Yesterday, after a long day of work and baseball practices.... and not exactly feeling so great (flu-like symptoms).... I sit down at 9 pm with a bowl of cereal which was the first chance I had to eat anything since lunch. My stomach was off and I didn't really feel like eating anything, but I knew I needed to eat something or I wouldn't sleep worth a darn. So, I'm sitting there watching TV and this commercial by therealcost.gov comes on. It's digusting. A man trying to buy a pack of cigarettes grabs a pair of forceps and prys a tooth from his mouth so that the guy at the convenience store will sell him the pack. I'm sitting there with an upset stomach already, trying to eat, and then this thing comes on.
The most stomach turning aspect to this commercial is that there is a series of them, put out by the USFDA. Yours and my taxpayer dollars at work here. Ironically, one of these commercials depicts cigarettes as a "bully" that can make you do whatever it wants. What about a government that can use your money to tell you what to do..... and do it in a tasteless manner on top of everything else?
The Anti-tobacco campaign of the U.S. government is a pet peeve of mine. I'm not a regular smoker or tobacco user, but I've been known to enjoy one from time to time. Regardless of how much of the product I use, where does our government get off telling us what we can do with regard to our consumption of this product? The government is hypocritical in the sense that it acts like it wants to deter the use of products like tobacco or alcohol.... or the practice of gambling.... or whatever other vices you can think of..... yet, they tax it to the hilt and even have the state lotteries which is basically "organized gambling".
I realize the negative aspects of these products and that overdoing them can cause serious problems to people's lives..... but so can overdoing the taxation of a group of people. I guess I just resent that my money is going toward something like this.... and that it's done in such a tasteless manner. Quite bullying me around Uncle Sam.
Ben
The most stomach turning aspect to this commercial is that there is a series of them, put out by the USFDA. Yours and my taxpayer dollars at work here. Ironically, one of these commercials depicts cigarettes as a "bully" that can make you do whatever it wants. What about a government that can use your money to tell you what to do..... and do it in a tasteless manner on top of everything else?
The Anti-tobacco campaign of the U.S. government is a pet peeve of mine. I'm not a regular smoker or tobacco user, but I've been known to enjoy one from time to time. Regardless of how much of the product I use, where does our government get off telling us what we can do with regard to our consumption of this product? The government is hypocritical in the sense that it acts like it wants to deter the use of products like tobacco or alcohol.... or the practice of gambling.... or whatever other vices you can think of..... yet, they tax it to the hilt and even have the state lotteries which is basically "organized gambling".
I realize the negative aspects of these products and that overdoing them can cause serious problems to people's lives..... but so can overdoing the taxation of a group of people. I guess I just resent that my money is going toward something like this.... and that it's done in such a tasteless manner. Quite bullying me around Uncle Sam.
Ben
