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Capitol Ideas
Abortion and Cigars
What kind of a country is it where abortion is subsidized and smoking is criminalized?
I went to a small anti-Planned Parenthood demonstration in downtown Washington, only four blocks north of the White House. That was on Monday. The next day I went to a dinner on Capitol Hill for the benefit of cigar smokers. New FDA regulations threaten to put cigar stores out of business, and recently New York’s Mayor Bloomberg declared that smoking outdoors is against the law. Cigars included.
What kind of a country is it where abortion is subsidized and smoking is criminalized? To say that it is a morally confused, mixed-up country is putting it mildly.
Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion chain in the country, received $363 million from the government in the last fiscal year, and performed 324,000 subsidized abortions. Recent undercover videos have documented that its employees in several states assured an undercover investigator posing as a pimp that the organization would secretly provide abortions to underage victims of human sex trafficking. So the event I attended, one of about 200 nationwide, was billed as a Vigil for Victims.
About a hundred people were present, a good many of them Catholics, and I admired every one of them because holding up an anti-abortion sign is the least fashionable of causes. The grim abortion fortress towered behind the demonstrators. Every Wednesday and Saturday, a friend of mine, Dick Retta, stands vigil outside Planned Parenthood, giving sidewalk counseling. He told me that maybe 25 young women come for abortions on any given day, and perhaps 80 percent of them are African-American.
Racial-discrimination or “disparate impact” lawsuits could easily be filed, but of course the liberals are in favor of abortion and this is an issue that the black leadership ignores. They are bought off by the feminists in Congress. One way to get everyone’s attention might be for a bunch of guys to dress up in Ku Klux Klan robes and attend a pro-abortion event holding up signs saying “We Support Abortion!” Come to think of it, though, that’s one appearance by the KKK that the media would not want to draw attention to. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, referred to the lower classes as “human weeds” and I guess she had blacks in mind, too.
The undercover videos were made by a group called “Live Action,” organized by a UCLA undergraduate named Lila Rose. A beautiful young woman, she was at the 16th Street event and gave an impassioned speech. She has recommended that abortions be performed in public. Then we would all see what’s involved. Those who work at Planned Parenthood and assist unmoved in these murderous events must be dead souls. Some do quit in disgust, ashamed to participate in such an abomination. I once went to a speech by Nat Hentoff (anti-abortion) at the American University here in D.C. Also present was ABC’s Peter Jennings. I asked Jennings if pictures of the aborted, cut-up body parts had ever been shown on television and he said no. They don’t want to discourage it.
Here’s one abortion issue that is never properly explained. We are told that easy access to abortion is a matter of “women’s reproductive rights,” or “reproductive freedom.” Nancy Pelosi uses that terminology, as do many feminists. Well, I support reproductive rights. But women already have them. There’s only one way to reproduce, and that is to have sex with a man. Involuntary sex is called rape and rape is illegal, so what’s the issue here? I guess what they don’t want to say that abortion is your basic back-up when contraception fails.
CIGAR NIGHT WAS HELD at the house of an old friend of mine named Howard Segermark. One of the original supply-siders, he once worked for Sen. Jesse Helms. A long table seated maybe 30 people. It’s the only dinner I have ever been to where people were smoking cigars before the meal, as well as after. And during, come to think of it. One of the main guests was Jeff Borysiewicz, the president and founder of the Corona Cigar Company, based in Florida. All I can say is that he knows an awful lot about cigars. Another guest was J. Glynn Loope, executive director of Cigar Rights of America.
I don’t smoke anything, so the detailed talk of which cigar tastes best, and the high cost of Cuban cigars went rather over my head. By the time we sat down to dinner the room was filled not just with smoke but with an air of euphoria. I am prepared to believe Jeff Borysiewicz when he says that cigars are a hobby, not a habit. And there’s a National Cancer Institute study showing that if you smoke two cigars a day or less, the overall mortality figures don’t differ from non-smokers.
The main threat to cigar smokers now comes from the FDA. Something called the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was passed in 2009, and it didn’t apply to cigars. But the FDA has the authority to expand the new regulations to cigars, and they are making noises that that might happen this year. All it will take is a notice in the Federal Register to extend the regulations to cigars and it will be death to the industry. It will restrict advertising and impose new warnings and labels on the packaging, with the goal of discouraging minors. “People want to look at the cigars,” said Borysiewicz, and the regulations will prevent that. f
One thing that interested me: Phillip Morris (Altria) supported the new regulations, even though they control 80 percent of the market — and more recently they have moved into the cigar business. I was reminded of President Obama’s boasting that G.E.’s Jeffrey Immelt was now on his side as a way of showing that “big business” was friendly to his agenda. But what Obama (and the country) needs is small business. Big businesses like General Electric — and Altria — are glad to embrace new regulations and taxes, because they have the lawyers and accountants to cope with them. Small businesses usually don’t.
Wlady tells me that “the only hope for cigar smoking is to revive feminist interest in the practice.” As it happened, one of the women smoking at Segermark’s was my wife. And there was one other, a tall lady called Ginger. Are cigars addictive? I asked my wife. “No,” she said, and I’m glad to hear it. She recommends cigars to any young woman who likes to be surrounded by lots of men. “I like the 15 to one odds,” she said.
About the Author
Tom Bethell is a senior editor of The American Spectator and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages, and most recently Questioning Einstein: Is Relativity Necessary? (2009).
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Appleby| 2.17.11 @ 7:27AM
I was involved in the anti-smoking crusade as an opponent, trying to save the Canadian Racing Industry from the Marching Mommies (and failing, worse luck) who shriek constantly and continually that if a baby sees a cigarette logo travelling 240 mph on a race track, that baby will DIE.
In a country that has NO bars to abortion, right up to the instant Junior takes his first breath, and relentlessly screams that a womans GottaRight to stab scissors into Juniors head and crush his brain, cut him up and flush him down the sewer without a backward glance, it has always struck me as proof Canadians are totally insane when their chief argument against smoking is that BABIES WILL DIE.
I always want to ask them, *With abortion as a sacrament in Canada, isnt that what you want?*
KyMouse| 2.17.11 @ 8:18AM
Good point, Appleby.
There are signs in restaurants and bars warning that drinking alcohol can be harmful to unborn babies. What, and abortion ISN'T?
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 1:22PM
I oppose both. I don't piss in smoker's faces as they eat, and I would appreciate being shown the same consideration. Abortion is simply an abomination.
