Posted on 02/22/2005 3:49:33 PM PST by SheLion
Ask any nanny about the perils of tobacco, and theyll tell you that it is addictive, it kills smokers, and it poisons the air that non-smokers breathe. Theyll tell you that it is a drain on our healthcare system, it raises insurance rates for all of us, and smoke breaks cut into productive time.
Theyll tell you that movies, music, and books that portray smoking lead our children to nicotine addiction. Sports stars, singers, actors, and other public figures who smoke are bad influences on our kids. Theyll tell you that people like me who fight for the freedom to smoke and the freedom to use our property in the way that we see fit, are bad people.
These nannies will look past property ownership, personal responsibility, and our constitution to tell us that banning smoking is the most important thing in the world to do.
Theyll also tell you that they dont want to eradicate tobacco.
Why dont they want to eradicate tobacco? Why would they want a product on the shelves that threatens their safety and the safety of their children? Without total eradication, their children will encounter tobacco. Their kids will probably try tobacco. Without eradicating it entirely, society will continue to suffer from its effects. Why dont they take that stand and get rid of the stuff? Money!
When tobacco becomes illegal, all those hundreds of millions of dollars that nanny groups receive to fight tobacco will go away. Funding for research will dry up. Money for propaganda material will be no more. Many of the people now employed to fight the evil weed will find themselves without jobs. Tobacco will go underground, and funding to fight it will go to law enforcement, not nannies.
These groups, made up of highly paid caring people, by not trying to outlaw tobacco, are protecting their pockets at the expense of our children and society. They are allowing it to remain legal when they know full well that with tobacco on the market their kids will encounter it. They are selling out their kids for bucks.
But what they also fail to realize is that, by banning cigarettes in almost every public place, they will eventually run tobacco out of the legal market, and their Nannys funds will dry up just the same. But they will also have no control of the product. Having done their jobs, the funding of their oppressive ideas will stop. Now their kids will go to big Ernies basement to buy some smokes, and not a dime of profits will be available to fight tobacco. It is a fine line they walk between bans and eradication.
Looking at the entire scenario, one has to wonder, what are these nannies thinking? What is their true motivation? They are going to lose control and funding one way or the other. Their kids are going to find tobacco, above ground or below. Society is still going to have the costs involved with tobacco. And not a dime of money from tobacco will make it to nanny groups, governments, or healthcare.
I thinkthe government should encourage smoking. So some people die before they need Social Security. (/sarcasm)
Are you smart enough to live?
Think of it as Evolution in Action
So9
To be fair and equal to all, let's do away with tobacco tax and start a toilet paper tax.
Now tell me, who does not use toilet paper?
Don't laugh, the main flaw in social security is that we got too good at medicine and people actually lived long enough to get it.
Roosevelt never intended this to be what it has evolved into. He intended it to be a huge windfall for the government. It was a screw job that backfired on the democrats.
"When tobacco becomes illegal, all those hundreds of millions of dollars that nanny groups receive to fight tobacco will go away....
These groups, made up of highly paid caring people, by not trying to outlaw tobacco, are protecting their pockets at the expense of our children and society."
That sounds a bit like the old crackpot theory that doctors want to keep their patients sick so they continue to get paid. gimme a break..
my opinion on tobacco: people have the right to be well informaed about ALL the different ways this drug can kill them, but they should still have the right to smoke, ignore all the death signs, and, of course, pay MUCH highere health insurance rates.
I'll roll my own before I pay a TP tax! ;-D
just keep away from my Belgian flag toilet tissue thank you
You probably feel the same about fat people, right?
Why isn't alcohol illegal? It kills more people than cigarettes, doesn't it?
I think that's called using the old "Sear's catalogue" :}
I need a thickburger and pack of all naturals, bad...lol
I will put my life in the hands of the Lord, thank you.
I have never heard of anyone killing someone from driving under the influence of nicotene.........
Don't forget about the lawyers ... the ones who make the laws ... the ones who sue the tobacco companies. As long as tobacco is legal they can continue to stuff 40% of awards into their pockets. If it is illegal, then violators are prosecuted through the criminal justice system and that big fat cash cow goes away. That and tax revenue is why tobacco will always be legal. If it were through some miracle made illegal I could probably buy my cigarettes much cheaper.
"You probably feel the same about fat people, right?"
hmmm, thats a good point. I suppose there is some serious slippery slope potential there... should people who eat a lot, drink a lot, ride motorcycles, etc., all pay higher insurance? i would say no..
Well, they are trying to tax it so much it will end up in the underground anyway. In fact, this is the first place politicans look when they want to raise money to help all the nanny programs. Oh, lets just raise the tax another 50 cents per pack and bring in billions!
This approach will dry up in the not too distant future. Oops, I forgot, all those third world illegal immigrants love to smoke.
Maybe they will go back to the land and grow their own.
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