Pot and Kettle - Cigarettes - Stigma - Taxes - Booze - Ron Paul on Topic - You Tube Vide - Yet Another Business Leaving - Opinion Piece - More

["Ron Paul Opposes Tobacco Tyranny on House Floor 6/12/09"; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v9SXhLvwUQ ]

As another uptown business makes its way towards closing its doors [ "'Taxes send Uptown cigar store south' - The Daily Freeman News Serving the Hudson Valley since 1871(DailyFreeman.com)":  http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/06/08/news/doc4c0dcfef14ed6247508941.txt ] --- I can't help but wonder if the whole cigarette thing [increased price; increase taxes; increased regulations; increased stigma; restrictive laws; etc.] isn't part of what has taken this city downhill...

Seriously.  [Yeah, I know I'm probably not too "popular" with this one...]

How many people [smokers] quit frequenting restaurants and other events?

How many businesses lost revenue?

How many people quit and switched over to another addiction [such as overeating] that is often associated with health problems?

How many lives have been saved?

Are we moving towards a prohibition on tobacco products?

Did prohibition [alcohol] - back in the day - work?  [It is my understanding that the prohibition on alcohol backfired - and, along with gambling and such - led to the proliferation of "gangs" - blackmarket products - etc...]

My grandfather smoked and worked his "butt off" [pun intended] his whole life.

My mother [who is still working and paying taxes at age 77...] smoked for most of her adult life - and didn't develop asthma and breathing problems - blood pressure problems - until after [partly due to weight gain?] she stopped smoking.  [Ditto for some other folks I know, with post-smoking issues popping up - such as weight gain, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.]

My brother died - in part - from multiple issues associated with addictions [including smoking] - "BUT" --- do you know what?  He was a CLASS ACT - and he paid for every chemical he put into his body. 

YOU didn't!  [Contrast this with the whole medical / Medicaid issue (socially approved drugs replacing socially dissapproved drugs?) that is going on around here...]

What got me cranked up again?

Seeing a lady - outside a church - "sneaking" into a corner by herself [after a funeral service] to have a cigarette.

Which reminded me of an elderly lady I saw smoking outside a hospital emergency room a while back - in the dead of winter - shaking [Did she catch pnemonia from the cold?] like a leaf.

Have we gotten too moralistic around here?  Why target cigarettes and not [to the extent one might think is justified...] booze? 

Mike Madsen has a welcome post ["kingston progressive"] at http://kingstonprogressive.blogspot.com/on his blog regarding a new domestic violence law.

How many people have beat their partner after a drag on a cigarette?

How many people have beat their partner after a swig off the old bottle?

How many driving while cigging accidents are on the books?

How many DUIs and DWIs and driving / alcohol-related tragedies and fatalities?

I've never been in the uptown shop that is noted in the article cited...  but I can sure say that I'm sad to see another small business in this city leave...

Iyi.

Should we do everything we can to encourage our youth not to smoke or drink or drug?

Absolutely.

Are smoking and non-smoking areas a realistic approach [versus what "has" gone down...] to the 2nd hand smoke [or "I'm better than you are...?"] issue?

Does it really serve us well when the "pot calls the kettle black" [from an addiction recovery (12 Step...) book]?

Just thoughts.

Interesting article and dialogue...

Check it out if you get a chance.

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I actually wrote this one day last week - but had decided not to post it.  However, after reading a bunch of related "stuff" on Facebook and elsewhere - I decided to give it a go.

I am not real familiar with Ron Paul - and the video is a bit outdated - so as I've heard bantered about (always the case, anyway...):  "Take what you like and leave the rest..." [heard in a 12 Step Program].