I knew it was only a matter of time before the bitching began. As a smoker, I have been keenly aware of how much money in state & local taxes I've been paying for the past several years. The price of a pack of cigarettes has more than tripled since I began smoking. Smokers pay for sports stadiums and municipal buildings, neither of which you can smoke in, and we supposedly pay for healthcare too. I'm not bitching about that. In fact, the most recent taxes on cigarettes were levied from a bill I happily voted for - to bring basic healthcare to all grade school children in class.
But all along I've maintained that there's something not right about this slipperly slope of a game the government has played with tobacco. On one hand they say it's a killer, and on another they it's a wonderful source of income. They are happy to subsidise tobacco farming, and produce public service announcements declaring tobacco companies to be liars and death mongers. If what they say is true, how could any body of democratic government, regardless of party or creed, not see fit to outlaw the plant altogether, as they have with various other drugs and plants? I know why...because the love the money!
And sure enough! Now that the cost prohibitive taxes, state wide smoking bans and re-education commercials are starting to work, the states have begun bitching about the lack of money rolling in!
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0216tobaccotaxes0216.html
What is a modern state government to do?
Friday, February 16, 2007
Friday, February 9, 2007
This post never happened. And you can't prove it!
As a self described progressive liberal, in theory of course, as I yet to live a day that I enjoy the benefits of living in such a society and seeing what it's really like, I am, of course, utterly dumbfounded when I hear of people who can actually look at all of the facts, historical, physical, scientific or otherwise, and still deny that the Holocaust happened. Even if I suppose that I'm new to the planet and look through all of the media, read all of the books, newspapers and hear actual first hand accounts from survivors, on my very best day, with my very best open mind, I would still, having no first hand knowledge, have to conclude that it happened. It's just simply inconceivable that you could deny it. It happened. It was probably the most disgusting and horrific human act to date in our species, and yes, it has luckily shaped, though not as much as I believe it should have, the way we look at the world today. It was calculated, graphically violent and hideous, and should not in any way be glorified. Or denied.
And yet, a full 60 years on from the actual event, people still linger out there in the shadows, and sometimes at full blown academic conferences, but most certainly in the sick recesses of our culture, who actually try to forward the notion that it was all a giant ruse. A big media sham of a plot for the Jews to incite guilt and take power in the world from anyone non-Jewish. How does this happen?
I used to think that the German and Austrian laws forbidding anyone from denying the Holocaust were a bit too stringent for my American "freedom of speech" loving sensibilities. I mean, it's one thing to be a bigot, a racist, and a supporter of genocide - it happens for a number of reasons, to this day all over the world, and not just against Jews - and in our free society we tolerate such thought because we recognize that it is a necessary evil that we must put up with in order to enjoy the overwhelmingly wonderful benefits of free speech and thought. But I'm starting to see things differently.
Perhaps we should outlaw the denial of the Holocaust. In a day and age when thugs still attack author Elie Weisel for perpetuating his "myth" of his experience during the Holocaust, perhaps we need a stronger antidote to this kind of hate. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17072805/
I'm starting to see the subtle genius in locking up anyone who is stupid and culturally ignorant enough to deny that an army of people systematically locked up and murdered millions of people based on their religious persuasion. If you can't sit through a weekend on the History Channel and come out at least a little sickened by the mitigation of genocide, perhaps there is just something unexplainably wrong with your tiny little mind and you need to be locked away. I think there's a case to be made when we sterilize the retarded, but we let Holocaust deniers roam free to have as many kids as they can fuck up in a lifetime.
I mean, if you're going to deny the Holocaust, then what else is it that could be simply untrue? Maybe blacks weren't really slaves - just very crafty about laying low for 500 years, all the while waiting for that magic moment to pop up and demand affirmative action. I mean, why not? If 6 million Jews could suddenly disappear off of the face of the planet in 5 years, then why couldn't you believe that blacks actually infiltrated our country secretly, posed as slaves, but did no work and suffered no tribulation or indignity, and then sometime in the mid-60's carefully infiltrated every major American city and, in the stillness of night, replaced every text book, newspaper, archive and film reel with their carefully crafted myth of slavery.
Perhaps Native Americans aren't actually native at all! I bet they are just in cahoots with the blacks - probably paid them off to insert declarations into our legislative archives so that they could enjoy the utopia that is free living on reservations.
You know what else doesn't exist? AIDS. It's just a convenient way for gay men, and anyone else who'd like, to slip away for lifetime vacations in Fiji and Tahiti. That's why they lose all that weight before they go - so they look good in their swimming suits when they get there.
Along with these otherwise completely plausible theatrics, the following do not really exist:
And yet, a full 60 years on from the actual event, people still linger out there in the shadows, and sometimes at full blown academic conferences, but most certainly in the sick recesses of our culture, who actually try to forward the notion that it was all a giant ruse. A big media sham of a plot for the Jews to incite guilt and take power in the world from anyone non-Jewish. How does this happen?
I used to think that the German and Austrian laws forbidding anyone from denying the Holocaust were a bit too stringent for my American "freedom of speech" loving sensibilities. I mean, it's one thing to be a bigot, a racist, and a supporter of genocide - it happens for a number of reasons, to this day all over the world, and not just against Jews - and in our free society we tolerate such thought because we recognize that it is a necessary evil that we must put up with in order to enjoy the overwhelmingly wonderful benefits of free speech and thought. But I'm starting to see things differently.
