The Meathead Mandate

The American Thinker ^ | Nov. 14, 2004 | Thomas Lifson

[Kitten Festival]

Actor Rob Reiner, whose fictional character on All in the Family was nicknamed "Meathead" by Archie Bunker, spearheaded the passage of a voter initiative in California imposing a 50 cent per pack tax on cigarettes, supposedly to fund universal pre-school programs. The extensive television advertising, featuring celebrities like Mr. Reiner speaking high-minded thoughts, was predictably "concerned" with the plight of low income and immigrant kids. A majority of the voting public bought it.

[Kitten Festival]

This is really good! Eeeeeuw!

[SE Mom]

Once a Meathead...

[randog]

Kinda reminds you of the "We Are The World" atrocity. All that moral preening for.....what? Oh, yeah--publicity for those "not doing it for the publicity".

[Mears]

More sticking it to the smokers-----why don't they add to the cost of alcohol or coffee?

[visualops]

"Six years after actor-director Rob Reiner won voter approval for a 50-cent-a-pack cigarette tax, millions of dollars raised by the measure in Los Angeles County have been spent on travel and administration but the universal preschool program it was supposed to fund has yet to get up and running."

" Reiner's proposition was based on research that found nearly 90 percent of brain development occurs before age 4. Proponents say more than $10 is saved in government costs for crime, welfare and special education for every $1 spent on early education."

What Reiner didn't think of, is that a very large part of that brain development is during pregancy and the first year. Preschool may help, but good prenatal care and stable families with 2 parents will do even more. I also think that toddlers who spend time with their parents at home learning will do better than those shuffled off to day care.

[Freepdonia]

South Park skewered him perfectly.

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

reminds me off the rob reiner episode of south park.

[CyberAnt]

"You would think that the man would have the guts to take responsibility"

These stinking liberals never take responsibility for anything .. and it's not results they want .. it's the thought that counts .. HE MEANT WELL. Blech!!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Same thing happened in Minnesota. Skip Humphrey and his clan of redistributionists glommed on to the cigarette settlement money and now have lifetime jobs.

[EGPWS]

The extensive television advertising, featuring celebrities like Mr. Reiner speaking high-minded thoughts, was predictably "concerned" with the plight of low income and immigrant kids.

And "his high mindedness" has concluded that the smoking public is the reason for immigration, their procreation, thus this plight must be funded by those who choose to enjoy a relaxing smoke?

Meat head, is an appropriate title for his claim to fame.

[EGPWS]

A thread with levity. : )

[Savage Beast]

“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.”
~H. L. Mencken~

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

More sticking it to the smokers-----why don't they add to the cost of alcohol or coffee?

Because you smokers are a laid back bunch who let them push you around.

Let them come near my coffee and they will be mercilessly shredded and I will have a cup while standing on a mountain of their remains secure in the knowledge that they were the ones in the wrong.

But smokers have a sort of a martyr thing going as if they deserve to be punished. Until you learn to stand up and say, "Yes, I smoke and there is nothing wrong with that" you will continue to keep taking it.

( I am half joking here. You decide which half)

[Mark]

The L.A. Daily News did an article today on this also- I think this one comment sums it up:

"Clearly, they have no sensitivity to the efficient use of taxpayer dollars," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. "Whenever there are these feel-good programs like the tobacco tax program, you can bet your last cigarette that the money will not be spent wisely."

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2532699,00.html
Taxed for nothing?

Smoker funds spent on travel, not children

By Troy Anderson
Staff Writer

[SheLion]

More sticking it to the smokers-----why don't they add to the cost of alcohol or coffee?

ROBBER REINER'S LIES
AND HOLLYWOOD MONEY
WON AGAIN!

        

(Talk about Big Fat!)
Situational ethics?

When Reiner put River Phoenix in his movie, Stand By Me, and had him
smoke throughout, Phoenix was only 14 years old. Guess it's okay to
have kids smoke when it's for Reiner's benefit.

[EGPWS]

Thanks for the ping SheLion! ; )

[iconoclast]

Words cannot express the contempt I have for this preening moral midget (Reiner).

I think the following interview on an L.A. street corner may apply:

"Hey man!

Lighten up young Reiner .. I hardly find time to work, much less spend any time or like mentor these young bro's. This gimme me a chance to like give sump'in' back to my community .. ya know?

This kinda thang be why everbody I know vote Democrat!

[SheLion]

Thanks for the ping SheLion! ; )

You bet!

I can't STAND this Big Fat Reiner! ugh!

[Mears]

I didn't know that about River Phoenix----what a damn hypocrite Reiner is(that I knew).

[js1138]

It's all right. Phoenix didn't live long enough to die from a smoking related disease. No harm, no foul.

I suppose he did die form a Hollywood related disease.

Stand By Me is one of my favorite movies of all time. My twelth year of life was very much like that.