Posted on 03/06/2002 5:21:26 AM PST by farmall
They're coming after you
Posted: March 6, 2002 by: Walter Willaims
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2002 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Most Americans were pleased with the legislative attack on cigarette smokers, not to mention confiscatory tobacco taxes. We reveled in the Environmental Protection Agency's dishonest study concluding that second-hand smoke causes cancer. And, by the way, I'd like to hear whether the Food and Drug Administration would sanction pharmaceutical companies employing EPA's research methods to test drug safety – and if not, why not?
The real reason for the attack on smokers is that many people are offended by the tobacco odor. Unfortunately, in their quest to eliminate tobacco fumes, Americans are willing to trade away constitutional principles and rule of law.
Tyrants are never satisfied. They've lined up new victims. Surgeon General David Satcher has provided them with ammunition by describing obesity as America's No. 1 killer, costing 300,000 lives annually. As a result of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other obesity-related illnesses, it's costing us billions upon billions of health dollars. That means, according to John Banzhaf of George Washington University School of Law and other tyrants, America's food industry is to blame and liable. New York University Professor Marion Nestle agrees, saying that the food industry "can't behave like cigarette companies. ... Yet there's a lot of people who benefit from people being fat and sick, and the whole setup is designed to make people eat more. So the response to the food industry should be very similar to what happened with the tobacco companies."
The Center for Science in the Public Interest is one of the Washington lobbies that wants to control what we eat. These tyrants not only propose taxes on what they deem as non-nutritious foods, they've also proposed a 5 percent tax on new television sets and video equipment, and a $65 tax on each new car or an extra penny per gallon of gas. You might ask why tax these items? CSPI Nazis see watching television and videos, and riding instead of walking, as contributing to obesity. And, as they see it, just as tobacco companies were responsible for people smoking, television manufacturers are responsible for people being couch potatoes, automobile companies are responsible for people riding instead of walking and the food industry is responsible for people eating too much.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving has joined these tyrants. No reasonable person advocates drunk driving, but MADD has another agenda. It wishes to outlaw driving even after having one drink. It has successfully pushed Congress to lower the blood/alcohol level for a drunk-driving arrest to .08 percent. But its true agenda was revealed by Steve Simon, chairman of the Minnesota State DUI Task Force, when he said: "If .08 percent is good, .05 percent is better. That's where we're headed. It doesn't mean that we should get there all at once. But ultimately it should be .02 percent."
That's the way Nazis work – incrementally. If they had demanded Congress make the blood/alcohol .02, they wouldn't have gotten anything – not even .08 percent. I wouldn't be surprised if their ultimate agenda is alcohol prohibition.
The Center for Consumer Freedom keeps up-to-date information on these and other tyrants. You might say, "What's the fuss, Williams? These people will never get away with controlling what we eat and drink!" Think again. In the '60s, when the anti-smoking zealots were simply asking for smoking and non-smoking sections on airplanes, no one would have ever anticipated today's tobacco taxes, laws and regulations.
Most evil done in the world is done in the name of promoting this or that good. By turning away from rule of law and constitutional government, Americans are following in the footsteps of the decent Germans, who during the 1920s and '30s built the Trojan Horse that enabled Hitler to take over. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WorldNetDaily contributor Walter E. Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
Darn good advice my friend, but like I said in a previous post, I've quit. I will, however, chill a bit. And b_p_w, my appologies for growling. I certainly get lambasted at times due to my sarcasm as well.
But flying corpses are still funny.
I'm just thinking creatively. Don't take anything I post seriously.
Hey, I like you now! You'll fit in nicely.
What about an airborne corpse?
Actually, I've been thinking about the horrible ramifications that could occur when flying corpse #1 contacts said bicycler. If said bicycler is instantly killed, and dislodged from his mount with sufficient inertia, then (gad!) we are in the midst of a double flying corpse incident!
Frankly if exorbitant taxes on tobacco (and other legal vices) are the only problem, we're lucky. Would it were that MJ were on the same model. Even the WOD hasn't hurt the MJ demand that much; I doubt that tobacco taxes in and of themselves can hurt tobacco. (Disclaimer: I have never used MJ or tobacco, and do not foresee that I ever will.)
If I open a restaurant, with my own money, don't you think I should have the ability to choose my clientele?????
Only about 5% of the population is highly allergic to shellfish - do those 5% have the right to dictate that the other 95% unaffected can not enjoy their shellfish in the restaurant of their choice?
I love eating shrimp but can not come in contact with raw shrimp - my eyes will swell shut even being within 5 feet of it. Should all restaurants be banned from having raw shrimp on their premises because I may decide to enter that restaurant???
That makes about as much sense as what you are proposing.
You, sir, should be dragged from your home and be beaten! Why, right now, molecules of smoke from that disgusting stink stick are wafting through the atmosphere, affecting who knows how many innocent anti-stink-stickers! Of all the nerve you have, disregarding the health of others, while puffing your acrid clouds of death into the very same air that the entire rest of the planet must breath! Shame shame SHAME! Why can't you do as we say? Why can't you agree that what you do is something that I don't want you to? HMMM!?
But where will it end??????
You don't own that restaurant - if your smoking friends are willing to sit in the non-smoking section why didn't you just go to a non-smoking reataurant?
Your position ignores simple premises of things like private property rights and personal responsibility.
Talk to the owner of the business - don't promote more government intrusion on small business persons.
Ah ha! So you admit that you are a leading contributor to the non-existant, er, I mean, you admit that you caused global warming, hmmm?!
This will be outawed someday too. I've started hanging out in the garage with my cigar. I suppose someone will whine about that too.
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