Shhhhhhhhhhhh...;0)
Posted on 04/02/2009 3:47:57 PM PDT by Drango
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — For more than a century, the Sharp family of eastern North Carolina has grown tobacco, nicknamed the "golden leaf" for reasons that went beyond the cured plant's rich color.
`snip
"There's nothing else we're doing that comes even close to yielding the profits that tobacco yields."
For generations, tobacco growers were a protected class, as lawmakers across the South defended the golden leaf as stridently as politicians from Michigan and New York do automakers and Wall Street. It remains a huge business: The tobacco crop in North Carolina alone, where farmers produce nearly half the value of the entire U.S. output, was worth $686 million last year.
But lawmakers don't look out for Big Tobacco as they once did. In 2004, Congress eliminated a tobacco quota and price support system that dated to the Depression. ~snip In Raleigh, where there were spittoons North Carolina General Assembly until the mid-1980s and a smoky haze in the halls until a few years ago, House members voted this week in favor of a limited ban on public smoking. ~snip
It's a blow felt in the sandy soil fields of eastern North Carolina that are just OK for sweet potatoes, cotton, soybeans, but fantastic for tobacco. Production dropped by 27 percent to roughly 645 million pounds in 2005, the year after the quota system came to an end, but has slowly recovered in the past few years, boosted by exports and new marketing tactics.
~snip
Growers are also looking to sell their crop overseas, and a group called the U.S. Tobacco Cooperative that buys tobacco from 3,500 growers in five Southeast states has a unit that exports American leaf to China.
~snip
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Here in the Democratic Peoples Republic of NJ, only bloods and crips in Newark are allowed to carry guns.
You have to wait for the robber to actually walk into your house before blowing them away.
Shhhhhhhhhhhh...;0)
True & then you have to prove he meant deadly intent!
Great pic Counter!
I’ve seen the pics of you and your husband pandy. Trust me. Nobody would mess with him.
Lmao! He is pretty wild & mean looking.
Eric! You’re back!
Are you drunk tonight? I though when you got into it with JR last week you were gone for good.
The ironic thing is that looks can be deceiving. He is probably a big Teddy Bear.
It’s the statists in suits down in Trenton and Washington that are far more dangerous.
We have to get together for a beer and a smoke at the motorcycle festival they have down here on Main St. in Freehold this summer.
We can smoke outside Federici’s and eat in the outdoor cafe. First bozo who complains about outdoor smoke is mine.
I'm here to help you and provide a public service for a fee. I am a fully trained psychologist specializing in Nanny State Behavior Syndrome (NSBS). This liberal, left wing, social engineering disease is horrible and can strike anyone at anytime. It can even strike Conservatives who believe in free markets and limited government.
Thankfully, Dr. Feel (a wholly owned subsiduary of Dr. Phil) is here to help you work through your problems.
Please answer the questionaire below, so I know how best to treat you. And please have your insurance card ready for the wallet biopsy. This is a Capitalist country and I don't work for free.
I discriminate against smokers because:
A. The smell of smoke is icky and yucky, it makes my hair and clothes stink and I hate walking into a bar/restaurant where people are smoking. So rather than take advantage of the free market and go somewhere that is voluntarily smoke free, I would rather use the power of the state to impose my personal preference on my fellow citizens.
A1. My __________ (choose one: Dad, Mom, Uncle, Aunt, Grandfather, Grandmother, older sister, brother, babysitter, next door neighbor, mailman) abused me by smoking ________(choose one: Marlboro, Merit, Kool, crack, Camel, Kent, marijuana) in the __________ (choose one: house, car, bar, juvenile detention center) when I was a kid.
B. My beloved ___________ (choose one: husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, nephew, niece, uncle, aunt, maid, dog, cat, goldfish, gay lover) died from _________(choose one: cancer, heart disease, emphysema, car crash, train wreck, terrorist attack, sting ray) because of their smoking.
C. I smoked for _____ (years) and now I am ________ (choose one: missing it, sick, dead, born again, enlightened, ashamed of myself, if I can't do it, nobody can) and want to share my experience with others.
D. The Big Tobacco companies are lying scumbags and must pay! (you're not coming down off the mountain with the tablets there)
E. I represent Big Pharmaceutical interests that benefit from the anti-smoking movement because it increases the sales of our Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) products.
