I was saddened today to learn that the State of North Carolina has finally succumbed to it's self-inflicted infection of imported Yankees and instituted a state-wide smoking ban in restaurants, bars and public areas.
This is what happens when you allow several million whining north-easterners into your state; they gradually begin to remake the place according to their own whims. If they can't do it with money, they eventually get it done with votes, and if that fails, they whine...incessantly...until you give them what they want. The influx of Northerners into Raleigh and Charlotte following the technology and banking jobs, have brought you to this sorry state of affairs. You can't smoke in the state that lives and dies on tobacco?
Mark my words, North Carolina; the ban will gradually be extended. Soon, you'll not be able to smoke in front of a public building, never mind that you're outside. Not long after that, there will be great debates about whether people who own condominiums in high-rise buildings are allowed to smoke in their own home because of the proximity of their neighbors.
All the while Cigarette taxes will continue to climb, as Yankees gradually spread the misinformation that smokers burden the Health Care System, (wrong; uninsured illegal aliens and AIDS victims burden the Health Care System) which is 'underfunded'. Mostly because the same Yankees screamed that their pet disease du jour -- Juvenile Ingrown Toenails, Athlete's Tongue, Homoerotic Scrofula -- be funded to such an extent that money was diverted from basic care just to shut them up, and to show that the politicians care.
Soon, you too can live in New York; a place where you can't smoke except in a closet equipped with it's own separate air-circulation system, where cigarettes cost $10 a pack, mostly because of taxes to pay for hospitals that are full of drug addicts, AIDS patients, illegal aliens, and people who have lived far longer than they ever had any right or expectation to without insurance or savings. But it's your fault, Smokers; Even if you will eventually have that massive stroke or heart attack in your 60's that will kill you instantly, and thus save the community the burden of having you linger on for months and years, taking up valuable resources.
Things like this are ultimately driven by other motives; the first is the nerve of pushy people to believe they know better, that they can dictate the conditions of other people's lives. And then they have the nerve to say that they do it for the common good. Kathy Shaidle at FiveFeetOfFury likes to tell this sort of pretentious, presumptuous, obnoxious Soccer-Mom/Metrosexual type "You're not smart enough to tell me how to live."
The second motive is to use the process of Incrementalism to slowly erode your personal rights while simultaneously picking your pocket. Politicians cannot help but spend money -- other people's money. It's their disease (how long before that becomes 'underfunded'?). And eventually, they spend so much that the traditional sources ("revenue streams" as they say on Wall Street) dry up, and they have to find more ways to steal from the public. When they can present this theft as a positive boon for society, they're even more dangerous and dishonest. This is all about raising taxes at some point -- and then wasting the money.
And don't think you've escaped if you chew. They'll get you people next with a SNU-tax, and justify that on the basis "of an increase in oral cancers", and to keep these "gateway tobacco products" out of the "hands of the children".
It's always about "the Children." with this crowd, isn't it?
No it isn't, but that's how they fool you. It's about persecuting people they don't like, and since they can no longer persecute Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Italians, Irish, and whatnot in public anymore, they've had to find new targets for hate but in a way that doesn't get them punched in the face; so they started picking on Christians and Smokers. If I were still in Charlotte tonight, I'd start thinking about joining one of them Civil War re-enactment groups. And then I'd start thinking about how I could get them to join me in doing it for real.
7 comments:
I was upset about the no more smoking thing in NC for a while. Of course, that was before I quit smoking a month ago. I made the decision to quit so as to NOT fund any more tax programs. Sure, it is bad for my health and all that. [But then the news is bad for my health too - what the jugearedjackass is doing to our nation is giving me ulcers.] But the decision was made so as to not pay any more in taxes than we already do. Cigarettes in NC were $25.00 for a carton of Kool Super Longs in 2008. I shipped 35 cartons to myself in Saudi that year. When those ran out - a month ago - that was it. All done. When we were in NC this past August a carton of Kools was $32 or $33. Okay, so it isn't that much. Cigarettes are still cheaper in NC than in NY or CA. It was just the point. That increase was tax. And I just refuse to pay it. So I didn't buy any and I didn't ship any home to Saudi for myself, either.
I am having some "elective" surgery done next month. My choice. Plastic surgery. It is how I choose to spend my money. I have a great doctor in NC, but if the botox tax was going to be included in the health care bill, and if 5% was going to be added to the cost of my surgery to pay some tax for a health care bill that I disagree 100% with, then I was planning on having the surgery done in Thailand.
