Started with Beck's and co's imagination The Mad Tea Party | The Nation
Go for the trifecta - link something from Media Matters

Started with Beck's and co's imagination The Mad Tea Party | The Nation
Go for the trifecta - link something from Media Mattersbut never, ever, actually read or listen to Beck or Limbaugh.
If organizers can deliver millions of dollars in cash benefits to the ghetto masses, it seems reasonable to expect that the masses will deliver their loyalties to their benefactors. At least, they have always done so in the past.
Are you imagining people will have personal distillers for nicotine or there will be tons of people rebuilding old ego's or RBA's? I don't think most people build their own coils as it is and it's certanly not going to attract mainstream smokers to swith to vaping if there's that high of a learning curve required to start.
One thing with prohibition against alcohol and another herbal substance was that anyone could make/grow it and it was in a useable form. I don't think that's true for nicotine. It would require importation / underground labs that are not that easy to hide. When something needs to be smuggled in, the quality becomes variable and the price esculates possibly higher than taxes would do. The more demand and active a black market is, the criminal charges are also increased - the major players eventually are criminals willing to take the risk.
I can remember when most prescription drugs were available on line > 10 yrs ago direct from the manufacturers plant (India, Thailand, etc) with ease. They couldn't search all packages, right? Well eventually they figured out ways to stop almost all shipments. Scammers also got into it to such an extent it was nearly impossible to figure out which factories were legit and which weren't. There were forums like ECF comparing which ones were which. A lot of people got sugar pills. Some got nothing. Some just got notices of confiscated pkgs. All of them paid a MUCH higher price than if they used a legit prescription and those prices are high enough.
The other route would be to go to the dark net, use a VPN / TOR. Again, not something the mainstream is willing or can do. There's a sizeable portion of ECF that won't even deal with FaceBook and many of those (IMO) are a target market for vaping > 45 with decades of smoking history.
The reality is that BT bought into vaping as placeholders. They contributed nothing to the research and development of the industry. Vaping was pioneered by small and medium sized business by ex-smokers to help other smokers to quit and that's a very important difference in the way cigarette manufacturers have treated smoking in the past. Yet it's these businesses that the FDA is comfortable regulating out of business and turn over to an industry that has done nothing to deserve it, has a history of lying, manipulating and decieving Congress, the FDA and the public for profit to the extent that extreme measures like the Master Settlement and the Tobacco Act were required in the first place. That's asking for trouble.
About 85% of the public thinks ST is just as harmful, or more harmful then smoking. I would guess the number of electronic cigarette users that are misinformed about ST are not much different then that of the the general public, especially for newbies and folks who don't venture out of the new gadget, best liquid section of the vaping world.
Interesting.
Well, snus has been banned in the European Union except for Sweden (that's the influence of "public health" for you....) but in Sweden it is widely accepted. Sweden has the lowest rate of smoking and of smoking-related illness in the entire EU.
Making a larger point based on this quote, but I truly think it is one of the biggest issues of them all. If I ask someone reading this thread to point out the harm of combustible tobacco, I believe they will readily find it. And could link me to that data in seconds. Yet, if I go look at that data, it will be from either the same sources or very similar sources, that are getting the word out on the harm/danger of eCigs.
My point being that people do not question, a whole lot, the veracity of smoking harms/kills. They accept it as fact. If I write a post like this, I'll get reminded of someone's relative that died, and the poster that watched them die, and how I am mistaken if I think smoking is harmless.
I think 'smoking kills' is precisely the meme we are up against with regards to politics of vaping (or any other alternative product). I say, let that product take over as number one consumer product, and both along the way (already occurring) and while on top, it will be shown, by science, to be utterly dangerous. People will be shown as dying from it. I don't see this as a maybe proposition, but a guarantee. 100% guarantee.
I fully accept that vaping is less harmful than smoking. And I think all vapers accept the notion that vaping is not harmless. However, and I truly think this is the crux of the matter and deals with 'public good' points (and counterpoints), the degree to which the level of (unknown) harm can be exploited, it absolutely will be.
I think the harm data around smoking has been cooked to make sure everyone agrees that it is harmful (highly dangerous) and that having anyone comparing a product to smoking is a red herring. I don't think anything I say, or all the vapers combined might say, will change this meme (the belief that smoking kills). Fact is, most vapers accept the meme, no questions asked, or 'there is no debate to be had.' I think the reasonable answer going forward is to scrutinize the heck out of the smoking data, and make determinations of vaping harm as a result of that updated, and honest, data, so that vaping can be seen more accurate (truly mild). But alas, we aren't caught up in that game, and the current one does appear to serve us to some degree in the immediate term.
So it is what it is, but I just want to be clear that I dislike the game that has us seemingly playing on the same side as FDA/CDC while not really scrutinizing what is truly at the crux of the matter.
I wanted to like the post this came from (the short little book). Lots of great points made, most of which I and many here fully agree with. But for me it would meaning liking this sort of statement as well.
I as a vaper (dual user) like that BT is in the game. I am yet to purchase a BT made device, but have tried it, thought it 'okay.'
Even this paragraph I read points I either like or find hard to disagree with, such as "yet, it's these businesses that the FDA is comfortable regulating out of business." Speaking about small and medium sized vendors/manufacturers. The FDA is obviously backwards on this matter.
Yet FDA, right now, is not the only major player in the game (as it exists right now). They made a proposal, and one that stands a decent chance of becoming 'final rule' for vaping market. Yet, what exactly that rule is, no one knows for sure. How that rule will be enforced, no one may ever know. And what does the vaping market look like say 5 years from now, is so diverse in speculation, it is impossible to pin point who is most accurate. Likely won't even know 1 year after final rule(s) are in effect.
The whole BT being in the game point is for me a diatribe. For now, I'll just again reiterate that I like it, and it is reality going forward. Thinking BT will get out of the game is as realistic as thinking FDA will stop regulating. So, that would be a second major player that's in the game. Science would be a third major player in the game. BV would be a 4th major player. And yet none of them are as big as the collective consumers in the game, who will have highest influence on where market will stand 5 years from now.
Getting back to topic of this thread, at least as it relates to the side tangent, I still do not understand why filing applications for NPT or MRTP product would be lots of money. I feel I left door wide open for Bill G. to explain that, and instead felt like response was 'take my word for it.' That it would be lots of money is corruption. Unless someone wishes to explain the details and answer to the questions, I'm calling it as I see it, it is (scientific) corruption. I also don't understand why small and medium sized businesses would seek to comply. I get that they'd face plausible legal issues if they did not. Possibly being run out of business. But if no 'common person' is able to explain or truly understand justification for $300,000 per application, then I think the risk is entirely worth it to continue business as usual, for surely that markup, if not corruption, isn't applicable to that business. Anyway, this point I'm making does lead me to making further points about black market inevitability, but again, I am saying I do not understand why a smaller business would seek to comply with FDA. Maybe someday, soon, I'll change my tune on this, but pretty sure that won't happen in next 2 years unless someone can reasonably explain the $300,000 per application. Thus far, I haven't seen anyone come close.
As a consumer-stakeholder, I think I, or we, have good enough reason to understand why.
I like cars and California, unfortunately there is CARB, I like reptiles, unfortunately there is USDA, I like vaping, unfortunately there is the FDA, I like guns, unfortunately there are douchbags galore who think not one of the above should be part of my persuit of happiness without some form of regulation that effectively removes the fun factor.
Some of the reasons I left and won't move back to California. Still, California sets a lot of 'trends' that tend to go Federal. The Feds would love to have California type gun control. And likely the other things as well.