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 1:23PM
sorry, smokers', not smoker's. Oops.
GavInTucson| 2.18.11 @ 1:32AM
I'll throw out a preemptive "thank you" for never pissing in my face. Dear God, your post was hilarious.
Imagine that for a moment... you're sitting there enjoying your meal, and some random person just walks up and starts pissing in your face. Looking at it from a third-person perspective, I don't know if I would laugh, cry, or both.
You, sir, just described what I can only imagine as the ultimate, quintessential, Monty Python Flying Circus skit. Whew, time for bed.
GavInTucson| 2.18.11 @ 1:44AM
On the other hand, if I found myself in a restaurant with a box jellyfish attached to my face, I'd be thanking you FOR pissing on my face. Just a thought.
GavInTucson| 2.18.11 @ 1:45AM
Don't laugh, it could happen.
Tomas| 2.17.11 @ 2:04PM
As a non-smoker, who also happens to be a musician that plays in venues that allow smoking, my only complaint is the fact that, for days after every gig, I, and my instrument, reek of cigarette smoke. That's the price I pay. So be it.
The regulation that really gets my panties in a wad is the restriction on smoking outdoors. Hello? It's called breeze, wind, air.
Cigarette butts? They get swept up, right along with everything else that gets swept up: dirt, package wrapper, bird poop, condoms... (you think people will stop sweeping sidewalks and storefronts when the cigarette butts vanish?).
Get over it, people.
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Alan Brooks| 2.17.11 @ 2:50PM
I wish LBJ had been aborted, the Texas Pig. If only Lillian Carter had aborted Jimmuh, we might have been spared the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 9-11, and many other things.
Stalin, Pol Pot-- all the above ought to have been aborted.
Negro X| 2.17.11 @ 5:43PM
And we all wish your mother would have had the good sense to institutuionalize you as a young age.
Alan Brooks| 2.17.11 @ 3:01PM
Say what you want, as long as you realize you are never going to overturn Roe v. Wade-- you have no way to force compliance.
Remember how I guaranteed you would lose on DADT? well, you will lose on this, too.
You lose some, you win some.
KyMouse| 2.17.11 @ 3:26PM
To overturn Roe v. Wade, I think it would take repentance on a scale that could only come through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Without His intervention, I don't think it will happen, because there are too many men and women who are guilty of participating in abortion in one way or another.
Last time I checked, about 43 percent of American women will kill at least one of their unborn sons or daughters by age 45; and 47 perccent of women who abort their babies have done so before.
At least six out of every ten abortions are not the mother's choice (research by the Elliot Institute), but are the result of pressure from the baby's father, the mother's parents, or even well-meaning friends.
That's a lot of people carrying around guilt. Human beings don't like being held responsible after they've done something wrong -- and being complicit in the killing of a baby is just about the "wrongest" thing of all.
"Helen must needs be fair, if with your blood you paint her so," I seem to remember Shakespeare writing. We have so much blood on our hands for aborting babies, we have to keep insisting that abortion is a good and necessary thing.
Alan Brooks| 2.17.11 @ 3:34PM
You wouldn't dare call up a male relative who commits adultery-- and you have such guys in your family-- and say "why do you cheat on [fill in a female name].
You are wasting your time with pro-"life" (anti-abortion).
KyMouse| 2.17.11 @ 3:51PM
How do you know I wouldn't?
And how does your comment about adultery answer my points about abortion?
KyMouse| 2.17.11 @ 4:13PM
Mr. Brooks, it is NEVER a waste of time to try to save babies and their mothers from injury or death by abortion.
Read the Report of the Grand Jury in the current multiple-murder case against Kermit Gosnell, M.D. of Philadelphia. Here is an excerpt from the report:
"Dr. Gosnell didn't just kill babies. He was also a deadly threat to mothers...One woman, for example, was left lying in place for hours after Gosnell tore her cervix and colon while trying, unsuccessfully, to extract the fetus...A 19-year-old girl was held for several hours after Gosnell punctured her uterus...One patient went into convulsions during an abortion, fell off the procedure table, and hit her head on the floor...
"He also killed live, viable, moving, breathing, crying babies. He killed them by cutting their spinal cords after their mothers had delivered them..."
Doesn't that bother you even a little?
Alan Brooks| 2.17.11 @ 5:45PM
READ MY POSTS! I'm important and I have many important things to say. PAY attention to me.
KyMouse| 2.18.11 @ 12:43PM
Are you a different Alan Brooks from the one who said, "You are wasting your time with pro-"life" (anti-abortion)"?
How does "PAY attention to me" answer my question "Doesn't that bother you even a little"?
joellen| 2.18.11 @ 1:12PM
Mr. Brooks, you remind me of Fredie Corleone of the Godfather trying to convince his brother Michael of how smart he is.
Just so you know, pro lifers will continue to fight this battle till they die. Just like the soldier who fights for freedom, we do so for the baby. You and your ilk, with your usual weak arguments actually reinforce in many of us, just why we fight this evil battle. So while you demand that we pay attention to your inane banter we say NO SIR; we will pay attention to the moral battle that is going on and continue to pray and educate and pray again that this evil be exterminated in our lifetime.
old white guy| 2.17.11 @ 3:40PM
you have read revlations right.
GavInTucson| 2.18.11 @ 2:15AM
Okay, Alan, I'll bite. You're probably right in assuming that Roe v. Wade won't be overturned at the Federal level. However, Roe v. Wade left the States open to ban it (individually within their State) if a State passed legislation deciding when conception amounts to "person-hood." Person-hood equals fundamental rights, and therefore equal rights under the Constitution. If a State decides that person-hood happens at conception, the State can outlaw abortion within its borders.
Pay attention, Alan, because two things are happening. The country is starting to swing pro-life, and the States are starting to propose the type of legislation I mentioned above.
old white guy| 2.17.11 @ 3:39PM
people who kill unborn children should face the death penalty themselves. jeez i wonder what they would think of that?
