Replies

"No - wives and children are not bad habits - not a vice."

Who decides that? The health insurance policy of the Sherrif dept. has higher premiums for employees with spouses and children. Why do you support hiring those individuals? Their personal choices are costing the taxpayers money.

"That's not my position. Prices are dictated by the whatever the market will bear."

Your indifference to "consumption tax" shows this statement to be false. The government is influencing the price of commodities they consider to be a "sin" commodity, the government is dictating the market price. Take the price of gas as an example, in California the government has dictating regulations that drive the cost of gas to be over the $0.50 over the national average.

"There's no "price control," only a sales tax."

Yep, when I read the statements of Governors, Senators and Reps that they hope to decrease a behaviour by increasint the cost of that behavior, I guess that has nothing to do with price control.

"Actually, I was asking about your point with the quote to make sure you weren't simple. It's not about "this doesn't affect me, so I don't care" - It's a about a nasty addiction that causes more health problems by itself than any other known substance and when I have to pay for the expensive health care associated with smoking, then it does directly affect me. Your quote is irrelevant to my point."

When we start to advocate personal liberty limitations based on health problems we open the door for any behaviour to be monitored. How about increasing the cost of red meat, how about taxes on coffee, how about liscensing people to allow them to have children? If you take the stance that "those things will never happen" think about the current state of the homosexual marriage agenda. Things will move forward while you sit on your hands.

Why do you support hiring those individuals? Their personal choices are costing the taxpayers money.

A family is NOT a nasty addictive habit - that's the difference. Having a wife and chidlren is not irresponsible, smoking is.

When we start to advocate personal liberty limitations based on health problems we open the door for any behaviour to be monitored. How about increasing the cost of red meat, how about taxes on coffee, how about liscensing people to allow them to have children? If you take the stance that "those things will never happen" think about the current state of the homosexual marriage agenda. Things will move forward while you sit on your hands.

Once again no one is restricting "liberty" - you can smoke all you want - it's a choice - just don't expect the rest of society to bend in the direction of a nasty habit. So if you want to smoke - your choice - then the consequence is that you cannot be a sherriff - or perhaps another option would be that the smoker pays for the entirety of their own insurance. Liberty is about choices - don't b!tch at me if you don't like the choices given. Furthermore if any comparisans can be made with homosexual marrige - people who do what they want without expecting consequences - then smoking - a selfish habit, where people don't want to deal with the consequences of their choices - would be a great example. BTW - last time I checked conservatives have NOT been sitting on their hand over the "gay marrige issue". Many state amendments have been changed to explicitly state that marrige is between a man and woman, and right now all the "gay marrige" in the news is nothing more than a temper tantrum. Homosexual marrige - will be nipped in the bud, probably sooner, rather than later.