pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
 ·Comcast
| reply to manfmmd
Re: Misappropriation of Funds
said by manfmmd  :I thought that the Tobacco Settlement money was supposed to go towards educating kids about the hazards of smoking. The scene in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in which the U.N. responds to Dr. Evil's threat to use a nuclear weapon unless he is paid $1 million describes this scenario perfectly:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
This tobacco settlement was FREE MONEY for the states. You didn't really think it was going to be spent responsibly did you? 
Besides, if the states spent money to stop kids from smoking, then there would be much less tobacco tax revenues coming from those kids in the future. The states want to have their cake and eat it too in that they want the tax money from cigarette sales but they don't want to deal with the health costs related to smoking. If they truly cared about peoples' health, they would ban smoking (only we tried that with alcohol and drugs and saw how well those went).
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Rove / Rumsfeld 2008! |
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manfmmd
Premium
join:2003-01-14
Earth
clubs:
| No kidding, if smoking is "that bad", ban it entirely. I KNEW that the states would not use the money appropriately, they misappropriate their general tax revenue, IMHO, so this is no suprise.
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huh? | AIM |
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rawgerz
In Debt we trust
Premium
join:2004-10-03
Grove City, PA
 ·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| said by manfmmd :No kidding, if smoking is "that bad", ban it entirely. I KNEW that the states would not use the money appropriately, they misappropriate their general tax revenue, IMHO, so this is no suprise. Are YOU kidding??! Ban smoking?? It's taxed more than beer!
California is proposing they raise taxes again $2.50 on a pack.. That's estimated to produce a revenue of 2 BILLION. Cigarettes are just another way of getting even more money.. They might say "Oh well higher prices keep kids from smoking" when in REALITY it's because they KNOW there's always going to be smokers, so it's addiction money
If kids want to smoke THEY'LL SMOKE! It doesn't matter how many retarded ads they put on TV, there's always someones parent will buy them for them or other ways. The point of it is the buzz, at least for most.
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"Hows your French toast?" "Smelly and ungrateful, but this AMERICAN toast is great!" |
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Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO
| reply to manfmmd
Are you honestly implying that you do not think smoking is "THAT bad"? I have never heard anyone make a positive statement about smoking like.. "Wow, its a good thing I'm a smoker." Never heard a physician tell a patient, "You should take up smoking, that will take care of that."
We live in what should be a free society. If idiots know the risk of smoking, excessive drinking, or taking drugs and continue to do so that is their choice. In the same sense, their choices and the harm they cause should not be forced upon society. Banning it altogether would be wrong, as they should have the choice to do it in places that won't effect those that do not want to involuntarily be a part of it.
As far as I am concerned, make it all privately legal and let the the process of natural selection take it's course. |
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LinuxJunkie
join:2005-01-19
Cyberspace | Smoking's good for you! I've finely coated my lungs in tar so I will be immune to the impending nuclear fallout. |
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Techman21
join:2005-04-14
Richmond, VA
| reply to Skippy25
So second hand smoke is, what, a choice?
And get me if I'm wrong, natural selection has never been proven. Nor has Darwin's theory of evolution been proven either. All there is are a bunch of bones that supposedly are supposed to link each animal species together like a gigantic running puzzle. Like a ca gillion different happenstances out of randomness just happened to choose each specific species to survive.
I think people forget about that. And no, I don't agree with the other thing the school is trying to pass off atm. If you actually read into it, it is not "Creationism" its something totally different.
But anyways, how many of you actually are in VA? If you aren't what are you babbling about. Go complain to your own state. I live in Tobacco farm area, there is nothing here. The small towns that they do have a basically all but dead and the broadband they do have is half affordable to the people who live in the area. The rest all use dial up, so quit your whining.
And no, I don't think its a good use of Tax payer money, since when has the gov.'t ever found good uses for money? Republican or Democrat. Both have their issues with finances. The right likes to create money and spend, the left likes to spend. Although from seeing my state Allen liked to save, not spend, and raise taxes at the same time. Interesting. Va atm has a huge surplus that could have been used to fix the roads or some other issue within the state. But our genius of a governor was scare of some crazy financial downfall, even though the economy is slowly rising back up. Politics aside, our gov.'t just sucks at spending money. They've rather spend it on the people that finance their campaigns and until voters understand this and vote different parties or whomever seems better at doing what the voter wants then you'll never see a change.
The only thing that hurts an elected official more than money, is that vote. Vote for some one else and get a friend as well, then well, figure out the rest. |
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