Amerika 2009 with Apologies to Martin Niemoller
First they came for the heroin and crack addicts and I didn't speak up because I don't use heroin or crack.
Then they came for the smokers and chewers and I didn't speak up because those are nasty habits.
Then they came for heavy drinkers and I didn't speak up because speakeasies sounded fun.
Then they came for people who cook with trans fats and I didn't speak up because I quit those years ago.
Then they came for the overweight and I didn't speak up because I was too winded from the treadmill.
Then they came for me and they had to pry my bacon from my cold dead fingers.
Obama pledges to quickly sign anti-smoking bill
To hell with that, I'm speaking up.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Your life, your liberty and your pursuit of happiness are your own and the relative value you place on each are your business, not mine. For myself, I'll take more life rather than pursue happiness with tobacco. But ultimately, my liberty to make that decision is exactly the same and in the same measure as your liberty to make the opposite one. Liberty doesn't mean the liberty to make the choices someone else thinks are right for us. Real freedom means having the freedom to make bad decisions. It's past time to really roll back the nanny state and get government off our backs, out of our pocketbooks, and out of our bedrooms.
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3 comments
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3 comments
1 year and 1 month ago
At great risk of the Dept. of Homeland Security & the Missouri Safety Commission adding another item to my «extreme right wing terrorist» file I will speak out also.
Many moons ago, when private industry (restaurants and bars) started partitioning off areas for smokers and non-smokers, a friend and I were discussing this. She was upset about this arrangement and told me that she had a constitutional right to smoke (pursuit of happiness). I retorted that I had a constitutional right to live (the doctors have told me to stay completely away from cigarette smoke or it will kill me) and the establishment owners (private enterprise) have a constitutional right to liberty (they have the freedom of choice to seat smokers and non-smokers separately if they wish). She also had that same constitutional right to liberty (in that she had the freedom to go elsewhere to eat & drink).
I'm very sorry to relate that she no longer has these freedoms as her pursuit of happiness interfered with her pursuit of life. Obviously I am still living as evidenced by this comment. However, we were both right in some respects – private industry should be able to regulate such matters, but the government (federal in particular) should not.
Our Founding Fathers and our current soldiers (all inclusive) fought and died to defend the principals that make this country great. All the while (Nancy, Harry, and their Chief Executive Puppet) are gravely infringing on our constitutional freedoms. They are devastating private industry (Insurance Companies, Banks, the Auto Industry, and now (probably America's oldest industry) Tobacco. They are trampling the citizen's freedom of choice. They are forcing the states to go along with their antics, as they control the purse strings.
And we, who feel we can only hold «peaceful mock tea-parties» in parks across the land, are labeled «possible terrorists». Maybe they will round us up and send us to
Bermuda where we can be loya9.l subjects to the real Royalty (to whom our «King» will not bow).
1 year and 1 month ago
I recommend buying lots of those «decorative» white tobacco seeds from any one of a number of sources online, planting them, and seeing what happens. I suspect one might have a nice cash crop there...
R
1 year and 1 month ago
Whoops - R- Hope your not from Missouri or you just hit both lsts - Big Brother is watching you - Oh well, I hear Bermuda is beautiful.
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