Posted by ( Wayne ) on October 16, 2007 at 9:47 am

It won’t bother me if they charged 20 bucks per cigarette.  And it is truly wonderful to be able to walk in a business, any business, and now be able to breathe.  Enforcement aside, the legislature finally got one right.  The 75% non smokers say a big thank you.  Yep, just like Congress, if you let me write the tax laws guess who would not have to pay any?  Funny how that works.  And I suspect that most lawmakers, both federal and state, do not smoke.  So expect tobacco taxes to continue to increase.

Posted by ( Wayne ) on October 29, 2007 at 12:37 pm

You seriously don’t know where I would come up with the FACT that most lawmakers don’t smoke?  And they actually pay you to write this stuff?  Wow, that’s good work if you can get it.  Wish I could get paid for that, but let me help you out with where I get my information.  According to the American Cancer Society and the Center for Disease Control approximately 21% of adult Americans smoke, leaving 79% that do not.  Then using STATISTICS (definition:  the mathematics of collecting, organizing, and interpreting numerical data, especially the analysis of population characteristics by inference from sampling) the number of lawmakers that do not smoke would be close to that of the population as a whole.  Further considering that since college graduates smoke only at a rate closer to 10%, and most lawmakers at the state and federal level would be college graduates, then logic would tell me that most lawmakers don’t smoke.  Hope I haven’t lost you but this seems quite elementary.  I’m on solid ground here, unless one is some kind of fundamentalist that doesn’t believe in science.  You know the type, the ones who believe Adam and Eve rode to church on dinosaurs. 

As to the government telling small businesses what they can and cannot do (and large businesses for that matter), that is what makes a civil society, rules and regulations and rule of law and safety regulations and other such interference in our society.  I’m old enough to remember when some businesses around town had signs saying “White Patrons Only”, which was A-O-K with the lawmaking bodies here in the South and the states rights loving judges that sat on the bench in these fine Southern States of the Old South.  Then some liberal activist judges in the federal judiciary decided that was not right and forced the change on these Southern states, much to the chagrin of the overall population here.  I would argue that we have a much better society because of that judicial activism of the federal judiciary to force businesses and people who live in the South to accept that all are created equal.  And I don’t think business has suffered because of this.  But it certainly was telling businesses how to operate which had previously been up to them and the state laws.  I really don’t see where I am anti-business by believing that the public has a right to expect smoke free air and smoke free workplaces, since it is beyond dispute that second hand smoke is hazardous to health.  Not in dispute at all. 

But I must have struck a nerve for you to suggest that perhaps I should leave my country and find another one to live in.  I believe I have as much right to live here as you do.  I was born here and am a patriotic citizen.  But maybe that is just a liberal dream too, that all citizens have a right to live in peace in this country of ours.  Yeah that’s it.  More liberal activism.

Just a thought.

Wayne

Posted by ( drug rehab program ) on March 03, 2008 at 11:04 am

States have not yet implemented graphical cigarette warning labels, which is considered a more effective method to communicate to the public the dangers of cigarette smoking.

Posted by ( Drug Treatment ) on June 13, 2008 at 9:57 am

This is a silly law indeed and if I want to buy cigarettes from across the border that is my problem and not the IRS’s problem… Some people just can’t think of any other methods to rip us off.