KENTUCKY SMOKERS'CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2002

Pork For Politicians: when your too spineless to cut spending, stick it to the smokers and claim it's for their own good!

Puff

Stumbo does point out that he would not want to raise the tax too high, because it could prevent people from out-of-state from coming to Kentucky and buying cheaper cigarettes.

Somebody from KY needs to kick this guy's butt!

Big Stuff Productions

Big Stuff Productions!

There you go!

To propose this tax, I would think there are fewer smokers than non-smokers.

I wonder, what is the Jew ratio to non Jews?

Tobacco fed us, clothed us and educated us in my youth. I grew up in Western Kentucky, one of this countries' tobacco patches. Not long after the depression, and just before World War II, I made my involuntary arrival into a part of the country where tobacco was respectable. as it had been since the earliest settlers arrived on these shores.

As a child, I worked side by side with my tobacco farmer grandpa. He was born not long after the civil war, and I adored him. His labor made him a respected member of society, and to our family, a rock in shifting sands.

I started smoking far too soon, but didn't have the stomach to chew the rough country twists of tobacco that hung next to every farmers chimney. Oh, I tried, along with all the cousins, but we all got sick.

Just as it was my choice to start smoking, it was my choice to stop. Choice. What an interesting word. A woman is expected to wipe out a child if it is her choice, but in another age, it would not only have been morally unacceptable, but suicidal, because large families were hedges against disasters brought on by disease, weather or markets.

I liked things better when they were harder, but with fewer shades of gray.

Somebody from KY needs to kick this guy's butt!

Was that "Stumbo" or "DUMBO?"

To propose this tax, I would think there are fewer smokers than non-smokers.

55 million smokers in the U.S. That means, 25-30% of each state houses smokers. Which means, we are always out numbered. Although, we do out number the AARP and the NRA.

I'm trying to remember which state has outlawed tobacco. Hmm.........there has to be at least one ..

I'm trying to remember which state has outlawed tobacco. Hmm.........there has to be at least one ..

No, tobacco is still legal in all 50 states. But the control, bans and restrictions imposed upon us makes me wonder why they DON'T just ban the darn stuff! (pssst......money!)

That's what I was getting at. The true tobacco haters would be suicidal if it came to a vote in any state government and all of their so called leaders voted not to ban it.

Well, I'm sick of it. And the Tobacco Settlement is funding the Partnership for a Smoke Free Everything, and it's FOR THE KIDS, and all the garbage you can think of, that I just say "If Tobacco is that bad, why DON'T they just ban it!" Drives me nuts.

Better stock up on seeds, SheLion. Remember how rich the Kennedys got via Prohibition.

Better stock up on seeds, SheLion. Remember how rich the Kennedys got via Prohibition.

Well, to tell the truth, I doubt very much if we would ever be able to grow our own tobacco up here. The temps just aren't right for it. I could buy the tobacco from YOU, though! If worse came to worse!