The Nanny States of America; Part One

Welcome to the United Nanny States of America: One nation, under the tobacco ban, divisible by the government, with liberty and justice for some, definitely not all.

When our Founding Fathers created the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, it was the freedom from a tyrannical government in which was the ultimate Nanny State.  Taxation without representation, laws enacted to protect government control over the people.  Our Founding Fathers, risked their own lives, fortunes, liberty, and freedom.  They fought to free us from such oppression.

If they could see us now, could they – or would they – not be horrified to how far we’ve fallen away from their initial vision of this country’s potential?  In the words of Benjamin Martin (as portrayed by Mel Gibson) from The Patriot, ”Why should I trade a tyrant 3,000 miles away for 3,000 tyrants one mile away?”  Is this not what we’ve already done? 

Tobacco, Guns, and Tyranny

The Constitution is based on natural law – the people’s right to govern themselves, to the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness granted to all American citizens.  Your right to swing your fist ends where my face begins, right?  If this is so, then why are my rights as an adult legal tobacco user being taken away?

I am 40 years old, I’m an adult.  I am a tax-paying, law-abiding citizen of a country that was founded on the freedom of the individual, and yet one by one those freedoms which do not affect others (as in using tobacco products in any form or owning a firearm for MY personal protection) are being extinguished.

While the parents are away, the Nanny rules with an iron fist.  From where we came from as a nation, to where we are positioned now and the potential of the future – if there is one to be had comfortably by all citizens (can’t we all just get along, already!?  COMPROMISE!) – it’s like we have rules we need to abide by, like when a parent leaves their child(ren) with a sitter.

Rules such as: “You are expected to go to work eight plus hours per day; exercise the way we tell you to, eat what we say are best for you, always be completely politically correct, so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings, pay your taxes, paying no attention how much you are paying or what they are really for, and die anyway.”  

Yet if you step out of line in the slightest, you are not only criticized and financially punished for being different, but you are all but short of being ostracized and declared “Un-American.”

When all else fails, use fear!  Like all good nannies, the Anti’s would love us to believe that it’s for our own good.  They’re only looking out for our best interests.  As if as an adult I am not fully aware of all the pros and cons of my tobacco use. That somehow I am unable to make a decision for myself.

Statistical Propaganda

When that doesn’t work, they use the fear of statistics.  Let’s just start with, for example, the statistics used for “it’s for the children.”

Not long ago, the Anti’s came out against guns.  Statistically, they counted any gun-related incident of anyone under the age of 24 and under as a “child-related gun incident.”  This is to include not only all gang-related incidents, but also a 23-year-old young man who happened to fall out of his deer stand and shot himself in the foot as a “child gun-related incident.”

Another example to be cited is a 22-year-old young man who went hunting with his 20-year-old brother and their father.  Accidentally, the 20-year-old brother was shot by the older brother, and was pronounced dead.  It was counted twice as a child-related gun incident.  It was counted once for the older brother shooting his young brother and then a second time for the younger brother dying for being shot, because both were under the age of 24. These Neanderthals fall under the same categorical mindset as those doing research for the anti-tobacco Nazi’s.

After failing the first ten tries at a study which the anti’s wanted to say tobacco was bad, the anti-tobacco Nazis finely tweaked the parameter of a study to show what they want. They use numbers like a 50% increase, but if you look at actual numbers, things change.

It is all in how you look at the numbers.  If in the first year, 4 out of 100 people have cancer and then the following year there are 6 out of 100 people, then that is a 50% increase in the cancer rate.  What about the other 96 or 94 out of 100? That changes things doesn’t it?

It comes down to numbers… numbers like the amount of taxes per pack of cigarettes which supports how many Local, State, and Federal programs having nothing to do with tobacco and “the children”?   How about numbers like the amount of money paid to lobbyists, politicians, and Anti-tobacco Nazis?  But that is an article all on its own: Nanny States of America Part TWO.

According to a Dr. Paul Kleihughs, director of the U.N. cancer research agency, “… tumors of the bladder and the renal pelvis, previously thought to be an elevated risk of maybe three to four times is more like elevated five to six times that of a non-tobacco user…” (Kleihues, 21)

Ok, I am curious.  I can understand mouth, lungs, throat, even stomach when it comes to cigarettes… but bladder? Renal pelvis?  Using Dr. Kleihughs own statistical data, Swedish snus does not cause mouth, lung, throat, stomach, bladder or renal pelvis cancer.  Why does the good doctor paint with the very broad brush of “all tobacco”?

Now other types of cancer and illnesses are also being blamed on tobacco use, cervix, uterus, in addition to some types of leukemia?  Heck, no one knows what causes SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) but according to the anti-tobacco Nazi’s, it is among the many illnesses blamed on tobacco use.  I doubt infants smoke cigarettes or especially use Swedish snus.  Why again the broad brush of “all tobacco”?

If the anti-tobacco Nazi’s are correct, why are they holding back?  Why not blame tobacco use and or users for the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby? Or maybe we should blame tobacco for the failing school system, AIDS, our $12 trillion dollar deficit over this decade, or even for global warming?

In a recent survey conducted in the state of California, 16 colleges were polled on the varsity baseball and football angle about athletes and their use of tobacco products.  A preponderance  used or use some form of smokeless tobacco.  The majority – almost 98% of all athletes – started using tobacco in some form by the age of 20. Funny, at age 20, you can register to vote, defend your country, and buy a rifle, but you are still considered, statistically, as a “child?”

If this is not enough, psychologists have been telling us for years that we as a society over-protect our kids and thus leave them unprotected from the big, scary world beyond the front yard.  Is this why they count “children” as being under the age of 24?

I once saw a bumper sticker that said, “Ignore your rights and they will go away.”  I laughed it off, thinking it to be amusing.  Now, I am starting to see it for what it was: the truth.  I mean, look at all that we’ve lost, simply because we didn’t speak up.

In the 1700’s, the nanny 3000 miles away came for our rights to free trade, even among ourselves.  Next was taxation without representation, and we told them what they could do with their tea and tobacco.

The new nannies WE elected have now taxed us to death.  They are slowly legislating us into submission and have just short of revoked our inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Where, oh where, does the line get drawn!?

I say here, I say now, stand up, make your voice heard, we will not go silently into that good night.  Not without a fight.  Speak out, even if your voice shakes.  Our Founding Fathers did!  Let us take a page from their book. Let us stand united against the “Nannies,” as adults, and taking back what is rightfully ours… our freedom. Let’s not let the Founder’s sacrifice; their gift to us is in vain.

LONG LIVE SWEDISH SNUS!

Catherine DeMarsh-Hellwig
A Proud American, Tobacco User, and Gun Owner
Reporting for SnusCENTRAL.org