F. I am a deeply caring individual in the mold of Mother Theresa and I am speaking out due to my benevolent, philanthropic, altruistic concern about the health of my fellow man.
G. I am a research scientist and grant junky, and if I don't tow the party line my grant money will disappear.
H. I'm just a garden variety Fascist and Totalitarian and get a ______ (choose one: cheap thrill, natural high, erection, orgasm) by imposing my will on other people.
I. I am a retard who believes in bogus studies, junk science, the Easter Bunny and the Toothfairy. I fear that because I walked into a bar on Spring Break in 1987, and was exposed to Second Hand Smoke I now suffer from ______(choose one: AIDS, Herpes, Athletes Foot, Jock Itch, male pattern baldness, or genital warts)
J. I am a disgruntled, prissy and angry employee of a ______(choose one: bar, restaurant, club, casino) who can't leave the job because I am a _______(choose one: slave, indentured servant, sweatshop laborer, illegal immigrant) and had no idea there was smoking going on in the place before I took the job.
K. An elected public serpent, serving as a _____ (choose one: State Assemblywoman, Senator, Freeholder, city councilman, mayor) and I have failed miserably in my job and trying to tackle really tough problems like _____ (choose one: gang violence, income taxes, property taxes, crime, corruption), so I will support a smoking ban based on the talking points and literature that "M" has given me and claim that I have actually accomplished something to help my constituents.
L. A Socialist liberal Democrat who is desperate for Universal Healthcare so the proletariet will continue to keep me in power. But if I don't do something about the "demand side" health care costs caused by such global health menaces as _________ (choose one: Marlboro, Merit, Kool, Big Macs, Whoppers, Chicken McNuggets, Budweiser, Coors, Jack Daniels) my health care entitlement program will go ________ (choose your adjective: broke, belly up, bankrupt, insolvent).
M. A professional anti-tobacco activist who makes $450,000 per year. MY GOAL IS TO REDUCE SMOKING RATES FROM 25% TO BELOW 10%. KICKING THEM OUT OF THEIR FAVORITE BAR AND RESTAURANT IS JUST A SMALL STEP TO COERCE THEM TO QUIT. I DON'T EVEN BELIEVE THE SHS NONSENSE MYSELF! Don't you dare try to ban cigarettes, if you do I will have to go back to my previous job ______(choose one: prostitute, drug dealer, pimp, state assemblyman, mayor) where I won't make nearly as much money and the bank will foreclose on my seaside villa and repo my _______(choose one: Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, Hummer, Infiniti, Acura,Jaguar, Volvo, Bentley). I take advantage of the prejudices of categories A-L above to accomplish my goal.
N. I am a Religious Fundamentalist who believes that smoking is strictly forbidden in the ______(choose one: Qu'ran, Bible, Torah, Old Testament, New Testament, David Wells' autobiography "Perfect I'm Not", Hustler Magazine)
O. I don't fit any of the above categories, I just like to argue with people.
He is a teddy bear at home usually. Out , well thats another thing. He doesn’t like nonsmokers who btch at him lmao. He was just asking about you last night & said why isn’t Eric on this thread...Federici’s sounds great. Just let me know when. Hugs Pandy
And then the feds, greedy for those lost tax dollars, will have to find something else to tax.
Eventually they will choose to tax something that will make Drango's life, liberty and pursuit of happiness prohibitively expensive.
Smoking may be unhealthy, it's caused you to become mentally ill. Take your medication. You're a danger to society.
"It Only Takes A Lil'Bit."...;0)
Lmao. Imagine the taxes they would want to put on that jug.
Well said. We need 97 million more like you who get it.
Once smokers have been coerced to quit by their parents/government in exchange for their reverse allowance, the next step is the fatties and drunks.
If Gubmint is paying for your healthcare, it’s their right, indeed their duty to intervene and reduce the costs for taxpayers.
Why should my tax dollars pay for the bariatric surgery for some fat ass or diabetes meds for somebody who could have prevented this through “lifestyle choices”?
TAXES???...;0)
Sure more taxes are coming . Once people quit smoking & drinking they won’t have that money. So just think what the govt will think to tax next. It makes me want to shudder.
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
One could change this to taxes.
The argument for taxing smokers brought the above to mind.
(Wiki)
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