Gunpowder Chronicle posted on October 18, 2007 11:38 PM | Rating:
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Del. Shawn Z. Tarrant, a Baltimore City Democrat, wants to more tightly regulate -- if not outright ban -- a flavored cigar variety called "Black and Milds" because they are popular.
Yeah. That makes sense.
Delegate Tarrant is obviously an idiot. Tobacco is a legal product in the United States of America, and flavored cigars have become very popular among the smoking population of legal age. (Note: Why, I don't know, other than these smokers are stupid pussies who should not even allow the leaf to touch their lips.)
This approach is a way to nibble away at American's rights to use a legal product in a legal way.
If Delegate Tarrant could extract his head from his sphincter, he would actually target a bigger problem: the overwhelming popularity of Philly Blunts as a means to smoke crack cocaine.
Delegate Tarrant is one of those Stalinists in the state -- and there are many-- who want to regulate everything to death in a fashion reminiscent of Chinese Water Torture.
Lawmakers like Delegate Tarrant lack the political courage to clearly state their objective: to ban the manufacture, use, and consumption of tobacco products outright.
Instead, they hide behind the fact that these products are immensely popular with young people, so it must be overregulated. Remember -- "it's for the children". Oscar Wilde once said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. He was wrong.
Hiding behind children is.