I haven't really discussed any sort of politics on here. There's a reason for that though. My entire idea here is laughter and somewhat of a means of catharsis for me. I skirt around the idea of talking about politics, policy, and Washington here because it's a touchy subject and I feel I'm not equipped to write about it without horrendously offending people into never coming back here, and frankly I don't have enough notoriety to let that happen.
I think that so far I've been pretty ambiguous as to what my political affiliation is, but let it be known that officially I label myself as an independent with liberal leanings, which to the rest of the world would equal democrat. I never come out and say democrat because I feel that would pigeon hole me into one party. Even though I strongly disagree with the republican party ninety percent of the time, there's still that ten percent where I do swing to the right, thus I am not a devout democrat and therefore label myself independent.
I am extremely liberal though. Chances are when I finally decide to register to vote I'll be registering as a democrat, and if that's the case, what the hell am I saying? I must have party commitment problems. I need a like party/member marriage consoling or something. Where's Dr. Phil for that huh?
Shit, sorry, I digress.
On this note of political affiliation, I support Barock Obama. Had I been able to vote in last year's election it would've been for him. Sadly, I didn't turn 18 until May of 2009, so that was one vote he didn't get (not that he needed it).
I've agreed with everything he's done in office so far. I do believe he will be the one to guide us out of the recession, and well as improve living quality for everyone, and aid in the restoration of our environment. He was the perfect choice for the country to remodel itself in the eyes of the world post-Bush so every other country doesn't think we're this fat, impotent, fear obsessed, culturally vapid, terror-mongering, Muslim-hating statehood of idiots.
But with this he's crazy.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act goes into effect today. The law now gives the FDA the power to regulate the tobacco industry. The FDA is setting out to, at least in their mind make it so no one but the scum of society smokes cigarettes. The first actions under the new law is to make warning labels cover fifty percent of a tobacco package, completely end advertising of tobacco to minors, and regulate what is in a tobacco product, which effective today, means no more "flavored" cigarettes, including clove cigarettes.
Remember that whole 'I'm a democrat blah blah' speech I gave earlier? This is that ten percent of the time where I'm right winged. I believe this is the government exercising too much control regulating how Americans live their lives.
The law's goal seems to be keeping tobacco out of the hands of young people. I'm all for that. Kids shouldn't smoke, hell, no one should smoke really.
Just we do anyway.
Why we do is a tricky subject. Either because it relaxes us, makes us look awesome, or the people who smoke strictly because it's bad, as well as a variety of other reasons.
Overall the people who do smoke do it because it makes them happy. Remember the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that our God-given unalienable rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? This is happiness for some people. I doubt someone would smoke for any other reason besides the fact that it makes them happy. There would be no point in jumping through these the back-asswards hoops and stigmas American society has set up for smokers to do it unless it made them happy.
Abolishing advertising to minors seems a little redundant to me. Cigarette companies don't advertise to kids. Cigarette companies hardly have a place to advertise in the first place. You don't see cigarettes on television, in commercials, movies, videogames, internet ads, children's books, or in most major magazines. That happened almost twenty years ago when I was a kid. We all joked about how there was a joint funeral for the Malboro Man and Joe Camel remember? I haven't seen an ad for cigarettes in a magazine other than Playboy (and what minor is allowed to read that?), and no one smokes in movies since John McClane. There is no more cigarette advertising to begin with, so why bother with this in the law? There is no purpose, it's just there to drill in a fact.
I have had a problem with how the United States government handles smoking with minors forever now. I think I have perfect reason to complain, as I am a product of that system and the kids I've grown up with are the results of it just like me. I've seen where it works and where it fails, and its success isn't enough to make up for the failures.
At the age of six American children are exposed to the Drug Abuse Resistance and Education, or DARE. Our young minds get bombarded with anti-drug-smoking-drinking facts and propaganda through merchandising and classroom lectures. Police officers come into the classroom and tell kids that smoking a single cigarette will eventually kill you and rape your mother. They make first graders afraid and scared in order to coerce them into making drug-free pledges so they can report the program works.
DARE has a constant presence in elementary schools until the sixth grade. From here the program is dropped completely and we're left on our own. No further education, just you, your friends, that fucking DARE pencil that never sharpened evenly, and a bullshit drug-free oath you took in first grade. You end up becoming so sickened and annoyed with everything you've been told that you decide to pick up a cigarette and see what the hype was all about. You smoke it, your friends smoke it, and there, now you're a regular smoker, the pariah of health and every single hour of DARE education is thrown out the window.
Maybe a reform in education is in order instead of blaming it on the tobacco industry and everything else under the sun. Maybe the reason we teach DARE to from first to fifth grade is because those kids are more malleable and more easily influenced than older kids. They're easier to get an immediate response from so we can claim the program works. Younger children don't question and won't question things older ones will, so it makes life a whole lot easier to teach when it's a second grader who picks his nose and rubs it on the carpet, rather than the seventh grader who may ask you the horribly difficult yet important question of 'what the immediate effects of smoking will do to me'. Kids who start smoking, at least in my experience have done it for one of two reasons; One, they get sick of the spin that is consistently put on smoking and decide to use their developing minds to try it for themselves, or two, they see older kids smoking, and at a time (sixth, seventh, up to high school) where an adolescent friends become more than just ones in their grade, but become more immersed in other age groups and people, they decide to try it too.
An educational reform wouldn't hurt new generations of kids. Bump up the drugs are bad speech for a few years instead of killing it when kids arguably need to hear it the most. Let first graders be first graders and not worry about shit that doesn't concern them yet. Let them bathe in their own ignorance and innocence for once. That way by the time children are actually confronted with the choice of smoking, they'll be taught the education and won't be sick of it, and therefor, won't decide to reject it. You could save many more potential smokers, drug users, and drinkers that way if you utilized DARE in those years where they would be the most effective.
Of course, some kids are going to smoke anyway because it all goes back to the liberty of being able to do it, and the endless pursuit of happiness.
This all sounds like babble from a voracious smoker doesn't it? Truth be told I do smoke, but not a lot. Hell, I probably smoke less than the president does. I chose not to smoke until earlier this year. It wasn't to look cool, or to do something that was bad or anything, it was simply because I enjoyed it. I lived 18 years of my life under not smoking and realized I should try it before I condemn it. I don't smoke cigarettes though. I prefer pipe tobacco. I smoke a wood pipe as well as Black & Milds about four times a week, typically on the weekends. I'm not a heavy smoker, or even a pro-smoker. I'm simply pro-happiness, which is what this boils down to in my mind.
This pretty much started off as a eulogy to the clove cigarettes I'm going to miss so much. Why the FDA chose to ban cloves is a different story for a different day though.
I wasn't funny tonight. I was just pissed. This probably isn't me at my best, but again, this is catharsis.
Quote Dr. Denis Leary, "This is your captain speaking, um, light 'em up! Because we're going down."
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