Smoking and Government

I just got back from the reservation where I bought a couple cartons of my favorite smokes, and I've noticed a disturbing trend.  The anti-smoking lobby has invaded even deeper into my turf than I realized.  It used to be the simple 'smoking is bad for you' messages on the side of the pack, in combination with the fact that they can't advertise in any conventional way. They stepped this up by making the messages more colorful and varied, such as 'Smoking will insure that your child is born deformed and you'll never have grandchildren' or  'Look really closely at lasagna some time... that's what your lungs look like now' or 'Cigarettes make you smell so bad even Jenna Jameson won't sleep with you'. Today I noticed that they have taken to adding fliers to the inside of each pack that tell you what a moron you are for doing this, and how, when the liberals are finally in charge, you will be exterminated. I hear rumors that Obama has been considering a law that allows actual pictures of your mother crying to be placed on each pack. They're just trying to find a way to record the individual faces of every smokers mother, so that each smoker gets the right pack and is sufficiently chastised.  Also, the clerk is allowed to slap you.  Is it me? Is it the fact that I'm a (gasp) Republican that makes me feel intruded upon? I would think the government would see that no matter how many restrictions, recriminations, and attempts to shame- this product still outsells everything but Nacho cheese Doritos. Obviously 'free America' enjoys their cigarettes and should be left alone about it! Now I know little about other state governments policies being that I grew up in the peoples republic of New York and have lived here all my life, but is this right? I've visited non 'police state' cities such as Chicago, where bikers don't have to wear helmets, and there are still smoking sections in restaurants. It's almost like the America I remember from childhood, The one which all of the songs were written about.

 My personal feelings about government are simple. Their entire job is to keep the French from deciding what I should be doing. Government is the buffer between the free world and all the assholes out there who didn't have the foresight to be born American. Their job is not to babysit me, it's to keep me free. American government should have two branches; the President, and the Military. The President points his finger and the Military attacks that which was pointed at. War is good for the economy, so we should pick a fight every now and again even when the neighbors are behaving. No one should be allowed to run for the Presidency unless they have had a car on blocks in their front yard at some point. I am so tired of the ensconced 'bred into politics' types who have run this country into the ground. The top dog should be a real person, the kind of guy I wouldn't mind having a beer with. This is why I liked Bush at first, he was a cowboy who messed up his words sometimes. He seemed like a regular guy. I love Sarah Palin because she comes across as a small town civic leader and she shoots moose! I don't want a polished phony, I want someone I can relate to (Not that I go around shooting moose, though I probably would if one were in my living room). The Presidency should be like jury duty- everyone should be required to serve a term... and if they're horrible at it? That's what assasination is for.  State government should be the ones that make the smaller rules to live by, and there should be no more than a dozen of those... just enough so the wheels keep turning. The way things have gone, however, is that every little thing is monitored and it's costing us a fortune. I, sadly, envision a future where this happens;

"Do you understand why I pulled you over?'

'Um, not really officer, I was within the speed limit'

'Your hands weren't on ten and two'

'Yes, sir, they most certainly were! I'm very conscientious about that'

'Looked a lot like nine and three to me, besides you were singing along to the radio'

'It was a slow song!'

'I clocked you at thirty words a minute, son'

Six hundred dollars and a court appointed lawyer later, the authorities are asking my ex-girlfriend if I ever took showers without my mandated helmet.