Blogger JREDHEADGIRL

[TommyBB]

I've now featured her posts on two different threads. We make for strange allies.

Her name is Juliette Tworsey, of the band Firebug.
But she's passionate in here resistance to smoking bans.

She has added Cigar Weekly to her partner links. As soon as I can get an admin. to look, I'll have her added as one of ours.

JREDHEADGIRL

Today's entry is really solid!

Why I Oppose Smoking Bans and the War on Smokers

1) Smoking bans are based on the premise of mob rule, which goes against everything that this country stands for. We live in a representative democracy. All citizens have equal rights under the law. Smokers have just as much of a right to smoky air as non-smokers have a right to smoke-free air. Smokers are a minority who take part in a legal activity; therefore, smokers have the right to assemble and the right to pursue happiness, even if that chosen activity is unpopular with the majority.

2) Smoking bans lead us down the slippery slope to servitude where elites collude with special interests whose sole purpose is the annihilation our ability to live according to our own free will. Additionally, social denormalization then can be used as a mechanism to profit off of our imperfections. If bureaucrats and politicians can act to protect smokers from themselves by imposing restrictions, there is no limit to their power of “coercion” in the name of behavior modification. Coming soon to a town near you: Outdoor Smoking Bans (Many towns in California), bans on smoking in your own home (ditto, CA. again), companies that refuse to hire smokers , hospitals that discharge smokers , the war on fat, the war on salt , the war on fast food chains , the war on cell phones (2nd hand radiation?), bans on loitering, aka, “sit laws” , the war on sugar and soda, the war on unpasteurized milk, etc… There is no end in sight to the list of possible things and activities that could be banned. This scares me because politicians love to ban things; it makes them look like they’re doing something productive whilst Rome burns all around them.


5) Tobacco is taxed beyond what is fair; we smokers contribute more to society than we get back; therefore, we should be free of harassment by the ruling classes. Smokers are an asset to the economy in many ways. The myth that smokers are a financial burden upon society is incorrect and insulting. We fund parks, finance road construction, balance state budgets, and pay for the health insurance coverage of other people’s children (SCHIP), even though we may not have children ourselves; and to prove my point, here is an excerpt from the Heartland institute that sheds light on this issue: “Harvard Professor Kip Viscusi has repeatedly demonstrated that smokers already pay more in excise taxes than the social costs of their habits. Even before the MSA, “excise taxes on cigarettes equal or exceed the medical care costs associated with smoking.” For example, Illinois’ cigarette taxes, according to Viscusi, were $0.13 more per pack than the social costs of smoking before the settlement added $0.40 to the price of a pack of cigarettes, before the $0.40 a pack tax hike approved by the state legislature in 2002, and before Cook County’s $0.82 a pack boost in 2004.” (source: Heartland Inst. )