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TERRY’S TIDBITS

By Terry Gray

www.forces-kentucky.us

January 24, 2005

IMPLANTS

          Did you know that we are on the verge of having working machines small enough to be injected into us?  These machines are the size of 4 molecules.  Their primary use would be to run routine maintenance on our bodies, doing such things as cleaning plaque from our arteries and sweeping our bowels clean of all the red meat buildup. 

          Now government will be able to pop their own little programs into the machines and control us longer and more thoroughly.

SMOKING

“The association's State of Tobacco Control 2004 Report Card, scheduled to be released today, gives Kentucky F's in all four areas it examines: spending on tobacco prevention and control; smoke-free air; youth access to tobacco; and its cigarette tax…”

“Only three other states — Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina — received failing grades in all four categories, although Indiana notched failing grades in everything except the cigarette tax category, where its tax of 55.5 cents per pack earned it a D.”

The study and subsequent report were conducted by the American Lung Association.  The ALA is funded in part by tobacco taxes and master tobacco settlement money.  They don’t like giving good grades; good grades cut into their funding.

Spending on tobacco prevention and control has nothing to do with how much smokers are taxed.  Millions of dollars reach our state government via taxation of tobacco and millions more reach our state government via tobacco settlement money.  What finally filters down to groups who would like to provide education is siphoned off by groups like Smoke Free Louisville who use the money to promote smoking bans through propaganda and lies.

Smoke-free air?  Head on down to Rubbertown and then tell me there is a problem with tobacco smoke.  But what the real problem here is the fact that groups like Smoke Free Louisville don’t respect our right to make up our own minds.  They think that people are too stupid to know that tobacco is being smoked inside private businesses.  Therefore, they feel it necessary to ban smoking from all private property that is open to the public in order to protect stupid people.  This is what Mike Kuntz, Julie Bracket, Ellen Hahn, Tom Owens, Dan Johnson and others think of the people of Louisville.

Youth access to tobacco.  I don’t get it.  Where can someone under the age of 18 go to buy smokes legally in Kentucky?  Are young adults over 18 still considered kids to these groups?  You bet, as long as the distinction adds to their propaganda numbers.    Exactly what is it that Kentucky needs to do to throw a wrench in youth access to tobacco?  It surely isn’t raising the tax on tobacco, which only adults will pay.

It has been proven time and again that raising the tax on cigarettes does little to keep folks from smoking.  But even if it did, the nannies want to tax adults in hopes of removing the tobacco habit from their budgets.  By anti smoking groups’ own admissions, smokers are addicts.  Prices don’t affect addicts; they just find other ways to get their drug.

 Kentucky is now talking about raising the tax on a pack of cigarettes from 3 cents to 40 cents.  That would be a 37 cent increase or 1300%.  Elected officials say the money will go to pay tobacco farmers – just like the millions upon millions from the master tobacco settlement that was earmarked for farmers but didn’t make it past our hungry government and fanatic anti smoking groups. 

Now remember, Indiana got a “D” in taxation from the ALA, and their tax is 55.5 cents a pack.  Kentucky will still be failing, and the money will still go to everything except tobacco education programs.

Just one more thing to remember, New York lost $77 million when it raised the tax on cigarettes.  No, people didn’t quit smoking.  People began purchasing cigarettes on the black market or on the internet.  However, New York has strong-armed parcel services such as UPS to divulge the names of those people who get cigarettes sent to them and is sending those folks whopping tax bills with penalties.  At this time, purchasers are moving away from internet purchases and relying more on the black market. 

What New York also fails to realize is that, as their oppressive sin tax drove shoppers to the internet, those shoppers gained more internet-shopping savvy.  Many people who had never touched a computer or the net began their education by looking for cheap cigarettes.  Guess what -- now those shoppers are purchasing everything from rubber bands to major appliances, tax free.   This is just a measuring stick of what is to come.

SOCIAL SECURITY

          I heard a couple of good points made the other day by a caller to the Rush Limbaugh show concerning Social Security.

          Social Security according to the caller is responsible for the breakdown of the extended family.  He explained that before SS we took our elderly parents or other family members into our homes if they were no longer able to care for themselves financially.  Today, society is addicted to Social Security and dependent upon it to provide security in our “golden years.” 

          This brings us to the second point that the caller made.  We no longer make saving for our retirements a priority.  SS has taken away the responsibility and/or incentive to save individually.  What once was a system of save or starve or live with family is now a system of government control, doling out OUR money at the government’s own pace.

          I agree with the caller.  I also see SS as another means of control.  Every time someone mentions overhauling the SS, our elderly get nervous.  They rightly should get nervous; it is their money.  Change of the system scares them into lobbying in numbers too vast to argue against and leaves little room for changes that we know will have to take place. 

This system is bad.  There is no doubt that someone is going to get hurt by it, but what politician wants to step up to the plate and surely be attacked for doing the right thing?

DID SOMEONE SAY SNOW REMOVAL?

          Right about the time of our last big snow storm, Jim Atkins, Public Works Director for Louisville, said that all the streets would be cleared in a couple of days.  The city took care of 60% of the snow, and God stepped in for the remaining 40%.  How can someone make an error that big?  Who is considered successful in this world when his report card is 60%?

          The big problem here is that Mayor Jerry supports Jim Atkins.  He also supports Police Chief White.  At least our Mayor is consistent in his support of incompetence. 

It is a fine line that the Mayor walks.  I understand the ideology of hiring people more incompetent than you in order to make yourself look good, but when the whole cabinet is too stupid to pour water out of a boot with the directions on the heel, the whole cabinet just plain looks bad.  It turns into a direct reflection of the man in charge - Jerry.

By the way, the mayor has announced his plans for reelection.  Would you folks who had your streets plowed please remember that the trucks threw piles of snow back in your driveways that you had just cleared?  Would you 40% that didn’t get your streets plowed please remember that as well.  Then all of you remember at election time that Louisville is recording record numbers of murders under Jerry’s administration.  Are you going to vote for that?

WORLD FREEDOM

          According to Bush’s Inaugural speech, America is now responsible for freedom all over the world.  “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”  Maybe this is true in the song but in real life we stand to lose our money and our autonomy.

          I would like to know how we are going to pull this off.  It certainly can’t be by example.  Read what you can find about Homeland Security and the USA Patriot Act (much of the information has been suppressed) and how they have affected our individual freedoms and privacy.  We are in a state of permanent emergency with our war on terrorism.  Our new agenda to be the freedom keepers only stresses that war.

          For those of you who listened to the speech on Thursday, you may have noticed that as Bush climaxed his words of undying freedom for everyone, protesters were being removed from the crowd.  Great start, Georgie boy.       

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