Pipe Smoking 101 Videos – Introduction to Pipe Smoking

Here are some videos intended to help my fellow pipe smokers, especially those new to the hobby, get ahead of the considerable learning curve we face when new to pipe smoking

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A Two-thousand Percent Tobacco Tax Increase

Once I opened the door on these tobacco legislation posts I don't think I can close it. Anyway, I was over at Greg Pease's site and his most recent post has a handy table that show's how tobacco consumers are going to be screwed over, by how much, for whom.

Roll yer own ciggy and small cigar smokers are hardest hit. The RYO crowd have been getting hit with a $1.10 per pound tobacco tax the same as we pipe smokers. That buck a pound is jumping to almost 25 dollars!

Apparently what you do with the tobacco after you buy it has something to do with how hard you should be taxed? If I put it in a briar pipe I should be taxed 150% more for it, if I roll it in a paper I should be taxed 2000% more?! How about just taxing the hell out of the papers? Consider that for a second and contemplate how arbitrary this is. Pipe tobacco tax is only jumping 158% (this time) to $2.83.

This is just asinine on so many levels and in so many directions. First and foremost, the only purpose of the tax code should be collecting revenue for constitutionally sound government expenditures. This means that punishing people or trying to control behavior is NOT the proper use of the tax code. If legislators want to control a behavior, they should propose, debate on, and pass an actual law to control that behavior. For example, if you rob a bank, you don't face a tax hike, you get put in jail.

Secondly, and on the tail of that, if this SCHIP program is so necessary, purposeful, and all that - shouldn't the entire public have an equal share in supporting it? This isn't just a matter of fairness, but for practical reasons, you don't want the source of income to be something you are apparently trying to destroy at the same time.

I could go on and on. I'll close with this:

Pay attention to who you vote for next exlection.

As always, I want to hear your comments. Especially:

1. What can we do as individuals to change our government's course between elections?

2. Will any of these taxes change how much you smoke?

3. Would a politician's position on tobacco tax effect your vote? Has it in the past?