tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161738.post1728983150794474851..comments2024-01-06T18:05:16.766-05:00Comments on The Lunatic's Asylum: I Think The Wrong People Won the Civil War...Matthew Notohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08881509233809999186noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161738.post-85863517942227143132010-01-05T09:04:45.113-05:002010-01-05T09:04:45.113-05:00Actually, I did know what a BMI is, but I only car...Actually, I did know what a BMI is, but I only cared as it applied to me (quit smoking, remember?). <br /><br />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?<br /><br />Sugar pie honey bunch, no they do not! How utterly and abysmally tacky. Oh, and unspeakably. --EvelynAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161738.post-30921868752069212752010-01-04T18:17:12.198-05:002010-01-04T18:17:12.198-05:00Evelyn, Darling, ask yourself this:
Did you even ...Evelyn, Darling, ask yourself this:<br /><br />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? <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Why do you think I was below the Mason-Dixon chasing Daisy Mae, Hon?Matthew Notohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08881509233809999186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161738.post-86698127383909635772010-01-04T14:47:18.333-05:002010-01-04T14:47:18.333-05:00You're preaching to the choir, Matthew dear. ...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? --EvelynAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161738.post-89956476634322435472010-01-04T10:45:58.330-05:002010-01-04T10:45:58.330-05:00See, here's the difference; if your boss decid...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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!Matthew Notohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08881509233809999186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161738.post-5555321222138002132010-01-04T09:51:06.755-05:002010-01-04T09:51:06.755-05:00This is a hot button issue where I work: in a smo...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.--EvelynAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161738.post-65233897061200224532010-01-03T11:49:11.824-05:002010-01-03T11:49:11.824-05:00I would agree with you on the choice issue, Sabra,...I would agree with you on the choice issue, Sabra, if there weren't a larger issue at hand.<br /><br />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'.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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? <br /><br />I rather doubt it.Matthew Notohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08881509233809999186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161738.post-46746763514715013492010-01-03T11:31:40.443-05:002010-01-03T11:31:40.443-05:00I was upset about the no more smoking thing in NC ...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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?Sabrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00099972141312539283noreply@blogger.com