Sheepdogs wanted…..

Knowing when to hold em, knowing when to fold em, knowing when to walk away, knowing when to run…..

Sometimes being a good citizen has nothing to do with being obedient, con-formative or placid.  There are good rules that most follow not because they are ‘the law’ but because they make sense.  Things like not shouting ‘FIRE’ in a crowded theater are ‘no brainers’. Then there are laws that have nothing to do with the general welfare and serve only to fill the coffers of government.  Fines and fees assessed for going against the status quo are nothing more than taxes.  Government under the guise of protecting us not from others but from ourselves is my biggest pet peeve.  This is where ‘Sin’ taxes come in.  By assessing excessively high taxes on stuff that government ‘says’ is to curb the purchase of things like tobacco, sodas, candy, booze and even gasoline.  If these and other things are so bad then why not just make them illegal?  Sometimes it feels like I have been transported against my will to Communist China.

Now here is where I will probably lose some of you.  I am a smoker and no I don’t have a death wish for myself or for you.  Tobacco was one of the first targets government took aim at and smokers were easy to malign.  First, they made ‘smoking sections’ mandatory in public places, smokers complied and the non-smokers cheered.  Gradually the anti-tobacco laws forced smokers to go outside but most places provided an area that was at least partially sheltered, smokers complied and the non-smokers cheered.  Now much of the outdoors is off-limits, like hospitals.  Let me tell you that when I can be fined for going to the parking lot at the hospital to smoke in my car, I get really PO’d!  Expecting people who smoke to all of a sudden become non-smokers in situations that are often extremely tense due to the injury or illness of a loved one is like expecting a dog not to bite when you try to take his bone away.  It is rude, illogical and oppressive and non-smokers cheer.  It makes me want to blow smoke up you know where!

Many years ago a study was done to see whether or not second-hand smoke actually had any bad health effects.  I first heard about it from Rush Limbaugh many years ago.  The study was done by the World Health Organization (WHO) and found that second-hand smoke did not cause things like asthma and other respiratory illnesses.  Since the anticipated results of the study was contrary to what was desired, they did another study skewed to produce the desired outcome and it was published.  Limbaugh found the actual results (unpublished) and reported on it.  There used to be a link on his website and at one time I downloaded and printed it.  Wish I had kept it because all evidence has now been scrubbed from cyberspace.  I have listed several links below that refer to that study.  I don’t do this to justify my habit but to justify my doubts about studies done to convince us that something is either desirable (green initiatives to save the planet from fossil fuel) or undesirable (like smoking or eating a Big Mac).

My point is that by taking aim at an easy target government began the systematic oppression of personal choice.  No one cared that a smoker’s right to choose was oppressed or that private business owners were forced to comply with anti-smoking laws even in their own offices within a non-public building because there might be employees exposed to second-hand smoke.  It’s like the employees were indentured servants unable to go find a job where the boss didn’t smoke.  Entering a particular restaurant is not mandatory but government convinced the public that it was protecting them by oppressing others and they cheered.

Over the years we have been told by government that many things are bad for us only to find out later that no, they weren’t bad for us, like coffee, eggs, cheese, etc.  and today we are being told that even whole milk is bad.  I was taught that milk was the perfect food back in elementary school.  Salt, sugar and trans-fats, all bad.  Back in the seventies global cooling was the big fear, we were all going to freeze to death in another ice age, today we have global warming.  Government always needs a boogie-man that can be used to control the unwashed masses and the people cheer.  Just this week the food police at an elementary school deemed a little girl’s lunch of a turkey sandwich, chips, apple juice and a banana, packed by her Mom, didn’t meet government guidelines and gave her some chicken nuggets instead and sent a bill home to her Mom for $1.25 to pay for the nuggets.  Are you cheering?

In November this year the wolves and the sheep will be voting on what to have for dinner and the wolves really like lamb chops.  We need some good sheep dogs in Washington and in our state houses and out here in flyover country who will defend liberty.  Unfortunately they are a rare breed and evidently the sheep are willing to be eaten as long as they don’t have to feel the pain or smell the smoke…..first they came for the Jews.

All comments welcome!

Grace and Mercy to stand up for the right to make personal choices.

http://www.killology.com/sheep_dog.htm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/7530949/Fiddling-those-smoking-figures-again.html

http://www.nycclash.com/ArticlesFolder/rush.html   (the link in this article no longer connects to the WHO study)

http://www.davehitt.com/facts/who.html   (this is a summary of the original study done the WHO)

Related articles

• Will It Soon be a Crime to Smoke in Your Own Car? (lewrockwell.com)
• Smoking Rights and Wrongs – According to a Non-smoker (suttonspointe.com)

• Posted in: Life ♦ Political Opinion
• Tagged: China, Government, Health, Passive smoking, Rush Limbaugh, Specific Substances, Tobacco, Tobacco smoking