The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 14)

/p> p> One thing this great article does not mention is that the Doctor and the Lawyer will never have to worry about the consequences of their actions because they are vested in the Federal Healthcare system and don't have to go on Medicare ever. Typical double standard from the Dems. One standard for the plebs and one for them. br> -- Tom McGonnell br> Alexandria Virginia /p> p> CLOVE, BUT NO CIGAR br> Re: Elizabeth Nolan Brown's Clove Encounters : /p>

"Clove Encounters" overlooks the complicity of one Indonesian tobacco giant in current efforts to ban Bad Things That Taste Good, from patisserie to cigarettes. Only Djarum has agreed to pay into the tobacco settlement state attorneys won a decade ago, despite the fact that their products did not figure in the case.

By joining the state's attorney's tax-milking cabal, Djarum has won a de facto monopoly in the U.S., which explains Elizabeth Nolan Brown's equation of their epoynmous product "With its dark wrapper and strong, peculiar -- and, to many, sickening -- smell, it."

As a non-vampire novel reading Sampoerna smoker who thinks of Swiss country folk when Goths are mentioned, I suggest Madame Brown broaden her olfactory horizons by sojourning to Sumatra or Sanur. She will find that just as the cooling effect of menthol from domestic mint has improved even mild Virginia bright leaf for centuries, clove's active ingredient, eugenol, has been smoothing over the rough edges of strong tropical tobacco ever since Nicotina Rustica was introduced into the Indo-Pacific by Magellan's fleet.

topics:
Taxes, Education, Trade, Business, Medicaid, Religion, Islam, Abortion, Environment, Global Warming, Books, Movies, Constitution, Law, Iraq, NATO, Africa, Alaska, Medicare