Another pissed off libertarian.

If you’ve ever broached the topic of politics with me in-person, you know that I consider myself a socially liberal, fiscally conservative libertarian. I love my freedoms and I love my country, but I am vehemently against the roaring tidal wave of socialism that is threatening to drown us. However, instead of going off on a tangent about this new health care plan like everyone else, I want to bring some attention to more “government knows best” behavior.

00c70ye0In late June, Obama signed a piece of legislation that gave the FDA new power to regulate tobacco marketing and sales. This was called the “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.” This little charmer, among other things, prohibits the sale of flavored tobacco products. It also prohibits certain marketing phrases to be used and requires warning labels to occupy at least 60% of the packaging. (More here: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm168412.htm )

Now… let me first say that I am not a “smoker” as traditional cigarettes make me rather queasy, and I work hard to keep myself fit and healthy. I do, however, enjoy clove cigarettes once in a while, especially for smoking fetish sessions and videos. I also own a very beautiful Egyptian hookah that is regularly shared at my house with friends. For those of you who are unfamiliar with hookahs, it is a type of water pipe that uses flavored tobacco treated with honey, and it a very important part of Middle Eastern culture. Both of these pleasures will be impossible for me to purchase as of the end of this month, as they fall under the new act’s prohibited items.

I actually voted against the Indoor Smoking Ban in Columbus, although I do feel that part of our freedoms mean that we should be entitled to clean air in our eating and living environments. However, this new socialistic cudgel wielded by the FDA is scary. Apparently, we Americans are too stupid to know better, so our awesome government has to step up and protect us. The rationalization behind much of this act is that these flavored tobacco products are “widely considered appealing to first-time smokers, especially youths.” (Funny, I couldn’t find a single statistic that suggests this to be true.) So… parents must be so inept in this modern age that they can’t combat the candy aisle, right? Oh.. that’s right, they can’t. Childhood obesity is in record-breaking numbers.

Here are the current annual causes of death:

Tobacco 435,0001
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity 365,0001
Alcohol 85,000 1
Microbial Agents 75,0001
Toxic Agents 55,0001
Motor Vehicle Crashes 26,3471
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs 32,0002
Suicide 30,6223
Incidents Involving Firearms 29,0001
Homicide 20,3084
Sexual Behaviors 20,0001
All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect 17,0001, 5
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin 7,6006
Marijuana 07

Well, gee. If tobacco causes all those deaths, why keep it legal at all? Surely candy-flavors only kill 10%! Why are sugar and butter still legal if poor diet and inactivity are close behind? Hell… let’s bring back the prohibition too! I say that we should outlaw McDonald’s– since the #1 contributing factor to the immense rise of health care costs is our country’s ever-growing fatness!

I think we should just say “to hell with our freedoms” and tear up the constitution and it’s apparently meaningless bill of rights. I’m sure Obama will love to write us another one that tells us all what’s best for us! And I’ll just keep forking over my taxes to pay for other people’s stupidity with a placid smile on my face.

If you haven’t already seen V for Vendetta, then you need to remedy that.

PS: I bought 5 cases of cloves to pack away in the freezer, and felt both indignant and irritated that my ice cream will have to be displaced by my government’s idiocy. Ice cream for idiocy. Lovely.

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