Doctor Right| 2.17.11 @ 3:50PM
People who commit/condone/support/profit from abortion WILL face "the death penalty" one day...But it will be a spiritual death, not a physical death...and they won't have a smart-a** lawyer by their side, either. The Advocate and the Judge will have already spoken. In fact, they're the same guy.
michigander_sandusky| 2.17.11 @ 8:03PM
Well said Doctor Right!
skip| 2.17.11 @ 8:56PM
I always get this mental image of the Judgement Day of particularly rabid abortion fanatics, where a gauntlet of every aborted person is lined up on either side, and the rabid abortion fanatic cannot even avoid looking into the soul of each and every aborted person on the way to get to Jesus and the Book of Life, and what a wreck they would be by the time the Book of Life's cover was even opened by Christ the Judge.
And I shudder at my own fate, when that image is of Pelosi or Boxer or some other equally despicable human, because I do not feel an iota of Christian Compassion for them.
Flee| 2.17.11 @ 4:17PM
It intrigues me that law enforcement will try a murderer for double murder if they happen to kill a woman with a fetus in her body at the time but don't seem to show the same value of human life when an abortionist wields their vacuum and forceps. Either the fetus is a human all the time or not. I like the idea of the earlier commenter about having a KKK presence at a pr0-abortion rally. That would probably open a few eyes about who supports their actions.
dave| 2.18.11 @ 1:38PM
While there are no national laws restricting abortion in Canada, each province has it's own laws which restrict the access of abortion. Almost uniformly accross the prvonces abortion past 24 weeks is not an option. Very very very few doctors will perform an abortion past 20 weeks. Late term and partial birth abortion don't happen in Canada due to provincial law and doctor's preferences. Canadian women who wish to have an abortion past 20 weeks often have to travel to the states to get one.
dave| 2.18.11 @ 2:04PM
blame Canada.... blame Canada...
with their hockey hullabaloo and that bitch Anne Murray too!
We should look internally instead of pointing fingers up north.
Alert1201| 2.17.11 @ 7:41AM
If I could have one habbit (or hobby as Mr. Borysiewicz says) it would be smoking cigars. But there are two obsticals: I cannot afford the good ones that would make it so enjoyable and my wife would never kiss me again.
John Navratil| 2.17.11 @ 9:16AM
My wife calls them "birth control".
skip| 2.17.11 @ 11:41PM
Funny.
I'm guessing she is intelligent and honest like you.
irish19| 2.17.11 @ 12:02PM
Try a pipe. Most women generally love the smell of pipe tobacco.
alert1201| 2.17.11 @ 10:54PM
I did try a pipe but my wife put one condition on it use - could not inhale. I did not keep my end of the bargain. Once that lovely smoke was in my mouth it seemed such a waist to blow it out and not get the full affect of the carcinogens by taking them into my lungs.
Stormzeye| 2.17.11 @ 7:42AM
A striking comparison between the conviviality of cigar smokers enjoying the pleasure of each other's company and the skulking sadness of women engaged in ridding themselves of the "inconvenience" of innocent life through state subsidized murder.
R Martin| 2.17.11 @ 8:18AM
"What kind of a country is it where abortion is subsidized and smoking is criminalized?"
The kind of country where homosexuality is celebrated and the Boy Scouts are reviled.
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 2.17.11 @ 8:28AM
A Country where good is bad, where right is wrong, where the good guys are the bad, and the bad guys are the good. What the hell is in the water we're drinking? I think they're putting acid in it, that's my only explanation!!
old white guy| 2.17.11 @ 3:43PM
you are drinking the socialist tea and just writing about it. no one will do anything about it in my lifetime and i am an old guy. the u.s. is full of people who thin they are free.
irish19| 2.17.11 @ 12:03PM
"The kind of country where homosexuality is celebrated and the Boy Scouts are reviled."
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!
Purple Lips| 2.17.11 @ 8:44AM
Cigars fell out of fashion during the Clinton Administration.
Stan Redmond| 2.17.11 @ 9:40AM
Only the shiny sticky ones.
Ned| 2.17.11 @ 11:22AM
That's gross, Stanley! Go to your room. Bad dog!
Ned| 2.17.11 @ 11:26AM
LOL!
Phoenix | 2.17.11 @ 8:47AM
there are two issues of abortion ...one is the moral issue and the second is the pragmatic issue...
I stand strongly on the moral issue that abortion is an abomination of man
the pragmatic side of the coin is ....as stated ..80% of the women who chose abortions are black..now either pay now ...or pay later ...either way we have to pay....which is the most costly..
Angelo
mejamom| 2.17.11 @ 9:13AM
I know this sounds racist, which I'm not, but you've got a point. I live near a large city which has a program for pregnant addicts. If they abort they can't be in the program. If they make adoption plans they don't get welfare. Most of those pregnant addicts already have 1 child. Some have more.
More than half are non white.
Appleby| 2.17.11 @ 10:36AM
Not a single one of these births was an immaculate conception. Aren't you leaving somebody out of this equation?
Ted| 2.17.11 @ 10:59AM
Let us not forget that the child, despite his (or her) parents, had no choice in selecting his parents, and had no choice in his conception.... The child is innocent.
One of the reasons we end up "paying" later is that we as a nation have destroyed families through welfare. Particularly black families.
mejamom| 2.17.11 @ 11:44AM
Exactly.
H Hamilton| 2.17.11 @ 11:19AM
I think the point is that "we" don't want to pay for either.
mejamom| 2.17.11 @ 11:59AM
Exactly.
The fact that the children are innocent poses a moral dilema for me. I can't afford to raise someone else's unwanted children and I don't think it's right to force anyone to do it via taxes. Abortion is wrong, but how do we take care of the kids who end up in foster care?
John Navratil| 2.17.11 @ 1:41PM
As best we can. Just like Grandma who is 92 with Alzheimers.
Then you do what you can to solve the problem.
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 11:17PM
Keeping in mind that children are the future workers who clean your rear in nursing homes while paying taxes.
KyMouse| 2.17.11 @ 3:31PM
Abortion is wrong; adoption is right. At least with adoption, the child is alive -- and where there's life, there's hope.
Or, as someone says, "Life offers no guarantees, but abortion offers no chances."
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 11:16PM
Excellent point, KY. By the way, if you're thinking of adopting, I know a fine agency in O'boro.
This is why UNICEF delenda est. They oppose international adoptions.
David W| 2.17.11 @ 8:47AM
"...bunch of guys to dress up in Ku Klux Klan robes and attend a pro-abortion event holding up signs saying 'We Support Abortion!'"
