Well, lookey here! I just caught a blurb that says they have come up with a way to make your cigarettes "safer"! A cigarette that goes out when untended.Sounds good, doesn't it? UHUH! Don't you believe a word of that garbage. Once they get a safer cigarette on the market, they will roll up their sleeves and think of a way to make them the only legal cigarette,and then your just a burned out tail light from being busted for having a pack of Lucky's in the car! Oh, I can see it, plain as day. They think they are slick, but they're not. This ploy is as transparent as a pane of glass. I don't know why they are on this kick, but I for one am getting tired of the cigarette smokers being the whipping boy for the law makers who are anxious to eradicate what freedoms we have left! It may not be the healthiest thing around, but last I looked, this was still a free country,growing tobacco is still a cash crop, and at least when somebody is puffing on one of them, a cigarette isn't going to impair the judgment of a driver at the wheel,or turn a perfectly nice guy into Ralph rotten...unless you threaten to take his cigarettes away from him! They say this is a country where Religion is not legislated. But everywhere you look anymore, they are working very hard to turn a simple enjoyable habit into something that they can tax to the hilt, and call it "sin tax"! I notice they haven't yet turned their holy gaze upon booze. Why, do you suppose that is? I'll tell you why. As yet, they haven't been able to prove to anyone's satisfaction that alcohol causes any serious diseases.Other than liver failure, sclerosis of the liver, and of course, the ever popular drunken driving which kills way more than cigarettes ever thought about doing.Beyond that, the alcohol industry has a huge, huge lobby, and an enormous monied industry that keeps the Prohibition at bay. It's always the same. They had to repeal the Prohibition act, and when they did, it was because it didn't work! Well, I don't think that big brothers sly, sneaky tricks are going to work for cigarettes either, unless YOU let it. I think it's just downright nasty that all the states are falling in line in banning smoking at all public places, and now, they want to come into your home,and into your car,and snatch them out of Adults hands too! Now, what sense does it make that you can wander into any bar, if you are of legal age, and sit there and drink until you are just stupefied,and that's fine as long as the bartender doesn't cut you off, or throw you out,and God knows if your going to make it home alive, whether from drunken driving, or alcohol poisoning,or falling down or getting rolled...but God forbid you should sit quietly at that bar, sober as a judge,and light up a cigarette! You say, Oh, but I don't want to breathe your second hand smoke! Over a period of years, it might kill me! Oh, yeah? Well, then you'd better not sit so close to me! Maybe I don't want to smell your offensive sour beer breath either, how about that? Besides that, who do you think you are, Methuselah?
Let's face it folks, something on this earth is going to kill you someday anyway. Nobody gets out of it alive, you know. And yet, look what we have come to.You can drink yourself blind, you can live with a man without benefit of clergy, and have an abortion any time you like,and spend your life killing baby after baby, and spread sexually transmitted diseases to whomever you like, when you like, and nobody is going to be able to do anything about it,because it's all legal. But you can't take walk around the block and smoke a cigarette, or sit comfortably in a restraunt after a good meal, and light up,without at the very least, fear of reprisal, or at the worst, fear of being arrested. However, once you get to the pen, you can smoke all you want, but you won't have booze, relations with the opposite sex, or abortion on demand. What is wrong with this picture?
No, I am not coming out in favor of smoking necessarily, so you can get that idea right out of your head. But, if that man over on the other side of the Hotel Lobby wants to light up one of his stinky old cigars, I am not so much of a buttinski that I am going to complain, and ruin his enjoyment. That is his personal choice,and this is still supposed to be a free country. So, If I don't want to smell his smoke, I am not so lazy that I can't take myself out of the vicinity,and keep my big mouth shut. Why should I infringe upon his right to do as he sees fit, so long as he isn't actively trying to hurt somebody? If I don't want to be around smokers, I can go to my hotel room, or go home, where I can make my own rules and regulations. But I should not be able to dictate to another human being what they should or should not do. We as Americans are guaranteed the right to LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, in writing, signed, sealed and delivered.And congress, nor anybody else should be able to make any law abridging that right!
And even though I may not like his stinky old cigar, I will defend to the death his right to smoke it!!!
Okay, one more thing. I have been approuched by someone saying, "If you saw someone who had a rope,and they were making it into a noose to hang themselves, wouldn't you try to talk them out of committing suicide?" Yes, I would. However, if I was to see them cut off a piece of that rope and they sat down on the steet corner,and lit up,and smoked, I would probably just shake my head,and walk away, fairly secure in the knowledge, that even though it was not the best course of action, and I certainly wasn't going to try it, at least in another minute or so, they wouldn't be hanging there dead in front of my eyes! I mean, look. I am sick of the health police. Everyone does things that are not healthy, whether it be smoking or drinking, or skinny dipping in icy waters, eating all the wrong foods, or cooking their bacon wrong! I can't stand certain things, but I don't go hounding the pick-up window at fast food places to tell the customers not to eat that greasy stuff ! We all make bad choices in this world, but you have to live and let live, and I sincerely feel that this is a message our lawmakers need to hear and understand. Stop trying to save us from ourselves. It is a hopeless task, and it is not relevant to your salvation!
OUI?
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