A Pint, A Pipe and Politics Explained

For those who know of G.K. Chesterton, you may have figured out where I came up with the title for my blog, "A Pint, A Pipe and Politics". Chesterton was a convert to Catholicism and is attributed to saying that he became catholic because Catholics did not see a contradiction between a pipe, a pint and prayer - meaning that there was nothing sinful about enjoying liquor and tobacco - in moderation of course. :) This went against a good many other faiths that pushed an extreme form of abstinence from liquor and tobacco.

When it comes to liquor and tobacco, there is a very long history of politics and in turn political freedom attached to it. When a government would tax to excess and restrict the use of tobacco and liquor it was a safe bet that other political freedoms were being infringed upon.

If only the busybodies of the world would just relax and allow a more "live and let live" attitude, maybe they would be a wee bit happier in life. Yes, I am making the assumption that the anti-tobacco crowd tends to be a bit of a no-joy bunch. To actively seek to deny a man (or woman) the freedom to walk into a cigar bar and enjoy a good cigar or pipe for no other reason than to be doing it 'for the good of the community' invites the caricature of a dour disposition.

The argument used to enact a ban against a cigar bar for instance has no logical support. If they are doing it for the employees it begs the question of why someone would seek employment in a cigar bar in the first place if they were concerned about their health. I can hear the rebuttal now of something to the effect of not being able to secure employment elsewhere and thus 'trapped' working in a smoke infested bar. If you take away the purpose of a cigar bar how can you expect the bar to stay in business...you can't. Just ask all the non Indian Reservation cigar bar owners in Washington State. Oh, wait - you can't! THEY NO LONGER EXIST! When your goal is the total prohibition of tobacco, none of this matters, so spare us the BS of doing it for 'the workers'.

The Heartland Institute...Free Market Solutions

Research & Commentary: Top Ten Reasons Not to Raise Tobacco Taxes - by John Nothdurft

PACT Act Threatens Internet Anonymity, Online Commerce - by Thomas Cheplick

High Taxes, Public Employee Unions Crushing Michigan’s Economy - by Thomas Cheplick

Governor’s Proposal to Tax Candy and Soda - by John Nothdurft

"The Heartland Institute's mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Such solutions include parental choice in education, choice and personal responsibility in health care, market-based approaches to environmental protection, privatization of public services, and deregulation in areas where property rights and markets do a better job than government bureaucracies."

I love these guys (Heartland).  They do a great job explaining who, what, where, why and how of freemarket solutions.  They look to free market solutions, not Nazi inspired bans, taxation and fear-mongering.

Michigan the 38th state to ban workplace smoking

Belmont, MI (WZZM) - Smokers are running out of states where they can light up in public. When Michigan goes smoke free next spring only 12 states will permit smoking in public places.

"It's nice they are making the change," says non-smoker Kerry Batdorff.
This week the state legislature passed a ban on smoking in all Michigan workplaces, including bars and restaurants. Governor Granholm says she will sign the bill into law.
"It's a gift for the people of Michigan," she says.
But at Westwood Crossings in Belmont, many of the dart players aren't too happy about the smoking ban.


Comments: I can't let this one go. In an earlier post I went off on the bar ban and those that felt it didn't go far enough. Governor Granholm and every Democrat and Republican busybody that live in a government echo chamber have no clue that they are continuing to enact laws that take away the freedom of business owners to run their business as they see fit. There are thousands of bars and restaurants that are currently smoke free in Michigan. The ones that are left are for those that cater to smokers. All this will result in is business owners losing their business with their employees out on the street looking for work. Gee Governor, do you think they'll find work in your business friendly state? This sort of interference will only continue until there is no room left for private business to function.

It's a gift for the people of Michigan? Please, spare us! The gift that the people of Michigan demand is to get out of their way with regulation and taxation and be able to own and operate a business freely.

The irony is that this law doesn't affect me personally. I don't frequent bars or smoke cigarettes. The point is that this is continued government overreach. It won't stop here. Wait until government at both the state and federal levels control your health care. Own a donut shop? Food too fatty on the menu at your restaurant? You will be considered a fat pusher and thus a public menace. Not a business owner. Wait until you are called into your boss' office and counseled that you are too fat and must lose weight or lose your health insurance.

You can't contain this sort of overreach to just tobacco. It will spread. So for all the non-smokers that think this is a good thing, just wait - soon they will come for something you enjoy. If they do, please do the rest of us a favor and suffer in silence. I am only trying to spare you the pain of being a hypocrite.

Please Don't Poop in My Salad

From the Heartland Institute. Great information.

Don't Poop In My Salad

Michigan Smoking Ban Coming Soon...

New Michigan smoking ban in workplaces, restaurants and bars gets mixed reaction from business owners

Quotes from an enlightened reader's comments of this article:
"The majority of people in the state and in our country do NOT smoke, and we do not want to go ANYWHERE where people do smoke."