I think you are on to something. Imagine the signs saying "Come on non-White women, take advantage of government funding." "Free for non-whites." "Non-whites account for X% of abortions, let's make it X+Y%!!" "If the NAACP supports black abortion it must be okay."
grant1863| 2.17.11 @ 8:50AM
Thanks for the article, I didn't know the FDA was so close to closing cigars down. I will pass this along to my local Cigar Rights of America rep when I see him at Tampa Humidor. Locally owned small business. Great cigars in all price ranges, free shipping on single cigars. Alert1201 take a look, they have cigars for your wife too. www.tampahumidor.com
John Navratil| 2.17.11 @ 9:21AM
I'll stipulate that not-smoking is better for ones lungs than smoking and the cigarette smoking has some well demonstrated consequences.
What I'm curious about is how we ever got as far as we did sitting around fires eating the Wolly Mammoth and breathing all that smoke. Not to mention that smokey residue it left on my loin cloth.
Steve A| 2.17.11 @ 10:52AM
John, Just be thankful that Democrats did not yet exist back in those days. If so, they would have levied a tax on the campfire to prevent climate change from causing the Ice Age.
irish19| 2.17.11 @ 12:06PM
"Not to mention that smokey residue it left on my loin cloth."
TMI. You really didn't need to share that.
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 1:24PM
But thanks anyway, John.
John Navratil| 2.17.11 @ 1:43PM
I'm bumfoozled. Evidently I said something I didn't mean to and still don't get the joke. Early dementia, I suppose.
John Navratil| 2.17.11 @ 1:54PM
...as it was an oblique (too oblique?) reference to the upcoming third-hand smoke battles.
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 11:14PM
I think it was the sooty loincloth. I was commenting on the TMI guy. I like your stuff, Mr. N.
MikeBee| 2.17.11 @ 9:24AM
Actually, the Left protecting abortion while attacking smoking is pretty reasonable thinking, if you hold the Left's value set. Abortion controls the rising population of "undesirables," which has often been defined as blacks. Population control for those groups whom the Left believe are undesirable has long been a goal of theirs, and also explains the Left's long-held support of eugenics.
Smoking a cigar has long been connected with the act of impregnating a woman. Once the act is complete, the man smokes a cigar, right? So, also to achieve the goal of population control for undesirables, the Left opposes smoking.
It all makes sense if you think like a Liberal.
Appleby| 2.17.11 @ 10:37AM
But if you get rid of all the "undesirables", who is going to vote for the Liberals?
Seek| 2.17.11 @ 11:38AM
There is a contradiction in what you are saying. On one hand, liberals allegedly cheer abortions of blacks. Yet on the other hand, blacks are reliably overwhelmingly Democrat (i.e., liberal) voters. Why, then, would Democrats want to eliminate their own future base of support?
Pete| 2.17.11 @ 2:54PM
Just a matter of diversifying risk. Enter illegal immigration.
MikeBee| 2.17.11 @ 5:52PM
Seek,
You're right. However, there are many of these contradictions in Democrat thinking, if you think about it. In the 1850s, Democrats were vehemently in favor of keeping blacks enslaved and unable to vote, while the Whig party (early Republicans) fought for their freedom. It is my sincere desire that blacks (who actually are more conservative than the far right today) will wake up and join us in the Republican party again, voting their beliefs.
The Democrats rely on the union vote, too. But, it could be argued that if unions keep raising the price of their labor (supported by Dems), their jobs will eventually leave the U.S., or go to states who refuse to unionize. This has occurred, eliminating the union voting base.
Democrats are not known for thinking in the long term. As Pete says, they just turn to other groups, trying to convince them that they are disenfranchised.
KyMouse| 2.17.11 @ 3:47PM
MikeBee, Groucho Marx has long been blamed (or credited) for making a risque joke about his cigar on his TV show, "You Bet Your Life." To wit, "I love my cigar, too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while," on his show "You Bet Your Life."
I just read what Snopes. com says about it, and thought it was a pretty good analysis. Seems unlikely that he said it, and he denied that he did. However, it certainly has had legs (a cigar with legs?).
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 11:14PM
Huh? I slammed through my score plus as a young'un without a cigar.
Petronius| 2.17.11 @ 9:26AM
Read The Holy War in Prejudices: Second Series by H. L. Mencken. The characteristics of the Abortionist are very much the same as the prohibitionist.
Mistral| 2.17.11 @ 9:29AM
Thank you Tom. I have been asking the same question for years except somtimes I substitute cigarettes for cigars and sometimes alcohol (which takes a massive social toll exponentially greater than smoking) for abortion. We have reached that era prophesied by The Bible when evil will become good and good will be seen as evil.
Add to this the sexual perversion programmes indoctrinating children all over the west in the guise of "education" & advocated by wildly misled politicians on behalf of tiny but powerful minority interests and we can see the world turning towards absolute evil rapidly. Children are being taught playing with excretory passages for sexual excitement is good and that even buggery with animals could be permissable eventually along with changing one's sex and dressing across the sexes or even being bisexual. Can we really imagine any genuinely intelligent person reasoning in such a totally non-sensical manner? In UK the Blair goverment attempting to stop "binge drinking" decided to have 24 hour licenses to permit drinking at any time of day or night. Can anyone with any intelligence understand the idiotic rationale here? Binge drinking in the early hours of the morning has become a problem too. Does anyone with intelligence see the connexion here?
In order to stop people rightfully verbally disapproving of sodomitic behaviour Blair again used devious means to push through Sexual Orientation Regulations in Parlament putting sodomites beyond any criticism at all by threatening "offenders" with prison terms and big fines. How about that for bigotry? Homosexuals can criticise heterosexuals but not vice versa. I know many homosexuals who really want to be left alone & behave as they want in private - like fornicators and adulterers. The campaigns by misguided politicians & extremist "gays" do not help them at all but create a climate of even greater disapproval and rumbling resentment.
What an unbelievably disorientated clique of politicians we have in western governments since the 1960s. Smokers have become the scapegoats for every social evil, while what were once rightly understood as social evils have become public virtues - state-sponsored sexual perversion; professional state-sponsored attacks on life in the womb and state-led persecution of those who try to be moral law-abiding citizens promoting the well-being of humanity according to natural law. To cap it all we now have the European Union legislating voting rights for prison convicts & using courts of law to legislate their edicts across a wide range of issues such as the ones above.
Anthony| 2.17.11 @ 9:59AM
The only hope for us cigar smokers is to have Bill Clinton & Monica team up to act as our lobbyists. An emphsis on the extra benefits of cigars w/o the harm of second hand smoke, won't hurt either.