Done paying any more than what we already HAVE to pay. Choice. It is all about choice. No more smoking because I don't want to pay the tax. [Thankfully the botox tax was removed, for the time being, from the health care debacle being signed...] Yes, I feel bad for the tobacco farmers in NC. Wonder how many of them - or their "legal" workers voted for bho?
I would agree with you on the choice issue, Sabra, if there weren't a larger issue at hand.
There is a snooty, obnoxious, pretentious class of people in this world that believes it has the right to tell others how to live, and which has invented it's own set of rules. Some people have habits and predelections they dislike, and so those habits and activities must be outlawed -- for their own personal comfort, or to conform to their ideals -- but never for the 'public good'.
This isn't about 'second-hand smoke' and it isn't about 'public health' -- it's about people who want to control other people's behavior for their own selfish ends.
It doesn't matter is you smoke, own a gun, drive an SUV, go to church regularly, chew gum, or own a 14-bedroom McMansion; one of these people will object to some aspect of your lifestyle and try to use the power of givernment to take away your power of choice. They believe they have that right and that power.
Politicians being opportunistic slugs, are more than happy to cater to them if it means getting their grubby hands on some money, either in campaign contributions or the prospect of a new slew of taxes. The combination of Busybody and Legislator is the greatest threat to our freedoms and wallets.
NC banned smoking because people who don't like cigarette smoke paid politicians to do it. Their right to enjoy a smoke-free restaurant came at the cost of someone else's right to light up, but that's okay; that's icky behavior, right? Adding insult to injury, to pay more for the privlege of having his choice taken away.
Let's see what would happen if I tried to impose my views on the world in the same way. Do you think some politician would join me in banning and taxing gay sex?
I rather doubt it.
This is a hot button issue where I work: in a smoking office, in Winston-Salem NC no less, home of RJR Reynolds. Family owned, third generation business and the owner and his wife smoke. Half the employees smoke. Hey Sabra, I managed to put down the smokes 2 1/2 years ago anyway! The first six months was sheer hell. Anyway, at this point we are not affected, yet. However, the first phone call I got this am was from one of my rabid non-smoking clients who crowed that the end is near for us and how she cannot stand to come into our office and she's a CLIENT. She's right, and we don't want to lose clients right now, obviously--but I still had to clench my teeth.--Evelyn
See, here's the difference; if your boss decided to make his office a smoke-free enviornment because it made his clients comfortable, then that's all well and good.
When the government demands that he do so because people who are (mostly) NOT HIS CLIENTS demand it, and abuse the levers of power to get their way, it's WRONG, and it's unconstitutional; your boss should have the right to regulate what activity goes on in his own (privately-owned) offices.
The people (the Tobacco Nazis) aren't his customers, and their goal is to, ultimately, PUT HIM OUT OF BUSINESS. He has no objective interest in catering to them. The State forces him to.
It's also blatantly hypocritical for the State that has made a sh*tload of money on tobacco already -- for near-on 400 years --to turn around and demonize the very industry that paid for the State in the first place!
You're preaching to the choir, Matthew dear. One of my co-workers came in today all irate because she's trying to quit. Not because she WANTS to, but because she's feeling increasingly that she's being FORCED to. Oh, BTW, did you know our esteemed Gov Her Majesty Bev Perdue wanted to place a 10% tax penalty on all state employees with a BMI over a certain percentage? --Evelyn
Evelyn, Darling, ask yourself this:
Did you even know what a BMI was before some pushy, nosy, self-important YANKEE came to your town and made an issue of it?
I'll bet you did, but you just didn't care. I can promise you that Gov. Bev most likely didn't either -- until she sure as hell saw a way to impose a tax, or find a way to set aside just a little bit more of the tax pie so she could bribe a few more voters down the line.
Mark my words, Hon; soon you won't be able to fart in an elevator, let alone the privacy of your own home. That's what these Yankee ladies do. They're insufferable and they're relentless.
Why do you think I was below the Mason-Dixon chasing Daisy Mae, Hon?
Actually, I did know what a BMI is, but I only cared as it applied to me (quit smoking, remember?).
Yes, I do understand it's all about taxes, every move they make is all about taxes. That's one of the reasons I enjoy your blog so much: you lay it all out in a coherent, blow-by-blow, connect-the-dots fashion that is inescapably logical. And sometimes I've missed that dot there. Right now I'm watching to see how they manage to impose a UN tax on us US citizens. Know what that'll do?
Sugar pie honey bunch, no they do not! How utterly and abysmally tacky. Oh, and unspeakably. --Evelyn
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