Saturday, September 20, 2008
Tobacco Smoke and Other Priorities
Well, where do I begin...Many moons ago, after smoking pipe tobacco and collecting pipes, I quit. I did not want to waste money on unnecessary things or provide a bad example for my young children. I even made pipes for awhile and quit that too.
So, they are out of school and tax payers now and I have begun to make pipes and smoke my tobacco again. The change in the pipe business, politics and tobacco phobia is amazing. But we did elect a Southern Governor and an actor for President during the same time. So, I guess anything can happen here in the land of plenty, other than financial stability in the mortgage and investment banking industry.
None of the old pipe tobaccos are available, fewer smokers I assume. All tobacco products come under the ban of "smoking" now and we have folks who have nothing else better to do but send emails to elected persons to whine about tobacco smoke. Never mind the chemicals in our water, food and air without tobacco smoke. Then there is the addition of high fructose corn syrup to everything but toilet paper. Health is apparently relative and Smokers are easy to identify and vilify. While driving down the road, I can't help but notice the toxic whiffs or gasoline and diesel exhaust but we need to take the kids to soccer or hockey or whatever, I guess.
Hmm, exhaust or tobacco smoke, I wonder about the quantity and toxicity and think that someone is being a bit silly. And let us not forget all that natural gas that is being flared up to warm the atmosphere and add gases from all of those off shore drilling platforms. Most folks don't know that you can't pump the oil from on shore oil wells unless you can market the natural gas but you CAN flare the gas on off shore platforms. Drill Baby Drill, or is it Droll Baby Droll. Let us all create a market for liquefied natural gas so the oil folks can start pumping their oil again. Just another marketing ploy missed by the folks who vote - you might want to have someone refine that crap before you put it in your tank though, just a thought. Refine Baby Refine. Oh, I forgot, the majority are all where most of our hurricanes make landfall. But that damned smoking has got to stop.
Let me check my history notes for a second or two but it seems to me that we would still be a backwater Colony if it were not for tobacco and it is possible that we would not be here as a country or Colony at all but for tobacco. How much tax revenue is generated from it? Probably more than from corn syrup I would guess, but who is counting - that would require upper cerebral functions and some intelligence rather than emotive responses, but I digress.
I would like to ban greed in the mortgage and financial markets but probably won't get many folks sending emails about that or raising cain about smoking at pipe shows. Hmm, wonder which has a bigger impact on your kids future. If a group of folks want to get together for a couple of days out of the year, what is the real harm in some pipe tobacco smoke going into the atmosphere? Let me see, three or four days of tobacco smoke compared to 365 of petrochemical exhaust, flared natural gas, power plant emissions (remember acid rain). Congratulations anti-smoking folk, you are now safe from tobacco smoke. Great job and rest well.
So, they are out of school and tax payers now and I have begun to make pipes and smoke my tobacco again. The change in the pipe business, politics and tobacco phobia is amazing. But we did elect a Southern Governor and an actor for President during the same time. So, I guess anything can happen here in the land of plenty, other than financial stability in the mortgage and investment banking industry.
None of the old pipe tobaccos are available, fewer smokers I assume. All tobacco products come under the ban of "smoking" now and we have folks who have nothing else better to do but send emails to elected persons to whine about tobacco smoke. Never mind the chemicals in our water, food and air without tobacco smoke. Then there is the addition of high fructose corn syrup to everything but toilet paper. Health is apparently relative and Smokers are easy to identify and vilify. While driving down the road, I can't help but notice the toxic whiffs or gasoline and diesel exhaust but we need to take the kids to soccer or hockey or whatever, I guess.
Hmm, exhaust or tobacco smoke, I wonder about the quantity and toxicity and think that someone is being a bit silly. And let us not forget all that natural gas that is being flared up to warm the atmosphere and add gases from all of those off shore drilling platforms. Most folks don't know that you can't pump the oil from on shore oil wells unless you can market the natural gas but you CAN flare the gas on off shore platforms. Drill Baby Drill, or is it Droll Baby Droll. Let us all create a market for liquefied natural gas so the oil folks can start pumping their oil again. Just another marketing ploy missed by the folks who vote - you might want to have someone refine that crap before you put it in your tank though, just a thought. Refine Baby Refine. Oh, I forgot, the majority are all where most of our hurricanes make landfall. But that damned smoking has got to stop.
Let me check my history notes for a second or two but it seems to me that we would still be a backwater Colony if it were not for tobacco and it is possible that we would not be here as a country or Colony at all but for tobacco. How much tax revenue is generated from it? Probably more than from corn syrup I would guess, but who is counting - that would require upper cerebral functions and some intelligence rather than emotive responses, but I digress.
I would like to ban greed in the mortgage and financial markets but probably won't get many folks sending emails about that or raising cain about smoking at pipe shows. Hmm, wonder which has a bigger impact on your kids future. If a group of folks want to get together for a couple of days out of the year, what is the real harm in some pipe tobacco smoke going into the atmosphere? Let me see, three or four days of tobacco smoke compared to 365 of petrochemical exhaust, flared natural gas, power plant emissions (remember acid rain). Congratulations anti-smoking folk, you are now safe from tobacco smoke. Great job and rest well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)