If this fails, then we need to resort to some old fashioned take charge methods, like running the runt mayor of NYC out of town on a rail, tarred and feathered, with the threat of "who's next"?
Timothy L. Pennell| 2.17.11 @ 10:02AM
Huh. For some reason I thought this was gonna be about Bill Clinton. Now, why would I think this was gonna be about Bill Clinton? I know. I thought it said: RAPE, Indecent Exposure, Molestations, Interns, Abortion and Cigars.
I'm overtired.
Ned the Red| 2.17.11 @ 11:07AM
This article gave me a flashback:
Every Sunday morning while at Camp Hanson, Okinawa I would, in spite of tremendous consumption of alcohol the night before, arise early, leave the squad bay, and walk over to the Buccaneer Restaurant. (I think that is the name) Once there, I would buy a pack of Roi-Tan Bankers, (cheap cigars) newspaper, and a large cup of coffee.
Then I would sit, smoke, read "Stars and Stripes", drink coffee, and refresh my mind and body in preparation for one more day of drinking in town before the new week started.
Roy| 2.17.11 @ 11:41AM
I just spent three months fighting throat Cancer.
Chemo and radiation treatments.Worse than anything you can imagine. Worse than bad. Same thing and same Cancer happened to Michael Douglas.
I love Cigars but they can give you throat cancer and they did. Warnings made no difference to me. I studied the risks and I made my choice. I gambled and lost. I'm an adult and it was my choice.I take responsibility for my choices. If the Government is going to tell me what I can smoke then whats to stop them from telling me what I can eat or stop them from making me exercise.
Governments are made up of people and very often (As in the case of Obama) those individuals are stupid and ignorant and know less than those being governed.
We're not children. One of the reasons that we have the great country that we have is because we have the freedom to make our own choices about our lives without Government interference. Tell me the odds and let me decide. 99 times out of a hundred individuals are smarter than bureaucrats.
Would I recomend smoking cicars and would I smoke knowing what I know now? No! Hell no.
Should the Government make that choice for me? Hell no! My Cancer is gone and I learned a lot from the experience. I don't blame anyone but my self. You know....... freedom ain't free.
Regards, Roy
irish19| 2.17.11 @ 12:12PM
Sorry to hear about your cancer. Glad to hear it's in remission. I know that my pipe and cigar smoking may someday cause problems. I also know that I will have no one to blame but myself if they do.
My choice, my responsibility. End of story.
Steve A| 2.17.11 @ 12:40PM
irish19, One thing is certain in this life, no man can really make another quit a vice. Having said that, I think you should focus on what Roy said regarding what he would do if he was in your spot, now.
I smoked for about 6 years & started feeling increasingly bad. I lit a smoke on 01/11/11 & looked at it & decided it was the last I would ever have. I can now actually breathe & hopefully will not have to face the consequences as Roy above has. It has been incredibly easy. You just need to make up your mind.
John Navratil| 2.17.11 @ 1:47PM
Steve A,
Cheers to you. I did it the same way almost twenty years ago. It was the third time I suspended my habit. I won't say I quit like I did the first two times. I'm on an extended cigarette break. I know if I smoke one, I'll buy a pack on the way home.
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 1:26PM
Go ahead and smoke, or not. I don't care. Just not where I'm eating in a restaurant. I paid good money for my meal, and I don't piss in your face when you're eating.
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 1:27PM
That's not a retort back to Steve A, good on 'ya! It's my general comment on smoking in public places where people are eating. It's offensive, and bad manners.
John Navratil| 2.17.11 @ 1:52PM
Occam's Tool,
I agree with you, and hope you agree it should not be illegal. Houston banned all smoking in restaurants a couple of years ago. Prior to that, there we places I chose not to go because of the smoke. Today, it's illegal for me to open a restaurant to cater smokers. My experience has been the proper ventilation and separation of smokers from non-smokers generally solved the problem.
The justification, by the way, was to protect the workers from second-hand smoke.
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 11:08PM
I'm happy to live in a place which legally does not allow smoking in restaurants. In my experience (lived in KY for 5 years), most smokers have no manners with this. Sorry. Realy, for a non-smoker, it's a nauseating experience. You have uncovered the one topic in which Attila is a secret Liberal.
Of course, my parents smoked in a car when I was growing up in Chicago and would not let us open the windows in winter to breathe. As a shrink, I know it's an unresolved parental issue, but it happens to be one that lengthens my life.
skip| 2.17.11 @ 11:44PM
In a truly free market, if there is demand, there should be supply. There is no reason there can't be smoke free restaurants and smoking restaurants. No government required. Case closed.
Anthony| 2.17.11 @ 2:39PM
I also wish you well Roy. We all make choices, as you say, and yes I know I'm flirting with danger. But then again, all of life is a trade off, with some choices easier than others. It is a balancing act that free adults are allowed to weigh, without the heavy hand of the nanny state to dictate otherwise.
America needs more stand up guys like you!!!!
Doug Korthof| 2.17.11 @ 4:51PM
What about the CANCERS you caused in the lungs of innocent breathers, whom you poisoned in your selfish, stupid addiction? The AIR is not free when dork clog it with pollution.
Negro X| 2.17.11 @ 5:47PM
Doug moron,
How about all that exhaust you pollute the air with from your car? Grow up tard boy.
Roy| 2.17.11 @ 6:38PM
Doug,
I was one of the first to see the wisdom of smoke free restaurants and planes etc. early in the 1970's.
You are right! You should not have to breath some one elses smoke. Many of those of us who grew up in the 50's and 60's can remember going to bed at night and just reeking of cigarette smoke from someones house or club or even smoke from a sporting event.Smoking was everywhere.I predicted at the time that busy bodies would go overboard.Regulating where someone impacts others is different than regulating a freedom out of existence. I love cigars and really wish that I could still smoke them. I never smoked where the smoke would impact others. As a republic we can decide to limit any freedom that we want to limit.
I think that we should try to encourage personal responsibility rather than government control of every aspect of our lives. That seems to work out better for everything,personal dignity, individual self reliance, personal success etc.etc. I'd err on the side of freedom.
Best,Roy
Doctor Right| 2.17.11 @ 12:10PM
Why is the organization called "PLANNED Parenthood"??
If there was anything "planned" about it, no one would have need of their services.
