point: The government can't protect you without enslaving you.
And in the name of protecting you, the government would very gladly enslave you.
Don't get me wrong. I hate cigarettes. My mother and grandfather were killed by cigarettes. Emphysema is our family disease.
But I love freedom more than I hate cigarettes. And in a free society, the government doesn't design the packaging. In a free society, freedom of the press extends to the press that prints the package.
Oddly, we seem oblivious to those truths. In the name of being protected, we hand over liberty left and right.
I will gladly state the obvious: It is none of the government's business what is printed on a package of anything.
But now that this genie is out of the bottle, now that this battle of freedom has been lost, it might pay to look at the ridiculous ends to which this new power could just as easily be applied.
Any product that poses a health threat falls under government dictate as to packaging. In the future, as political correctness gets deeper into our diet, how long before the vegetarians require meat packaging to show pictures of human stomach cancers or suffering little calves? Would bags of candy carry close-up photographs of rotten teeth and Insulin needles? Should hot dog packages show choking children?
All of those possibilities are ridiculous.
Just as ridiculous as the warning pictures on cigarettes.
If cigarettes are a legal product -- and they are -- and if people can lawfully buy them -- and they can -- then it's none of the government's business what the labeling is. The pack belongs to the cigarette maker or the store until it is bought by the customer, then it belongs to the customer. Neither set of owners should be forced to decorate its property any other way than they way they choose. It is just not anywhere near being the government's business.
And it's a sad thing that nobody realizes that.
But don’t you dare put a picture of an aborted baby on ANYTHING, it might offend some queer baits. I may have to put Barney, Goober and Otis on this. So don’t you dare.
You think the federal government that ruined thousands of boat motors with ethanol will give a rats butt about what they do to with cigarettes? They are probably going to try to legalize weed soon. They are all nuts. When will they put pictures of rotting diseased body parts on condoms? Before cigarettes became enemy number 1, we had far fewer people on Prozac, Valium and Zoloft. Step outside and grab a cigarette when there was a need for it as opposed to grabbing a pill and driving a vehicle. I don’t smoke. I see more people using all manner of pills now when grabbing a cigarette used to be ok. The feds may want to see how many young teens are buying Blunts these days. Every taste from cherry to watermelon and grape. What is up with that? I am told they slice them open and put weed or cocaine in them.
Idiots
NEW Olde Frothingslosh!!
Thank goodness somebody remembers Iron City beer.
BTW, are they going to mandate ugly pix for liquor bottle labels? How about smashed up automobiles on your Maker’s Mark?
b
This is a perfect opportunity for the return to populaity the use of cigarette cases. Why carry the pack with the photos when you could carry a nice looking case to hold your smokes.
Yep billboards accross the street should do....
Marijuana has never caused cancer or anything like tabacco does. it does not contain the same thigns tabacco does that causes these thin0gs to happen.Tar alone has never een studied.
My husband and I have been using cigarette cases for over 10 years, ever since we started making our own.
WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!!!
502 - vote him out
577 - THROW him out
Except for the doors of abortion clinics.
More than a WTC, DAILY, and we are worried about OTHER ways to die?
Why not go after #1??
AMEN!
Ha ha HA!
...a thin covering case ...
been rolling my own for years, anyone that smokes should do the same, saves thousands a year. Carton cost about 12 dollars. Have a great smoke shop near by...went in one time and told them what I smoke and they rolled me one that tasted the same...been a customer for years...But since I am 72 and have been smoking since 13, I can say, smoking doesn’t kill, but it does not do your lungs any good...
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