Posted on 01/12/2006 12:12:48 PM PST by elkfersupper
As Steinbeck noted, and I think there's some truth to it, considering some elements of our history and character as a nation and a people:
"For the most part we are an intemperate people: we eat too much when we can, drink too much, indulge our senses too much. Even in our so-called virtues we are intemperate: a teetotaler is not content to not drink--he must stop all the drinking in the world; a vegetarian among us would outlaw the eating of meat."
Even this won't go far enough! They should ban even THINKING about cigarettes!
"Let the budget shortfalls come out of their pockets for a change"
And let them wail and gnash their teeth as they watch their neighbors drive over the county line or out of the city limits, increasing that shortfall with every trip...
Soon, mommy will have to ask her kids to turn her on to their drug dealer to buy a pack if cigarettes.
Gotcha.........sorry, I have a tendency to be a bit over sentitive to the idea that anyone over size 8 has a weight issue.
Works for me.
"Gotcha.........sorry, I have a tendency to be a bit over sentitive to the idea that anyone over size 8 has a weight issue."
Heck, all the women I've loved in my life have been over a size 8. Just making a joke.
what i don't understand is why doesn't the tobacco companies sue the daylights out of the states that are using their tobacco settlement money for their slush fund instead of as it was intended??
That should get real interesting, if the states have to repay the monies with interest.
which is why I apologized for jumping.
I understand your point about absurdity - which is what I actually think this mayor is doing. Many of us have been saying this about places that are banning smoking - if it's so bad just ban the sale of it.
I see no way the state will allow this to occur because of tax issues.
That's not the way the MSA works. The companies have absolutely NO say in how the money is spent, and are specifically prohibitted from getting involved how that money is spent. Excise tax revenues are a different story.
Additionally, the MSA was allegedly to repay to the states money they "claim" to have spent on sick smokers, which supposedly caused the states to not have money for other things.
Amen to that! How are you?
I'm doing great, how 'bout you?
It started with Corrupt DEM Cook County Chairman John Stroger. He is the prototype Chicago Sleaze DEM Machine loser. When the county lost budget money after the 199o's market crash he reverted to Tobacco taxes to fill his cronies pockets. Illinois has become a lost cause.
I'm up to my nose in work. It's our busy time. I work and sleep. Good thing it happens this time of year. The weather sucks most years!
sounds like legalized theft to me
"But at this week's village board meeting, Johnson said Elk Grove Village should consider banning the sale of all forms of tobacco, including cigarettes, cigars, pipes and chewing tobacco."
Sounds like it's time to move and get outta Dodge to me! I wouldn't want to pay property taxes in a place that denies me the right to anything LEGAL. And least anyone forget, tobacco is a legal substance.
Nana
Thanks for the clear explanation.
Guess that's why I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.
LOL!!!!!
Yes and no.
It's legalized theft in regard to smokers, but not when it comes to the tobacco companies. They agreed to that, as long as the states agreed to let them tack on 100% of the settlement costs onto the price of a pack of cigarettes. Smokers had no place at the table during the working of that deal.
When we moved to North Carolina, and bought a house, we did not realize that we were now living in a 'dry' county...no problem for us, my hubby was military, always bought his beer on post...and people who lived in our neighborhood, just drove down main road, for a few minutes, and were in another county, where they could buy their drinks...
At this time(late 70s), they also had stupid 'blue-laws', where one could not even buy a broom, or a hammer on Sunday, because buying that suggested that you might want to work on a Sunday, and the 'blue-law', was in place to enforce religious constraints on working on the sabbath...
We left there in 1983...I wonder if those conditions still exist there today...
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