Abortion is an evil, selfish act. Those who not only support it, but profit from it, will one day have to explain that to the Lord.
Good luck with that.
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 1:27PM
Margaret Sanger was a vicious racist.
Douglas Korthof| 2.17.11 @ 5:04PM
I think the idea of the name "Planned Parenthood" was to emphasize birth control as well as the nasty idea of abortion, so that babies would be wanted instead of trashed.
There is no "license" for having babies, no training required; characteristically, young people have babies before they are ready for them, mature enough to care about them, and financially stable enough to PAY for them. That's why there is so much child abuse, molestation and neglect; babies raising babies.
PLANNING parenthood makes more sense.
Did you realize that it takes $300,000 to $500,000 to raise a child to the age of 18? Someone has to make that investment, and that's only the MONETARY part. Too often, single parents struggle to raise kids working minimum-wage jobs, and the burden falls on the TAXPAYER.
LAUSD budget per student: $10,000 per year, $180,000
Housing: $36K
Medical care: Appx. $36K+
Clothing:
Childcare:
Travel:
Toys, supplies, strollers, etc.:
How many folks making $10/hour are likely to be able to pay for this expense?? That's why child rearing is so bad, and why the level of literacy and civility continues to fall...and why fools listen to Faux News and Rush the Barrage Balloon.
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 11:09PM
Margaret Sanger wanted Black babies aborted---check her writings.
Radioman777| 2.17.11 @ 3:37PM
Sounds a lot like Nazi Germany in the '30's.
Vasu Murti | 2.17.11 @ 4:08PM
I'd be wary of making comparisons to Nazi Germany. These kind of accusations are hurled all the time at activists on both sides of the abortion issue, as well as at vegetarians and vegans.
Professor Henry Bigelow observed:
"There will come a time when the world will look back to modern vivisection in the name of science as they do now to burning at the stake in the name of religion."
Animal rights, as a secular, moral philosophy, may appear to be at odds with traditional religious thinking (e.g., human "dominion" over other animals), but this is equally true of democracy and representative government in place of the divine right of kings, the separation of church and state, the abolition of human slavery, the emancipation of women, birth control, the sexual revolution, LGBT rights, and all social progress since the end of the Dark Ages and the start of the Age of Enlightenment.
Vegetarianism, in itself, is merely an *ethic*, and not a religion. As an ethic, vegetarianism has attracted some of the greatest figures in history.
Do meat-eaters think of Susan B. Anthony, Gandhi or Tolstoy when it comes to vegetarianism?
No, they think of Hitler!
According to Carol Orsag, in Irving Wallace and David Wallechinsky’s The People’s Almanac (1975), however:
Adolf Hitler "became vegetarian because of stomach problems" rather than out of compassion for animals, and "was criticized for eating pig’s knuckles."
In a 1996 article appearing in the now-defunct Animals' Agenda, "Nazis and Animals: Debunking the Myths," Roberta Kalechofsky of Jews for Animal Rights states that Hitler "had a special fondness for sausages and caviar, and sometimes ham," as well as "liver dumplings."
Kalechofsky states further that the Nazis experimented on animals as well as humans in the concentration camps:
"The evidence of Nazi experiments on animals is overwhelming. In The Dark Face of Science, author John Vyvyan summed it up correctly: ‘The experiments made on prisoners were many and diverse, but they had one thing in common: all were in continuation of, or complementary to, experiments on animals. In every instance, this antecedent scientific literature is mentioned in the evidence, and at Buchenwald and Auschwitz concentration camps, human and animal experiments were carried out simultaneously as parts of a single programme.’"
Would not a genuine reverence for life—showing animals the level of concern we now give humans—have had the opposite effect? Compassion for every living creature?
There is no evidence that vegetarianism (for health or ethics) will make people saints or give them Gandhian compassion, but neither is there any evidence that it will make people Nazis.
Isaac Bashevis Singer, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature, became a vegetarian in 1962. He once asked, "How can we pray to God for mercy if we ourselves have no mercy? How can we speak of rights and justice if we take an innocent creature and shed its blood?
"Hitler’s so-called "vegetarianism" did not prevent Isaac Bashevis Singer from comparing humanity’s mass killing of 50 billion animals every year to the Nazi Holocaust. In 1987 he wrote:
"This is my protest against the conduct of the world. To be a vegetarian is to disagree—to disagree with the course of things today. Nuclear power, starvation, cruelty—we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it’s a strong one."
Isaac Bashevis Singer has also expressed the view that unnecessary violence against animals by human beings will only lead to further violence in human society:
"I personally believe that as long as human beings will go on shedding the blood of animals, there will never be any peace. There is only one little step from killing animals to creating gas chambers a’ la Hitler and concentration camps a’ la Stalin—all such deeds are done in the name of ‘social justice.’ There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is."
Hitler was a meat-eater and not a vegetarian. Hitler shut down the vegetarian societies throughout Germany when he seized power.
Hitler thought Albert Einstein's scientific discoveries were mere "Jewish science" -- and thus not applicable to gentiles.
This is the mentality of meat-eating Christians today, who regard themselves as exempt from animal issues, which they regard as sectarian (like circumcision or "keeping kosher"), rather than seeing them as a universal ethic (not harming or killing animals) for all mankind.
In a letter of Dec. 27, 1930, Albert Einstein wrote:
"Although I have been prevented by outward circumstances from observing a strictly vegetarian diet, I have long been an adherent to the cause in principle. Besides agreeing with the aims of vegetarianism for aesthetic and moral reasons, it is my view that a vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind."
By August 3, 1953, in another letter, he could say:
"I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience."
Less than a year later (and about a year before his death), he wrote in a letter of March 30, 1954:
"So I am living without fats, without meat, without fish, but am feeling quite well this way. It almost seems to me that man was not born to be a carnivore.
Professor Henry Bigelow observed: "There will come a time when the world will look back to modern vivisection in the name of science as they do now to burning at the stake in the name of religion."
In his 1979 book, Aborting America, Dr. Bernard Nathanson similarly writes:
"Anti-abortion authors cannot restrain themselves from dragging Adolf Hitler out of the grave. A society that accepts abortion, we are told, is doing what the Nazis did when they killed off the handicapped, the retarded, the gypsies, and the Jews.
