War on smoking continues
"Fire safe cigarettes" (FSCs, cigarettes with bands of thicker paper designed to snuff out the burning tobacco when not actively inhaled) are now the only legal cigarettes for sale in my state of Kentucky. The fact that many smokers (including myself) find them less enjoyable wasn't a consideration. It's a done deal. Smokers aren't real people, you see. Their preferences are free to be discarded in favor of the public good.
I'm astonished that I'd never even heard about this flanking maneuver against my daily smoking habits until after it was cemented in state law. Sure, I noticed a change in my cigs, but I thought I'd just purchased a rare bad carton that had somehow slipped through quality control. But apparently the popularity of this measure has even astonished it's own proponents!
"No one really even had to testify" before this feel-good measure was passed unanimously. That's telling. A sign of the times we live in. Your moral betters have spoken, smokers. I have to note that, well... fat lot of good the "Big Tobacco" lobby has done us. Make no mistake, smokers are ones who pay the costs of this ideological battle. Sin taxes imposed by do-gooder, anti-tobacco activists increase the cost of a pack, certainly, but we also pay the salaries of those who argue on the tobacco customer's behalf. We're hit twice in the wallet, and it wasn't us who started this fight.
So, be you a smoker or not, please don't let anyone lecture you on the evils of Big Tobacco and their underhanded ways, without thinking of the restrictions (all too easy! "No one really even had to testify!" ) placed on smokers by anti-smoking activists.
Previous posts on this subject here, and here.
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First ever Weekend Link Dump:
The Biochemists' Songbook (Thanks, Mags) ~~~ Lebowski Fest - July 12th ~~~ Even the Romans played D&D ~~~ Man Cards (Thanks to Tim Blair) / Who doesn't love Remo Williams? (audio interview) ~~~ "Bo Dudley" Heh.
'Fire-safe' cigarette laws spread quickly
Cigarettes sold in 21 states will be self-extinguishing after a strikingly high 15 states passed new laws this year to combat smoking-related blazes, the No. 1 cause of home-fire deaths.
“Fire-safe” cigarettes, manufactured with extra bands of paper to snuff the flame if a lighted cigarette isn’t being smoked, even received unanimous approval in the tobacco stronghold of Kentucky.
I'm astonished that I'd never even heard about this flanking maneuver against my daily smoking habits until after it was cemented in state law. Sure, I noticed a change in my cigs, but I thought I'd just purchased a rare bad carton that had somehow slipped through quality control. But apparently the popularity of this measure has even astonished it's own proponents!
Even advocates of the legislation were startled by its swift progress this year.
“No one really even had to testify” before the legislature, said Richard Peddicord, assistant state fire marshal for Kentucky, where a nation-high 28.6 percent of adults smoke, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.
After years of failing to get fire-safe cigarette legislation through Congress, advocates turned to the states, forming the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes and enlisting the aid of firefighters and local officials.
"No one really even had to testify" before this feel-good measure was passed unanimously. That's telling. A sign of the times we live in. Your moral betters have spoken, smokers. I have to note that, well... fat lot of good the "Big Tobacco" lobby has done us. Make no mistake, smokers are ones who pay the costs of this ideological battle. Sin taxes imposed by do-gooder, anti-tobacco activists increase the cost of a pack, certainly, but we also pay the salaries of those who argue on the tobacco customer's behalf. We're hit twice in the wallet, and it wasn't us who started this fight.
So, be you a smoker or not, please don't let anyone lecture you on the evils of Big Tobacco and their underhanded ways, without thinking of the restrictions (all too easy! "No one really even had to testify!" ) placed on smokers by anti-smoking activists.
Previous posts on this subject here, and here.
***
First ever Weekend Link Dump:
The Biochemists' Songbook (Thanks, Mags) ~~~ Lebowski Fest - July 12th ~~~ Even the Romans played D&D ~~~ Man Cards (Thanks to Tim Blair) / Who doesn't love Remo Williams? (audio interview) ~~~ "Bo Dudley" Heh.