OK, just inked my absentee ballot and sealed up the sucker — now, off to the polling place over at the Baptist Church to drop it off. Procrastination, thy name is “Okie”!

My SCBA and Article6blog blogging buddy Lowell Brown has an informative voting guide here. About the only item that Lowell and I disagree on is Proposition 86, which he supports and I don’t, really don’t — adamantly don’t! I left this comment on his blog:

Gotta agree with Patrick on 86. Even Dennis Prager understands that the anti-smoking lobby has waged a war to demonize tobacco and the anti-scientific wave against second-hand smoke reminds of nothing as much as that promoting the psudo-science in support of Global Warming.

I don’t smoke cigarettes (although my wife is a life-long smoker), but I do appreciate a fine cigar once in a blue moon. This is an unfair tax on a legal product. I can’t wait for the wailing and gnashing of teeth when these zealots start going after non-tobacco pleasures and vices — and you know they will!

Patrick, a commenter before me left this one:

Yes on 86????? C’mon Lowell. You can’t be that silly. 86 is petty. It will create a huge black market. It taxes other tobacco – cigar and pipe – along with cigarettes, to the point of putting merchants out of business. If you think taxing legal businesses out of business is a smart public policy, vote for 86.

Raising cigarette prices by an additional $26 per carton will do nothing but give the Bloods and Crips an additional revenue stream, which will result in the high taxes that are being collected on tobacco products now, not being collected at all. Gotta sell the suckers and collect the tax before you can spend the tax! No Duh!

I think that what really yanks my crank on this one is that a group can be targeted, demonized and then taxed and regulated into obscurity. In CA it’s smokers, in NYC it’s trans fats. On the 23rd of this month, Santa Monica will join Chatsworth and other municipalities by the implementation of one of the most draconian anti-smoking ordinances out there. As one of our local rags remarked in a special section “Smoking in Santa Monica for Dummies”, to be safe, you should only smoke in the alleys, way back near the dumpsters. But, what can you expect from the “People’s Republic”?

Our enlightened burg has a pro-marijuana measure on the ballot, which if passed will make possession and use of small amounts of weed the LOWEST priority of the SMPD. I can’t really argue against that either, as there are a lot more important things for our boys in blue (black?) to do here rather than roust the pot-heads. But, the likely cost to the city of litigation in defense of this measure caused it to get my no vote. Still, the irony is not lost on this ol’ Okie: If this passes, you can more easily light up a big-fat dubie than a Salem Light. Just don’t fire up a big blunt, as that is wrapped in tobacco!

Geez — this rant was unexpected. Guess I just bristle a bit when we start voting to take away individual liberties, or tax them out of existence. Wasn’t that part of what the Boston Tea Party was all about? Talk about the tyranny of the majority. Maybe we should start taxing Botox, Bikini Waxes and Porn — that’d teach ‘em!

Still — Vote. Republican. Today. That’s the meat & potatoes of this election — Everything else is gravy. (db)

Technorati Tags: Proposition 86, Anti-Smoking Lobby, Marijuana in Santa Monica

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 at 10:52 am and is filed under Decision '06, Nutty CA Politics, Santa Monica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

Recently Posted:

• Two More Pro-Global-Warming Scientists Become Sceptics — Is Hell Freezing Over Yet?
• Merry Christmas Y’All — 2011!
• Pearl Harbor Day — the USS Oklahoma — a Post Redux “x” Five
• More Climategate 2.0 Shenanigans . . . What Else Would We Expect?
• Concrete, Sustainability & The EPA — A Nasty, Expensive Mix — Oh, Ya Betcha!
• Climategate 2.0 Emails – Real & Spectacular?
• Chemtrail Of The Day
• Giving Thanks to Our Veterans On This Special Day
• Victor Davis Hanson On The Upcoming Presidential Election
• SEIU Siphons ‘Dues’ From Michigan Medicaid Payments