"The facts are these. The German Nazis had strict anti-abortion policies--for 'Aryans.' Jews were encouraged to abort, as part of Hitler's racial purity madness...Strange that Right-to-Lifers do not make more of the fact that the pioneer in liberal abortion was not Hitler but V.I. Lenin, in 1920. The Soviet Union is not exactly one's ideal of a humanitarian, life valuing state, either."
Again: vegetarianism in itself is merely an ethic, and not a religion. And as an ethic, vegetarianism has attracted some of the greatest figures in history.
In the Table of Contents to Rynn Berry's 1993 book, Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes: Lives & Lore from Buddha to the Beatles, Pythagoras is described as an ancient Greek religious teacher.
Gautama the Buddha is similarly described as an ancient Indian savant and religious teacher.
Mahavira is described as the historical founder of the world's oldest vegetarian religion---the Jains of India.
Plato (and Socrates) are described as Pythagorean philosophers who are the founders of the Western philosophical tradition.
Plutarch is described as an ancient essayist and biographer, famous for his Lives of notable Greeks and Romans.
Leonardo da Vinci is described as an "Italian Renaissance man; Leonardo is one of Western Civilization's greatest geniuses."
Percy Shelley is described as a "scientist, classicist, aesthete, Shelley was probably the most gifted English Romantic poet."
Count Leo Tolstoy: "Nineteenth century Russian author, Tolstoy is considered to be the world's greatest novelist."
Annie Besant: "Nineteenth century English social reformer and spiritual leader...at once a feminist, a labor leader, a theosophist, a freethinker, a devoted mother and a founder of the planned parenthood movement. She is one of the most remarkable women of modern times."
Mohandas Gandhi: "Indian civic and spiritual leader; inventor of the hunger strike; architect of Indian independence; father of modern India."
George Bernard Shaw: "Celebrated wit; peerless music and drama critic; essayist and dramatist of genius."
Bronson Alcott: "American transcendentalist philosopher; father of Louisa May Alcott; founder of the first vegetarian commune, Fruitlands."
Adventist physician Dr. John Harvey Kellogg: "World-class surgeon, pioneering nutritionist, and food inventor extraordinaire. Kellogg invented peanut butter, flaked cereals, and the first meat substitutes made from nuts and grains."
Henry Salt: "Venerable figure in the vegetarian movement; author of such vegetarian classics as Seventy Years Among the Savages, and Animal Rights."
Frances Moore Lappe: "Author of Diet for a Small Planet, Lappe's two million copy 1971 bestseller put vegetarianism on the map, and awakened Westerners to the nutritional and economic benefits of a vegetarian diet."
Isaac Bashevis Singer and Malcolm Muggeridge are described as the first major literary figures in the West to turn vegetarian since Tolstoy.
Brigid Brophy: "Noted for her formidable intellect, Brigid Brophy is an English novelist, biographer, and critic of the first rank. She is the first major woman novelist to become a vegetarian."
KyMouse| 2.17.11 @ 5:00PM
So many sentences about eating vegetables!
Vasu Murti, would you please give us a few sentences about your views on the killing of human babies by abortion? And the injuring or killing of their mothers by abortion? Or do you feel compassion only for veggies?
KyMouse| 2.17.11 @ 5:03PM
Oh, wait, I should have said "animals" in that last sentence.
You're okay with killing veggies, right?
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 11:11PM
"Meat is murder. tasty, tasty murder."
Radioman777| 2.17.11 @ 11:03PM
Besides being an obviously militant vegetarian, you are also an historical illiterate. The history of abortion in Nazi Germany is well documented and indisputable. In Hitler's Aryan vision, eugenics reigned supreme as a way to eliminate the "undesirables" from a "perfect" society. But, hats off to you, genius, for a wildly lengthy, pointless screed that has absolutely nothing to do with the discussion at hand.
Occam's Tool| 2.17.11 @ 11:10PM
I'm sorry, Hitler was a vegetarian. Well known.
Doug Korthof | 2.17.11 @ 4:48PM
This idiot doesn't realize that butt-sucking poisons the air for other breathers. Moreover, he ignores the fact that "If men could become pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament", proving that the AS is an ASS.
Doug Korthof| 2.17.11 @ 4:55PM
Interesting how these wackos can wax teary over the "sanctity of life" but feel sanguine when taking the livelihood and means of survival from the underclass...it's as if BABIES are worthy of respect, until they are born, then they can be killed.
Abortion, while nasty, is not up to arrogant males to decide; it's up to the person who has to deal with the idea of birthing, caring for and supporting yet another human. There are already too many humans, in case you had not noticed.
KyMouse| 2.17.11 @ 5:04PM
So why are YOU still walking around?
Negro X| 2.17.11 @ 5:48PM
Lead my example, kill yourself.
MikeBee| 2.17.11 @ 7:48PM
Doug,
It is the Left in this country which takes the means of livelihood from the underclass, not the Right. The Left does not teach them self-reliance, as they wish them to be forever reliant on the Government. The underclass remains the underclass precisely because of policies of the Left. It's also folks on the Left who have no problem with killing babies once they have been born; if the mother wishes the child to be destroyed, the Left complies with their wishes, even after birth (see Barack Obama's voting history).
There are as many human beings on the entire face of the earth today as there are acres in the state of Texas alone. There never will be too many humans on this earth. God and nature take care of this via birth and death rates. It is not up to arrogant Leftists (or anyone!) to decide life and death for human beings.
Instead of teaching children that they can use abortion when contraceptives fail (the overall success rate of contraceptives is only about 75%), we should be teaching them that there is NO foolproof method to avoid pregnancy, except keeping your pants zipped.
jrjr| 2.17.11 @ 5:00PM
Some brilliant comments here. "What kind of a country is it where abortion is subsidized and smoking is criminalized?" Here is an idiotic flip -- what if cigars were smoked by women and abortions were men things. Would we hearing about tripledary (one more than secondary smoke) cancer?
Tony in Central PA| 2.17.11 @ 5:48PM
I actually get tired commenting about the absurdities poited out in this article. Its as if our nation and most of Western Civilization is in the advanced stages of some form of collective dementia.
Pat| 2.17.11 @ 6:20PM
“Reproductive freedom” – for feminists that phrase constitutes what blacks call “code words” – like saying “those people don’t respect themselves” and black folks immediately know who “those people” refers to. “Reproductive freedom” translated into everyday speak means: “we want to do whatever we want to do and have our very own special right to do it”. Phrases like “choice’ and “free to choose”, and “it’s my body, so it’s my choice” are ambiguous at best. Start spouting stuff like that and other groups may try to glom onto a special right meant only for you.
