Does any one beside me have a problem with the new ..

[duckboatprincess]

I know prices went up her a few months back, but I'm not sure about the cigarettes changing. I am a smoker and I think that this is all a little bit (or lot a bit) ridiculous. Wasn't America founded on freedom? I don't get all the issues with smoking. If you don't want to be around smoking, then don't go to a bar. If people who are smoke are conciencious and don't stand in the middle of a crowd smoking or blow it in people's faces, what's the big deal? I go out of my way to avoid getting smoke around people. I don't smoke if there are children near by or I just move down wind. I guess it just irritates me that the government thinks it's fine to whine and tax smokers, but what about taking in other countries' waste and putting them in our landfills. What about smog? What about clear cutting trees? What about drunk drivers? If people want to smoke, they're going to smoke, but you don't need to penalize or punish them. We punish ourselves enough risking our health and paying for the da*n things. Leave smokers alone!

 

[LegHorn-BusHorn]

Quote:
I agree! Around here prices go up and then down, kinda like fuel. Some weeks you pay the full price for cigs and the next week they go down. I really don't feel persicuted for smoking (well I am a bus driver) because most of the people I work with smoke. My dh does not smoke and never has and will never pressure me to stop. Oh and Duck only certain states have the new law about the cigs, but it will probably catch up to your state sooner or later.

 

[duckboatprincess]

Lucky us!! My DF doesn't smoke unless he's drinking. He does chew though. He usually doesn't pressure me to quit unless he's saying that we both need to quit, which is true, but I have to say, I like smoking. I enjoy doing it and the feeling. It'd be nice if it didn't stink, but whatever. I just hate how in like NY and Chicago I believe, people can't smoke in bars or restaurants. I don't smoke at restaurant normally, but it's nice to have the option to. I don't know. I just think it's dumb.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Oddly, and perhaps surprisingly, taxes didn't used to be "part of our system." That we allow, and expect them to be, is the interesting thing.

TIDBIT: The federal government has no official jurisdiction beyond 60 miles of Washington, DC. SO I wonder - why do we keep inviting them into our affairs?

Thank you, Dave.

I'll admit I haven't been keen on politics or American history till about three years ago, so there's a lot I still don't know.
But I like to think that if I know I'm not literate on a subject that encroaches upon taking away the rights of myself or others, I'll just shut my big ol' pie hole.
Taxes, however, I know. And if anyone thinks that we can't subsist without minimal taxes, they are simply incorrect. If you knew what we were paying for every time we bought something, earned something, inherited something, or sold something, you'd probably get pretty ticked off.
I saw a list of 'funding requests' from organizations on my County representatives website. The first reaction was "WE'RE supposed to pay for that?" The second reaction was "We're supposed to pay for THAT?" I'm sorry, but there are a lot of programs I don't believe should EXIST much less be paid for my me or you. Non-profit, my as#.

I'm afraid no one is listening anymore, my dear...

Just think. As the future unfolds, we may give most of what money we have to the politico's - but we'll have them to solve our problems, right?

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for "the good of its victims" may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty sometimes sleeps, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C.S. Lewis