Perhaps we should outlaw the denial of the Holocaust. In a day and age when thugs still attack author Elie Weisel for perpetuating his "myth" of his experience during the Holocaust, perhaps we need a stronger antidote to this kind of hate. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17072805/
I'm starting to see the subtle genius in locking up anyone who is stupid and culturally ignorant enough to deny that an army of people systematically locked up and murdered millions of people based on their religious persuasion. If you can't sit through a weekend on the History Channel and come out at least a little sickened by the mitigation of genocide, perhaps there is just something unexplainably wrong with your tiny little mind and you need to be locked away. I think there's a case to be made when we sterilize the retarded, but we let Holocaust deniers roam free to have as many kids as they can fuck up in a lifetime.
I mean, if you're going to deny the Holocaust, then what else is it that could be simply untrue? Maybe blacks weren't really slaves - just very crafty about laying low for 500 years, all the while waiting for that magic moment to pop up and demand affirmative action. I mean, why not? If 6 million Jews could suddenly disappear off of the face of the planet in 5 years, then why couldn't you believe that blacks actually infiltrated our country secretly, posed as slaves, but did no work and suffered no tribulation or indignity, and then sometime in the mid-60's carefully infiltrated every major American city and, in the stillness of night, replaced every text book, newspaper, archive and film reel with their carefully crafted myth of slavery.
Perhaps Native Americans aren't actually native at all! I bet they are just in cahoots with the blacks - probably paid them off to insert declarations into our legislative archives so that they could enjoy the utopia that is free living on reservations.
You know what else doesn't exist? AIDS. It's just a convenient way for gay men, and anyone else who'd like, to slip away for lifetime vacations in Fiji and Tahiti. That's why they lose all that weight before they go - so they look good in their swimming suits when they get there.
Along with these otherwise completely plausible theatrics, the following do not really exist:
- Iraq. It doesn't exist. All of that war footage is shot on a lot in the San Fernando Valley.
- Rape. I mean, who doesn't want to get laid, right?
- Airplanes. True, it is a little more difficult to deny, but if you look really close, you'll see that it's just strings and cardboard.
- Kittens. A little known fact, however true despite the hard science, is that cats are immortal and there are the same exact number today that have always been on this planet from the beginning of time. They crawled out of the lava flow that way, and do not in any way propagate. Kittens are an illusion brought on by a chemical reaction in our brains due to flouride levels in the drinking water.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Super Bowl filled with graphic sexual innuendo & violence against children!
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/celeb/articles/0206prince.html
I am absolutely surprised, shocked and horrified to learn that Prince may have used phallic expressions in his Super Bowl halftime show this past Sunday. (I'm even more shocked that it took until Wednesday for pundits and bloggers to point it out) From the very beginning I thought that Prince was the perfect artistic choice for the Super Bowl Halftime Show, a choice that would heal the puritanical wounds of America's offended. When I think "family friendly", I think Prince. He's always been on the cutting edge of safe and pleasant expression, and carries in his little briefcase of fun a plethora of cute images of pansies, daisies and teddy bears. Who better to command the seas of decency in such vulgar times?
Get over yourselves....I'd say "what is this 1952?" but even that year seems more progressive and able to handle adult oriented art than today. The Romans had their orgies & vomitoriums to spell out their final days - we'll have mock horrified moms and dads firing off letters to CBS.
I am absolutely surprised, shocked and horrified to learn that Prince may have used phallic expressions in his Super Bowl halftime show this past Sunday. (I'm even more shocked that it took until Wednesday for pundits and bloggers to point it out) From the very beginning I thought that Prince was the perfect artistic choice for the Super Bowl Halftime Show, a choice that would heal the puritanical wounds of America's offended. When I think "family friendly", I think Prince. He's always been on the cutting edge of safe and pleasant expression, and carries in his little briefcase of fun a plethora of cute images of pansies, daisies and teddy bears. Who better to command the seas of decency in such vulgar times?
Get over yourselves....I'd say "what is this 1952?" but even that year seems more progressive and able to handle adult oriented art than today. The Romans had their orgies & vomitoriums to spell out their final days - we'll have mock horrified moms and dads firing off letters to CBS.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Groundhogs Day Surprise
It looks like the Punxatawny Phil saw his shadow this morning, predicting that Mary Cheney will one day have to look her child in the eye and explain herself.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0202MaryCheney0202.html
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0202MaryCheney0202.html
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Molly Ivins
I am very sad today, to hear the news of Molly Ivins' passing. She is one of my heroes in the world, for her white hot wit and amazing talent for writing. On any day, you could count on her for a scathing column, taking the administration to task for their latest scheme or folly. Without fail she did it with a grace, poise, prose, and style that was both genius and sometimes downright goofy.
She died of cancer, which she had been living with for several years. She was once quoted as saying "Sorry to say, cancer can kill you but it doesn't make you a better person."
It didn't make her a better person, she was already among the best there is....
She will be missed in this world.
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/1
She died of cancer, which she had been living with for several years. She was once quoted as saying "Sorry to say, cancer can kill you but it doesn't make you a better person."
It didn't make her a better person, she was already among the best there is....
She will be missed in this world.
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/1
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