-=> Quoting Charles Murray to Sondra Ball <=-
 CM> more people are kiiled driving cars
 Actually, that is probably NOT true. According to "Information Please" only
 forty-two thousand people died in automobile accidents in 1993. (That is
 down since 1986. I wonder how much that decrease is as a result of enforcing
 seatbelt laws?) It is estimated that fifty thousand die each year of
 tobacco-related illnesses. The tobacco-related deaths are on the rise and
 the automobile deaths are on the decrease, what do you suppose that means,
 Charles?
 BTW, according to the same source, sixty-eight percent of all automobile
 accidents are caused by _improper_driving_. So much for "personal
 responsibilty." I wonder how high it would be if there were no regulations
 such as driver testing and licensing of drivers and vehicles?
 
 CM> I am a smoker why don't you ban my cigarettes if you wish to
 CM> be my parent and control my life style.
 It always intrigues me when the issue goes from a "tax" to a "ban". No one
 that I know (except Sondra ) is advocating _banning_ cigarettes although
 _technically_ suicide IS against the law. Feel free to smoke as much as you
 want, Charles, as long as you don't interfere with _my_ rights with your
 secondhand smoke and _my_ taxes when you need additional tax-supported
 health care due to smoking.
 BTW, I _would_ support the elimination of ALL welfare benefits to _anyone_
 that smokes. I have NO sympathy for anyone that whines because their taxes
 are too high or their benefits are too low and continues to smoke. (I have
 the same lack of sympathy for someone that complains because gasoline taxes
 are too high and drives a gas hog automobile or a gas-guzzling yacht.)
 
 Just considering taxes of forty cents per pack for a pack-a-day smoker:
 
 $146 per year. Invested in a savings/CD account that pays four percent per
 year adds up to over one thousand eight hundred dollars in ten years.
 
 Condsidering the price of a pack of cigarettes at a dollar and a half? Same
 scenario? Over six thousand eight hundred dollars. Might as well be burning
 money. 
 Oh, and I mentioned once before that one of my biggest complaints about the
 government was how they _spent_ my tax dollars? A tobacco industry subsidy
 is just about the DUMBEST use of tax dollars I can think of.
 CM> But then if I were not your "responsibility" you could say
 CM> nothing.... LIBERALISM!
 
 Can I save this and quote you when/if you or any of your family members that
 are subjected to your second-hand smoke ask for welfare/Medicare/Medicaid
 for a tobacco-related illness?
 
 SB> of fair hearing. How would that system deal with the inevitable
 SB> disgruntled people whose views would end up not being the accepted law
     ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^
 SB> of the land? 
 
 Sounds a lot like someone I've "met" recently. 
 
 BTW, about a ban on tobacco... It would NOT break my heart if tobacco WAS
 banned. Along with alcohol, sugar, soda pop, ice cream, chocolate, 
sparagus,
 turnips and rutabagas. 
 
 Jim (an ex-smoker that required seventy-two staples in his chest and legs to
 convince him to quit)
--- Blue Wave v2.12
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