"The law is not perfect, I agree there should have been no exceptions. But its a big step in the right direction."


My response to this individual:
Right! So as a non-smoker, do you frequent cigar bars? If the ban included cigar bars it would be no better than telling the cigar bar owner to close up his bar and hand the keys over to the state government. It is this type of mob thinking that resulted in a regime like the Nazis - also anti-tobacco by the way. We were founded as a republic on purpose due to the totalitarian mob rule that a true democracy leads to. Too strong to call people that support taking someone’s property a Nazi? I think I am being too kind, especially considering you had 6000 other bars to pick from that were non-smoking.

Don’t Leave Home Without It…

Don’t Leave Home Without It … Your Pipe

She Likes the Smell of a Pipe

Two great articles from pipesmagazine.com. 
Who are we to deny the world the smell of real tobacco.

Anti-Tobacco Science: Science or Junk?

I am not a conspiracy theory watcher. Not enough time in the day. I do believe people become compromised or corrupt by following their visions or ambitions to the point where they are willing to misrepresent information if it means more grant money or it may be a case of believing the ends justify the means. Whatever the reason, it has become clear to any reasonable person that certain scientific institutions and individuals have become untrustworthy, especially when funded by groups that want a certain outcome.

I always felt that global warming was junk science, especially given the political nature of the movement. With the hacking of e-mailings revealing how there may have been some 'creative' measures taken to continue to show that global warming was taking place - I became more willing to give other skeptics the benefit of the doubt - in this case in the area of tobacco.

In full disclosure I have not read the books I list here in their entirety. I have read some of the material published online and it grabbed my interest, especially the health hazard claims attached to tobacco. I am not here to debate one way or another. What I would like to point out is, just like in the global warming movement, the anti-tobacco groups have the same group of liberty robbing busybodies associated with it. The irony is that I was only an occasional cigar smoker and now I am enjoying the pipe - primarily because it is very enjoyable and relaxing - but also as a form of rebellion (Put That in Your Pipe) against those that would like nothing better than to control our lives from cradle to grave. There are risks associate with every aspect of living your life, to include heavy tobacco use. You can not rob someone of their property and in turn their liberty because you claim to be doing it for the ‘public good’. The Nazis did that and countless other totalitarian regimes.

Smoke Screens Velvet Glove, Iron Fist For Your Own Good In Defense of Smokers

The War on Smokers and the Rise of the Nanny State

While we are on the subject of totalitarian regimes, here is another excellent book which I have read, highlighted, and am going to re-read shortly:

The Road To Serfdom

Put That in Your Pipe!

At a time when tobacco regulations and taxation are claiming to be doing it for the children, to prevent access and keep them from tobacco, it begs the question, has anyone bothered asking 'the children' why they started smoking or where they buy their tobacco?  It is against the law in the first place to provide minors with tobacco and most legitimate businesses abide by that. In an effort to punish those that don't follow the law more laws are enacted that end up harming those that play by the rules the most.

 

I can only speak for myself. I never took up the cigarette habit. Both my parents smoked at home and in the car with the windows up - the 70's and 80s, what great times. :)  I was into sports and didn't like the way cigarette smoke smelled. When I was 25, out the blue I decide to buy a cigar because I liked the way they smelled and loved it. Over the years I smoked cigars occasionally but not enough to call myself a smoker. Fast forward to 2009. I am recently married with one daughter and a son on the way. It is getting more difficult to find time to sit down to smoke a cigar and the smell afterword was not a favorite thing for my wife. Hey, why not try a pipe. I did. I found it relaxing, and the smell actually didn't bother my wife when I came back in from my man cave.

Believe it or not I do have a point to this story. It was about this time I came across an article written by Rick Newcombe, "Put That in Your Pipe: As an act of rebellion against political correctness, pipe smoking is hard to beat." A passion for the briar and pipe tobacco was born! I don't always have time to sit down and enjoy a full pipe bowl, but the idea of what pipe smoking represents is with me always. It is different for everyone. As pipe and cigar smokers know, it isn't an addiction, its is a way of thought and a certain old school attitude toward life. Enough of my ramblings, Mr. Newcombe explains it far better than I could. Enjoy!

Put That in Your Pipe

Here is another great article about adult college students discovering the pipe - note that high cigarette taxes made some check pipe smoking out and a pleasant experience kept them interested.  There weren't any predatory tobacco execs or advertisers pushing them into it.  Isn't FREE WILL a grand thing! 

The Latest Thing They're Smoking in Pipes on College Campuses: Tobacco

Roll-Your Own vs. Pipe Tobacco

After the SCHIP Tax was passed back in April 2009, RYO taxes jumped 2000%, resulting in RYO manufacturers rebranding their product as pipe tobacco. Some officials were shocked by this and the usual suspects blamed the tobacco execs for finding this 'loophole'. Some senators jumped on this and threatend these manufacturers to stop this practice or they would.

