Instead of stocking up....

**magoo10561** · 12-27-2009, 04:33 AM

It is ALWAYS about the money! No one on this whole health care issue cares about our health except us. I switched to vaping to save myself $100.00 a month on my OWN health insurance from my employer and wound up breathing and smelling again...lol. The tobacco lobbies and the pharm lobbies paying big bucks to Washington DON'T want us to quit smoking analogs, that whole issue is just another big farce. I don't want to go back to analogs but let Washington and the FDA get ahold of our vape supplies and just see where the prices go. Have you priced a friggin patch lately?

**LibertyRevolution** · 12-31-2009, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by BobFromChicago

I am still of the mind set that no matter what you do, no matter what you say, no matter how right you are, it won't make a difference, it has never been about public health, it has always been and will always be about money. Big tobacco will loose out on money, big pharm will loose out too because less people will get sick from Big tobaccos product, and with both of them not making as much money that means less taxes go to the government. No my friends when it comes to taking our money back from the government you will never win. I wish i was wrong, i pray that i am, but deep down i know i am right.

I agree 100%. If they cant find a way to tax and regulate it, then it will be banned.

It doesn't matter to them that I am a 2 pack a day smoker, who just got his very first e-cig today, and have only smoked 3 analogs all day today. They don't see the 37 less cigs I smoked today. They only see the $6 in tax they lost today not selling me my 2 packs.

**Wafflestomper** · 01-08-2010, 09:53 AM

It's so sad to see how beat down people are getting these days. It seems like we wake up only to find another of our liberties just snatched away. Sometimes I feel like there is nothing we can do.

I could write to the powers that be... but I'm not sure they really care. Seems like time and time again they are screwing us despite the extreme vocalization of the masses.

After a while I just feel like that plowhorse in Animal Farm.

The thing that irks me is how many things happen under the radar. Like the flavored cig ban...I guess everyone saw that coming except me. I'm still trying to figure out how all flavored cigarettes are banned but somehow menthols are okay. I mean of course we know the real reason $$$, but hell... who's gonna stand up for a handful of clove/cherry/whatever smokers? Or E-cig smokers for that matter?

I'll fight the good fight as long as I can... but eventually I just feel exhausted.

If they keep the same line of logic, we can probably expect all flavored alcohol to be banned too... because Apple Pucker tastes like Jolly Ranchers and Mandarin Vodka tastes like Orange Juice...and you know how kids love the candy.

Pretty soon we can look forward to Victory Cigarettes and Gin.

I finally find something that I'm sure I'll enjoy... I think "Vapor, now there's no way they can touch that".. then I come here and find this FDA BS. It just floors me. They are banning water vapor? Nicotene? PG? Oh... E-Cigs... now I get it... I think...

That logic of "Its a replacement and not a cessation tool" just kills me. It is absolutely a cessation tool... every bit as much, if not more than than nicotene gum. The point of nicotene gum is to wean yourself off of nicotene, right? Couldn't one do the same thing with vapor?

And by that logic, once you are done weaning yourself with nicotene gum, you shouldn't be allow to chew juicy-fruit because its a replacement, not a cessation tool.

I just can't wrap my brain around it. Its all about money... money which is really worthless... because we just keep printing it and printing it and printing it.

Sorry, had to get that rant out. It's been eating at me for months... most people I vent to aren't smokers, and don't really care.... but I guess they will when something that effects them is taken away.

And that's the real problem to me. People are so anti-smoke they will let this happen, not realizing that it's setting them up for more control later.

I just hate that people have become so complacent to the point that any efforts to change things might be moot.

**ChipCurtis** · 01-08-2010, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by Wafflestomper

It's so sad to see how beat down people are getting these days. It seems like we wake up only to find another of our liberties just snatched away. Sometimes I feel like there is nothing we can do.

It used to be that it was precisely the HARD TIMES (such as in the 30s Great Depression) when people banded together to stand up for each other's common interests -- to be principled as well as pragmatic.

Why, for instance, during the 1960s when we were the economic envy of the world, did people STILL STAND UP for principle on such things as Civil Rights, Racism, Sexual Equality, and Anti-Stupid-Wars?

And why do we REMAIN HOPELESSLY CYNICAL and LETHARGIC about changing ANYTHING during a time when we are being returned to a Robber Baron Pre-20th-Century Feudal Aristocratic Plutocracy?

Economics alone can't explain this. It must have something to do with a loss of nerve, loss of resolve, loss of anything in the modern world making any sense at all to the average citizen. Really, there is a crisis of meaning going on here. In such an environment, the status quo is given an absolute right to rule by dictum, and the people are left to their silence, estragement, and puzzlement.

People need to realize that you can't rationalize through economics the current situation as sustainable in any way. We need to reverse the flow of energy. We simply need to get our bodies in the way of the tank, like the guy in Beijing in 1989.

Problem is, we THINK we are still too comfortable for that type of resistance. We THINK we still have the rights that we had just a few decades ago. We are under a powerful illusion.

**BradSmith** · 01-08-2010, 04:01 PM

I am an anti-war protester and I have found that local rallies get more attention than the ones in Washington. You can go to Washington with a bunch of people and still get no attention at all. However, if you protest locally and vocally you will at least get some local press to come out and cover the story. It's sad but the election of Obama has done more harm to the anti-war movement than anything else. Under Bush it was easy to get people out but not so with Obama in office.

Local organized vocal protests are cheaper and frankly a lot more fun, they also get at the very least some local coverage. I would suggest letting your local news know in advance and have many of your signs directed at your representative and make it clear that they will lose your vote if they go against your wishes.

**BradSmith** · 01-08-2010, 04:05 PM

I would also suggest that you find the office of your local congressman and protest outside of his or her office. This way when it hits the local news the people will know who it is that your trying to influence. it gets your congressman on the air and if they take your side they will look like a local hero, if not well they just look like a jerk.