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by Setrepeoh on Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:04 am
All these taxes, (both federal and state), generate a big cache of money. Where does the money go? How often does this revenue get audited ? Who gets the money? It certainly isn't the people who pay it. What was it that Woodward's " Deep Throat" said in " All the President's Men" ? " Follow the money." If audits were done in every state I wonder how many politicians would soon lose their ardor against smokers.
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by libertarian99 on Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:40 pm
Judging by recent news that's come out about some of the politicians and their dalliances -- and it's probably just the tip of the iceberg -- a lot of the cig tax money probably goes towards chartering private airplanes to go on expensive trysts with secret mistresses in foreign countries. People in power often feel entitled to luxuries that most of us could never imagine feeling entitled to, such as visiting high-priced hookers on a regular basis at taxpayers' expense.

I'm sure we would all be shocked and appalled if we knew what the politicians were secretly using cig tax money for. Any time you see powerful people claiming moral superiority as an excuse to take more of your money, there is a good chance they are using the money for something that is far worse than whatever you were planning to do with it.
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by dumpstermcnuggets on Thu Jul 09, 2009 3:44 pm
libertarian99 wrote:
Judging by recent news that's come out about some of the politicians and their dalliances -- and it's probably just the tip of the iceberg -- a lot of the cig tax money probably goes towards chartering private airplanes to go on expensive trysts with secret mistresses in foreign countries. People in power often feel entitled to luxuries that most of us could never imagine feeling entitled to, such as visiting high-priced hookers on a regular basis at taxpayers' expense.

I'm sure we would all be shocked and appalled if we knew what the politicians were secretly using cig tax money for. Any time you see powerful people claiming moral superiority as an excuse to take more of your money, there is a good chance they are using the money for something that is far worse than whatever you were planning to do with it.


I wouldn't be surprised if politicians secretly did that behind the scenes, where they would be very hard to detect, if ever. And as much as I respect Mark Sanford's(South Carolina governor) libertarian leanings and many of his other positions, I can see why he'd also want to travel to other parts of the world, such as Argentina(and even had a love affair while there!).

Back to the subject, politicians who always excessively target raising cigarette taxes are why I avoid buying cigarettes within Chicago or Cook(and which I nickname it 'Crook' County) County, despite that I live in Chicago. Why should I reward government units that are stupid enough to encourage excessive cigarette smuggling, and steal income from smokers(many who have very low income, and which Chicago and Cook County's high cigarette taxes are the most regressive towards) in the process?
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by libertarian99 on Thu Jul 09, 2009 6:28 pm
dumpstermcnuggets wrote:
Back to the subject, politicians who always excessively target raising cigarette taxes are why I avoid buying cigarettes within Chicago or Cook(and which I nickname it 'Crook' County) County, despite that I live in Chicago. Why should I reward government units that are stupid enough to encourage excessive cigarette smuggling, and steal income from smokers(many who have very low income, and which Chicago and Cook County's high cigarette taxes are the most regressive towards) in the process?
Well, you can always join the underground grow-your-own insurgency. That's what some of us are doing. No one really owns tobacco, as far as taxing and controlling the plant itself. The plant is part of nature and all it needs are dirt, water and sunlight to thwart any plans the government has for its ultimate demise.

When you think about it, the tobacco plant is smart as hell. It gives us something we enjoy, and in return we fight anyone who tries to destroy it. Plants are always forming relationships like this in nature. If you are rooted and can't run away or fight back, mutually beneficial associations make all the difference between survival and extinction.
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by crackerjack on Sat Sep 19, 2009 10:35 am
libertarian99 wrote:

When you think about it, the tobacco plant is smart as hell. It gives us something we enjoy, and in return we fight anyone who tries to destroy it. Plants are always forming relationships like this in nature. If you are rooted and can't run away or fight back, mutually beneficial associations make all the difference between survival and extinction.



Well not to rain on your parade or anything but....the nicotine in tobacco is a natural deference mechanism to prevent animals from eating the plant. Smoking a plant is not a natural way of consuming it so nature has no defense for this but if tobacco leaves are eaten they can kill.
Some insects are immune to the nicotine poisoning but I don't think any herbivores are.

Anyway my point is that the plant is trying to say " Leave me alone" not "hey, smoke me"
Wink
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by libertarian99 on Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:39 pm
crackerjack wrote:
Well not to rain on your parade or anything but....the nicotine in tobacco is a natural deference mechanism to prevent animals from eating the plant. Smoking a plant is not a natural way of consuming it so nature has no defense for this but if tobacco leaves are eaten they can kill.
Some insects are immune to the nicotine poisoning but I don't think any herbivores are.

Anyway my point is that the plant is trying to say " Leave me alone" not "hey, smoke me"
Wink
Evolution depends largely on chance and accident. Nevertheless, plants are fascinating in their abilty to survive, despite their limited mobility. There is so much intelligence built in.

For example, I tried to move a Red Rambler rosebush because I was tired of the thorny branches hanging over my sidewalk and snagging my clothes. I dug it up, but couldn't get the whole root system out.

No problem. I thought the roots would die and decompose in the ground since they had no source of light. They did not. Instead, the roots determined which way was up, even without a light source. They then went to work forming a new stem that emerged from the ground and sprouted brand new leaves to catch the sunlight.

How did a root buried in the darkness have the intelligence to figure out it had lost other components of the plant that were necessary for survival, and then regenerate the missing parts, using nothing but root cells? I am fascinated by this kind of intelligence in plants.

If your finger accidentally got cut off, could it grow a whole new body to replace the one it lost? Think about it.

I know tobacco plants didn't create nicotine deliberately for people to smoke, but neither did they create it deliberately to kill bugs. It was probably just dumb luck that turned out to be a smart survival strategy and therefore the tobacco plants passed it on to the next generation.
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