The masses are either furious about the new tax on cigarettes or roll your own tobacco, or gloating and going Hoo! Hoo! It isn’t going to work in the end and we have not learned from the experience of Canada, among others. That northern neighbor in the early 90’s upped their federal tobacco tax over 50% and revenues began to decline because everybody began buying cigarettes off the back of trucks or otherwise on the black market. Five years later the Canadians lowered the tax 50%, legitimate smoking business became more healthy and revenues got healthy too. What will happen here when this Golden Egg is laid and after a brief rise in revenues and a minimal amount of people who quit smoking:
1. Tobacco companies will still make their money.
2. Smokers will continue to find money to smoke.
3. A tobacco black market will develop sucking revenues and causing a crime problem.
In the meantime smokers will be highly inconvenienced but not stopped. So much for the Great American Smokeout.
The doctor has given me some little pink pills for depression. Now that I have them I will be able to diet and lose weight, exercise, sing better, decline my cigarettes (decline…?) and brotherhood will burst out all over the world. This will be my cure for depression. Which we hope will work.
It was a fine week for groceries as I mostly needed red meat and coffee. The fine superstore I went to had specials and reductions on several coffees as well as whole pork loin and other bloody specimens. I have saved maximal hero money so that I can order pipes from Germany and China.
If you’ve lost face in the ‘hood or you think the President is going to ban guns, it’s ok to shoot somebody? In the past couple weeks we have had Alabama, California police x 2, a nursing home in North Carolina, Binghampton, New York and police officers in Pittsburgh. And all the kids in one family in Washington state. Because Mom was leaving Dad for another man. What is this stuff about multiple homicides? It is not nice and ‘multiple homicides’ is just a sad phrase for – a bunch of innocent people who were walking around a couple minutes ago are now dead with bloody holes, and their wives and husbands and kids and mothers and fathers are going to be missing them. There are banner headlines flying: “Are we becoming inured to mass killings?” Not me, it’s disgusting, wasteful and a tragedy. I think that Columbine, the original shocker, taught us that it could be done and all you have to do is pick an excuse and be willing to take the consequences. Maybe some of those idiots and crazies need some of those pink pills of mine. Ta!
