Random thoughts, late at night: Where are we going, and what's with the handbasket?

Damn... I hate insomnia...

Anyway... I had mentioned the stupidity of the sin tax on cigarettes. Allow me to steer this ole' girl into some treacherous waters, and ramble on for a bit...

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Ok. Now, I'll never claim that tobacco is "healthy", or "safe", or any such nonsense. I think there've been enough studies and experiments to prove that nicotine (not to mention all the other chemicals in cigarette smoke) is a poison. I get that. I also tend to believe that, in a free society, adults should be allowed to do whatever they wish within certain limits*.

The joke our society has become says otherwise. Or rather, takes "certain limits" and defines them as "anything we wish".

We are rapidly approaching the level of Demolition Man. For those not familiar, let me quote the relevant exchange. Went something lilke this:

-You, get me a Marlboro.
-Yes, of course.
-What's a Marlboro?
-It's a cigarette. Any cigarette.
-Smoking is not good for you.
-Anything not good for you is bad
-Hence, illegal. Alcohol, caffeine,
contact sports, meat--
-Are you shitting me?

Yes, folks: that's where we're heading. Don't believe me? How many of you remember wearing a bicycle helmet as a kid?

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But what does this have to do with taxes? Well, that's a fun one.

See, Wisconsin has been using a "sin tax" on tobacco for awhile now. It was never all that big, and it was always described as "an attempt to make it too expensive to smoke".

Of course, what they failed to mention is that nicotine is one of the most addictive chemicals we've got. And despite their claims ("we want to reduce smoking"), every year they figure on the take from the sin tax as part of the budget.

Yes, you read that right: they project what their "take" on that tax will be (remember, the one that's supposed to reduce use of the product?), and figure that amount into the budget. Anybody see a problem?

And isn't it funny how Wisconsin's budget is #11 in deficit, with a 2.3 billion shortfall.

Want another joke in there? Anybody remember the tobacco lawsuits? Guess where all THAT money went? Here in WI, it was used to balance the budget... temporarily...

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Sorry about the rant, there. It's late, I'm probably not very coherant. But this is getting worse and worse. And I keep asking myself, "Where IS the breaking point?".

No, I'm not suggesting that we should all start putting on web gear and shooting police and politicians. But the nation as a whole DOES have a point where violence will start up. How far away from that point are we?

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And for those saying "we've passed that point, and should start hangin' folks now!": the next "civil war" in this nation is going to make the previous one look like a pick-up game of paintball. It's not gonna be "you'n's over thar, and usn's over heah". It's going to be a wild ride of "everybody against everybody", with the fate of the nation in the balance. Watch the end scene of Reservoir Dogs: that's the next American Civil War in microcosm.

So think of hitting the aforementioned paintball field, with several hundred of your closest friends. The field is the city you live in. Each and every one of the players has a different goal to achieve to "win". And each is completely convinced that there can be only one winner. Sounds like it'll be a nice clean game, doesn't it?

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Hey, while all the "manly men" are off fighting each-other, how about we take a minute and think about the future. No, not the "Want to help me eliminate Ed?" future of tomorrow, but the "What do we replace the current system and critters with?" future.

I've heard many plans of how to take over the government, overthrow them, run them out on rails, and (my favorite) dress them as clowns and use them as live fire targets. Great: "we" somehow manage to remove these folks and their bloated system. What do we replace it with?

We can try using the Constitution: it was goo for a couple hundred years, before a reset was needed. Right?

Take a look at the US Code sometime. Not in-depth, just a glance at how much is there. Is it ALL junk, that needs to be discarded?

No? Then who decides what to keep and what to toss?

Oh... while we're playing that game, remember that we DO have enemies, and there WILL be people here in the states that are gonna try and steer us back to the nanny state we're in. How much time do we have to get everything figured out and in place, before the Madagascar Expeditionary Force decide to invade?

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Sorry 'bout the rambling. I got to thinking, and that's NEVER a good thing...


* "certain limits" means direct impact on another.

Filler, but funny...

Just read some of the obituaries from Car and Driver magazine. Some choice snippits:

Rest in Peace

HUMAN MEMORY
After a famously long career spanning more than 200,000 years, human memory died this month. For millennia, memory had been considered an invaluable evolutionary tool, preventing, as it did, Homo sapiens from committing the same stupid mistakes eight to 10 times in a row in front of their spouses. Memory’s slow and sad decline was first noticed when U.S. drivers could no longer remember when to use fog lights and thus left them on always. In the summer of 2008, memory suffered a second—and fatal—blow when North Americans, in the space of 120 days, could no longer recall $4-per-gallon fuel and went back to buying pickup trucks for style’s sake.

Human memory is survived by knee-jerk reactionaries and blowhard radio talk-show hosts, who have promised to fill in.

In Passing

RENTAL-CAR ABUSE
A national survey conducted by Hertz, National, Alamo, Dollar, and other rental agencies revealed the heretofore unannounced death of gratuitous rental-car abuse by white males under the age of 30.

“We were shocked when we analyzed the data,” said a Hertz spokesman. “But it’s increasingly clear that young men just aren’t putting the transmission into reverse at 50 mph, aren’t redlining engines for very much longer than five minutes at a time, and aren’t using the headliner as a napkin anymore.”
The rental community had previously assumed that abuse could be kept moderately healthy by automotive journalists. In lieu of flowers, friends of rental-car abuse are asked to make donations to the Aamco family.

Go to the link, and read the rest.
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I promise there will be more posts soon: life caught me this past couple weeks. Maybe Sly will return with news about how his oldest son has been grounded until after the end of the world...