Imagine a group of Marines ordered to take a well-defended enemy position - some Jarhead will certainly be wounded in the attempt, others may die in the process. And suppose one of the Marines says look guys: “it’s my body, so it’s my choice” and I choose to stay right here in my hole and let our air support take out that enemy position. Ruefully we must agree it is that young Marine’s “choice” because it most certainly is “his body”. So, are we stumped when these “code words” are uttered? Not in the least because the wise old platoon sergeant will inform the young Marine that “it’s my body, it’s my choice” refers only to reproductive freedom, not getting killed in defense of your country. Apparently, when defending your country, it isn’t your body in the sense you have final say over what happens to it. Who does – the Pentagon maybe?
So Pelosi is wise to modify the word freedom with “reproductive” or everyone may start believing they somehow share in this right to "freedom". And with their strong sense of duty, the Marines will go right on defending this unique right for some, never assuming they might also have the right to choose when defending the self-appointed “freedoms” of special people.
Nite| 2.17.11 @ 10:49PM
There is a nasty little side line to Planned Parenthood and their abortion business. Some nurses who worked for them in different parts of the country, stated that Planned Parenthood sold fetal tissue and body parts from the aborted babies. More money if the babies were mid-trimester or late term. Their excuse for the later abortions is to save a mother's life. If the mother is a high risk pregnancy, she will go to a hospital not an abortion clinic. Abortions are not the minor procedures they are purported to be. Women and young girls have died or become sterile. Women who have abortions often suffer from depression and regret all of their life because of their choice. There have also been cases of women who had more than one abortion, and later found she could not carry a child to term. These are facts that are covered up by Planned Parenthood and their high dollar business.
Am Freemen| 2.17.11 @ 10:53PM
----Always Orwellian smiles over that enduring
Rockefeller Foundation capstone euphemism ----'Planned Parenthood' .
Of course, Hitler and Lenin BOTH were partisan
NON smokers and Hitler was a devout vegetarian
and animal lover.
But we have to admit, getting smoking out of
bars and restaurants was a roundly good thing.
---NOW back to that Globalism/FREE trade and
EUGENICS (incremental genocide) issue.
Dacron Mather| 2.18.11 @ 12:15AM
Don't be a weed ,Bethell.
Repeal Roe V. Wade and men and women will never feel really safe smoking in bed thereafter.
Tom Bethell| 2.18.11 @ 12:52AM
After my article was posted, I sent an email to Jeff Borysiewicz with a question I should have asked earlier. How many jobs would be affected if the FDA were to expand cigarette regulations to cigars? He replied that "approximately 3000 'Mom and Pop' premium cigar stores in America, which employ 8000 people, could be regulated out of business. In addition, he said, approximately 300,000 people are employed directly in cigar-manufacturing and cigar tobacco growing operations in Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
Ralph Novy| 2.18.11 @ 2:20AM
Tom:
Smoker myself. Think the "concerns" about second-hand smoke are overblown.
But your attempted moral analogy with abortion is inapposite. Give it up.
GavInTucson| 2.18.11 @ 2:26AM
By the way, for those of you that think abortion involves simply removing a lump of cells from a woman's uterus (like a tumor), I encourage you to Google (image) the word abortion, since Planned Parenthood is lobbying hard against women seeing a sonogram of what they're aborting before the abortion takes place. They don't want women to be informed. They want them to be ignorant, baby extermination factories for the profit motive of their lobbyist masters.
Then come back and proclaim it's nothing more than a mass of cells, or a choice, or whatever helps you genocidal maniacs sleep at night.
(Warning, the images will be disturbing)
Marc Jeric| 2.18.11 @ 3:11AM
Especially abhorent is the government stdy about second-hand smoke. The one I am talking about was perfomed in the early 1990's, taking 1050 elderly women that had lung cancer. The outcome of the study was predermined. Those unfortunate women were asked whether their parents, one or both, smoked when they were little. About 170 of the women said yes - and the predermined conclusion was thus reached and published,
Now in the 1930-40's when these women were children, some 75% of men and 30% of women (their parents) smoked; so the zero point influence of second-hand smoke was at least 75%. Only any excess over that 75% could possibly be attributed to lung cancer-causing second-hand smoke. So we have this remarkable result: second-hand smoke in fact developed a remarkable resistance to lung cancer in some 770-70=700 elderly women! Acting in fact as a fantastic method of immunization, just like many other medicines-vaccines protecting us from serious infection/deseases.
Henryamburg| 2.19.11 @ 6:06AM
this is retarded. What is the agenda behind this post?
Henryhamburg| 2.19.11 @ 5:52AM
What a dumb article. It reveals the thinking behind the priorities in the USA. As if anti-abortion supporters have so much love for blacks that they want to save their unborn. What a load of shit. What I notice is anti abortion types are typically motivated by skewed interpretations of the bible. (Jesus by the way was a liberal by modern standards. I don't think he was that into shooting guns for pleasure, poisoning the earth's water supply and factory farming God's creations for mass consumption and waste while the majority earthlings live below basic nutritional requirements.)
In a society that loves to murder themselves and others, why spend so much time and effort on saving the unborn? Maybe put some of that time and effort into educating yourselves. Perhaps then people wouldn't feel "helpless" on the prospect of participating in challenging yet rewarding experiences life has to offer. Having children is beautiful and natural. Help lift these people up who are unable mentally and physically rather than legislate and ban things that will continue as long as your society is so corrupt, ignorant and arrogant. Obviously there is enough money in the USA as it gets distributed to banks and war. Socialism for the rich is ok it seems. Ahaha.
Who enjoys having to smell cigars while giving your money to the Cubans? Won't they use that money to buy weapons to land on your shores and take over the minds of the unborn? Keep listening to Glenn Beck and Palin too, they keep it real. China is eating your lunch because of your excesses and idiocy.
Reebok | 8.11.11 @ 3:28AM
is good
العاب بنات | 4.11.12 @ 5:04PM
Every Sunday morning while at Camp Hanson, Okinawa I would, in spite of tremendous consumption of alcohol the night before, arise early, leave the squad bay, and walk over to the Buccaneer Restaurant. (I think that is the name) Once there, I would buy a pack of Roi-Tan Bankers, (cheap cigars) newspaper, and a large cup of coffee.