Anyone Got a Light?

I’m sure you have heard by now that one of the only sane people in Washington had a cop visit his office because he was smoking. Yes, Tom Tancredo had a visit from the police when an assistant of the Congressman who has an office next to him called the police because of the smoke. Who is the Congressman? None other than Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress. Honestly, liberals are the biggest bunch of babies. They avoid any sort of confrontation, usually by threatening a lawsuit. They can’t truly stand up for anything. Oh sure, they may do war protests, but what guts does that really take? Wow, you made a cute little sign about Bush being Hitler and I’m supposed to be amazed by your courage. Anyway, Ellison’s aid called the police because this person had ZERO guts to actually approach Tom Tancredo and let him know the smoke might be bothering him. What a coward.

Here in Tennessee, there is talk of a cigarette tax increase of forty cents a pack. This would supposedly go towards education. Now, at the same time there is talk of banning smoking in restaurants and bars as well. So let me see if I understand this, this state wants to increase taxes on cigarettes yet wants to ban public smoking which I would think would might urge people to quit or cut back, therefore the tax increase wouldn’t do much good because not as many cigarettes will be bought. The last time we had a big tax increase on cigarettes here in this state was to help fund Tenncare. The rationale was that smokers cost taxpayers and policy holders more money because they will use more money of insurance companies due to their unhealthy habit. When this went through, I wondered when the increase tax on Twinkies was going to go into effect, yet somehow it never did. When people stuff their faces with Twinkies, aren’t they in a position to need a lot of medical care? What about people who don’t exercise? What about people who live off fast food? Where is the increase in taxes for them because of their unhealthy lifestyle? How about morbidly obese people, why aren’t they paying more in taxes seeing how they are such a drain on healthcare? Oh I forgot, there are “eating disorders”…smokers just have a dirty habit.

I just returned from a business trip to San Diego. In California, you basically can’t smoke anywhere. My hotel was non-smoking, and carried a $500 fine if I did. But what really cracked me up was the restaurant across the parking lot from where I was staying. I went inside to the bar and ordered a drink. I was told I could take it out to the patio if I wanted to smoke. So I go outside to have a drink and smoke. While I’m sitting there, this guy comes stumbling out and goes to his car. This guy got into his car and actually drove off in the state he was in. I can’t remember the last time I read about someone smoking a cigarette killing a family of four on the highway…please refresh my memory if you’re aware of such a tragedy.

It amazes me that the two most villified industries by our government are also the two industries our government profits the most off of - tobacco and oil. Seems just a wee bit hypocritical to me.

So the next time you want to get your panties in a wad and complain about someone smoking in another room or twenty yards away from you, think about how many times you’ve recently eaten at McDonald’s, or had fried foods, or how little you exercise, and once you realize just how unhealthy your own life might be, don’t be so quick to villify. And if it really does bother you, you might be surprised how many smokers will be sympathetic and will put it out. Don’t be some cry-baby liberal and call the cops.