Let me get this straight. The mega cigarette giants supported this tax and somehow there are these evil RYO tobacco 'execs' to blame for this so-called tax evasion. This is a matter of a legal industry trying to stay alive after an attempt to be taxed out of existence. Most of these RYO manufacturers are small businesses, especially when compared to the big boys on the block. Government has an unending hunger for your tax dollars and RYO was cutting into the big cigarette companies profit margins and in turn 'denying' both local and federal government more of your money.

I'll admit, at first I was not happy that the RYO companies had put pipe tobacco in the crosshairs. But that would be hypocritical. Now the fight is on to provide a better definition of what pipe tobacco is and what RYO is. Currently the IRS tax code provides these definitions:

TITLE 26 - INTERNAL REVENUE CODE
Sec. 5702. Definitions

(n) Pipe tobacco: The term ''pipe tobacco'' means any tobacco which, because of its appearance, type, packaging, or labeling, is suitable for use and likely to be offered to, or purchased by, consumers as tobacco to be smoked in a pipe.

(o) Roll-your-own tobacco: The term ''roll-your-own tobacco'' means any tobacco which, because of its appearance, type, packaging, or labeling, is suitable for use and likely to be offered to, or purchased by, consumers as tobacco for making cigarettes.

In a normal world with fair taxation this would suffice, but in a world where tax dollar hunger is bottomless, these definitions will be expanded by pages.

Every pipe smoker knows that when you put RYO tobacco - or tobacco that is cut to be smoked in a cigarette - into a pipe it will not taste very good and burn hot, burning your tongue in the process.  Try and put pipe tobacco in cigarette form and it'll be too moist and not taste like a cigarette.  Problem is that members of congress have no clue about this unless they are pipe smokers.  Would the pipe smokers in congress please stand up and provide some sanity before the pipe tobacco tax is raised by 2000% and destroys yet more small businesses.

Cigars have been taxed as well but are exempt from the PACT ACT.  Why?  If the government is going after all forms of tobacco, why not cigars?  You can take a cigar, cut it up and put in a pipe and maybe even roll the tobacco into a cigarette as well.  The answer is simple...they are exempt FOR NOW.  Is it any wonder that tobacco tax revenues are continuing to drop?  Watch out grow-your own industry, you will be in the crosshairs as well.

The irony in all this is as tobacco is slowly making its way toward full prohibition, marijuana is moving toward legalization. 

Now imagine a future where you can go to jail for growing your own tobacco and your neighbor could be watching you hauled away while he puffs on his joint and all the authorities do is wave hello to him.  Some crazy stuff. 

Related articles:

Tobacco execs quickly find tax loophole
Tobacco Retailers Challenge News Reports on Roll-Your-Own, Pipe Tobaccos
Beware the Adverse Effects of Cigarette Taxes on Kids

PACT ACT or SPY ACT?

The text below is taken from the PACT ACT that just cleared the Judiciary Committee on November 19, 2009. Now it moves on for debate.

The US is fighting terrorism and spending billions. Let’s go ahead and add $34 million over the next four years to spy on American citizen's tobacco purchases while we are at it.

Sen. Hatch [R-UT],Sen. Sessions [R-AL], and Sen. Cornyn [R-TX] are new co-sponsors to this bill with the remaining 13 co-sponsors democrats. 

Its intent is to fight illegal cigarette and smokeless tobacco trafficking and terrorism that is being funded through sales of contraband cigarettes. And of course, it is also to 'save' the children.  Never mind that high taxes have created the black markets in the first place and will continue to do so.

In full disclosure, I am not or ever have been a cigarette smoker. I am an occasional cigar and pipe smoker. As such, I have an interest in the matter of tobacco taxation.  It seems such a basic freedom to purchase and consume a legal product.  I believe this excellent article from Pipe Tobacco magazine explains it better than I could. "Prohibition by increments" reviews "Velvet Glove, Iron Fist" by Stephen A. Ross.

 PROHIBITION BY INCREMENTS

This links to the entire bill:

S. 1147: PACT Act

SECTION. 7. ENHANCED CONTRABAND TOBACCO ENFORCEMENT.

(a) Requirements- The Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives shall--

(1) not later than the end of the 3-year period beginning on the effective date of this Act, create a regional contraband tobacco trafficking team in each of New York, New York, the District of Columbia, Detroit, Michigan, Los Angeles, California, Seattle, Washington, and Miami, Florida;

(2) create a Tobacco Intelligence Center to oversee investigations and monitor and coordinate ongoing investigations and to serve as the coordinator for all ongoing tobacco diversion investigations within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, in the United States and, where applicable, with law enforcement organizations around the world;

(3) establish a covert national warehouse for undercover operations; and

(4) create a computer database that will track and analyze information from retail sellers of tobacco products that sell through the Internet or by mail order or make other non-face-to-face sales.

(b) Authorization of Appropriations- There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out subsection (a) $8,500,000 for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2014.