Hi Everyone,
I read two articles tonight. One was about ''logo free cigarettes'' and the other was about an Ontario political party calling for the end of religious school funding.
LETS TALK SHALL WE.....
When I was a kid the price of cigarettes in this country were $1.19 for a pack of 25. If I really wanted cigarettes I could have scoured the ditches and roadsides for pop bottles to cash in and buy them. There were no laws in place to stop me from buying them at all. As I got older, the government health agencies decided that smoking was no longer cool and could possibly be a risk to my health. The government was making good tax dollars off of each pack so decided that an increase in the price would deter youth from taking up the habit. That didn't work!!!!!
I got a little older and the government health agencies decided that it was a risk to your health so the price went up again. Then something really strange started to happen....SMOKERS BEGAN TO QUIT. The quitters joined the crusade and decided that to get more people to quit, they would campaign the government to put health warning adds on the sleeve inside. DID THAT WORK??? Nope. As I got even older, it got worse. The once unheard of anti-smoking movement grew and the mayhem exploded. Photos on packages, warnings of secondhand smoke, banning of smoke in public places. DID THAT WORK??? Nope.
ARE YOU STARTING TO SEE THE PICTURE HERE?????
Now the anti-smoking groups want plain blah olive green packaging on all tobacco product. WILL THAT WORK??? Nope.
What these morally just people don't realize is that all the price hikes, all the warnings, all the ugly packaging, all the drab colours will not make someone quit. Smoking is an addiction....not a social/unsocial habit or pass time. Rather than demean the masses, why don't these agencies help find a cure for the addiction.
SO WHY WILL THIS NEVER HAPPEN????
Cancer charities make TONS OF MONEY. The government makes TONS OF MONEY. The tobacco industry makes TONS OF MONEY.
KNOW WHAT I SAY...go ahead, change the package colour, increase the price and make Canada smoke free. I will rise early that morning with me smokeless morning coffee with a huge smile on my face! I will open my kitchen window and place a hand to me ear.....and listen. Ahhh the sweet sound of the cries of the non-smokers weeping and whaling. The sounds of the " This is not fair. I should not have to pay for this???" outrage.
OUTRAGE....YES... for this will be the sweet smokeless morning that the government will be forced to raise the taxes of all Canadians to compensate for the lost revenue of the cigarette tax.
WHY AM I NOT UPSET...you may ask? WHY DO I NOT WEEP FOR MY SMOKELESS COFFEE? WHY AM I NOT KICKING AND SCREAMING for my right to smoke???? I can tell you why I will not be upset!
I HAVE BEEN PAYING THIS TAX FOR YEARSSSSSSS....it is no different than in it was the day before smokefreedom for me.
The Green Party is in the news! How interesting that they decide to speak about something other than....what should be green!
A local representative that is running in the by-election says that we need to merge the Catholic school system into the public system.
KNOW WHAT I SAY.....IT IS ABOUT DAMNED TIME!!!!!!!!
I am an atheist. I don't feel my tax dollars should be supporting a singular religious school and public schools. How do I benefit from this?
Do Jewish schools, Muslim schools, Buddhist schools or Satanic schools get funded???? NO WAY JOSE!! Some Catholic schools discriminate in the hiring of teaches because they are not Catholic.
I think it is time to truly separate church and state. I think it's time to be realistic in this day and age and realize that religion should have no part of politics and vice versa. You want to pray, go to your local church, temple, mosque or shrine. You want to learn about your faith, attend a Sunday school or a Tuesday school....what ever day you celebrate your faith. But leave the OVERBURDENED TAX PAYERS OUT OF IT!!!! I feel that in the situation our Country is in financially, we would be wise to visit and enforce this idea.
I am not saying just get rid of these faith schools, I am saying....STOP FUNDING THEM. You want to learn about religion in a classroom setting, charge tuition and open your own PRIVATE SCHOOL. Then you can teach what ever the hell you want. (I personally like the one about god as the flying spaghetti monster)
GO GREEN PARTY....congrats for speaking up about something that should never have been started in the first place. Oh....and don't forget to recycle and reduce emissions.
Enough Said....
Quote Of The Day.......
"I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death."
George Carlin
