There’s a letter to the editor in today’s Boston Herald (again, not online) from some guy about smoking laws in Massachusetts. He says that tobacco should be sold like alcohol and guns: only in special stores regulated by the government. (In Massachusetts, beer, wine, and hard liquor are only sold in privately-owned “package” stores, unlike most states where beer and wine are sold everywhere and hard liquor in state-owned stores.)
This guy complains that it’s still too easy for “young adults” (I assume he means kids under 18) to buy smokes. He then extols public smoking bans passed by several towns and a proposed statewide ban. He ends with the following statement:
I’m a smoker trying to quit. Legislators, please help me.
Doesn’t that say it all? This is the essence of the Nanny State. We’re too dumb, too weak, too lazy to take personal responsibility for our own actions. We need government to take care of all our needs, to prevent us from doing bad things. These are the same people who complain when they see a creche on public property because they’re too weak willed to turn away. Horrors, they might have religious thoughts!
It’s the same mindset that says, “Government, it’s okay to take all my money, as long as you provide for my every need: prescription drugs, health care, housing, and more.” Bill Clinton once said that we couldn’t have a middle class tax cut, because the people might not spend it correctly. We need the elites to tell us how to manage our lives. Take away our freedom of speech so those nasty politicians won’t interrupt our sitcoms with mud-slinging ads before elections. And so we turn everything over to them, including decisions on life and death, on what makes a family, on what is moral and what is not.
It’s funny to watch the ACLU and its clones bleat about the loss of individual rights due to laws designed to fight terrorism, even while the same liberal ideology turns over every other right without complaint.
Maybe with this year’s tax refunds, the government can distribute pacifiers to all citizens. Nanny, take care of us.
I think some of these people need to grow up. All I can say is WAAAAA, where is my nanny.
“I’m a smoker trying to quit. Legislators, please help me.”
Sheesh. If this guy wants to quit, he should…well…QUIT. (And, please God, shut the bleep UP about it once he’s accomplished this.)
But if he’s looking for the Legislature to Do Something like ban tobacco sales in the Great Commonwealth o’ Massachusetts, he’s living in a—forgive me—pipe dream.
You know how much tax revenue Massachusetts would lose by banning tobacco sales? Ha!
It ain’t gonna happen. Bleepin’ hypocrites.
And now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a Te Amo nearby with my name on it.
Right on, Kelly. I meant to mention in my post that I was smoking a “Dos Hombres” cigar* that my nephew gave me for Christmas.
* – house brand of the famous “Two Guys” smoke shop in southern New Hampshire.