Up in Smoke

Posted by: Abominable Snowcone Posted on

I’m going to try being less afraid and more angry in the coming weeks, months, years.

 There’s so much to be mad about these days, and anger—when channeled properly—can be productive instead of destructive.  I’m incensed with a lot of people and situations lately.  I know I should let this anger motivate me.  I’ve done it before.  I’ve got to stop being so lethargic, passive, sedentary.

 Beware of lawyers; we’re professional bullshitters. 

 Not me personally, mind you.  While I’m an attorney by education, my license is not currently active (because I chose not to fucking pay for the “privilege” anymore when it hasn’t made me a dime).  But proceed with caution in a litigious nation filled with self-interested parties and their so-called advocates. 

 When one sees a politician approaching, one should plant his feet firmly and cross his arms defiantly across his chest.  Bending over and grabbing one’s heels may be the conditioned response—but it’s not the proper one.

 A certain Cleveland councilman—who to my knowledge is not a lawyer—recently introduced legislation that would ban smoking within a specified distance of any city-owned property.  So not only would it be illegal to smoke inside any building that is not your home, it will be a punishable offense to light up outside, too—if you do it in the wrong place. 

 Say I’m taking a walk while puffing a Marlboro at the intersection of Berea and Madison Avenue and I pass by that fenced-in expanse of vacant lot designated the City of Cleveland has designated a “landbank.”  Any cop spotting me there could write me a hundred-dollar ticket.  Sound fair to you?  How about folks who step outside a bar to light up, unawares that the building or lot next door is city-owned?  Now they’re fucked, too. 

 Look, people.  The government is not only taking away your rights and privileges these days its boner-inducing effort to fill its coffers.  It’s imposing restrictions on what little freedoms we do have left.  It’s happening right under out noses, a little each day.

 Don’t mistake this as a pro-smoking argument.  I know smoking is bad for me, and that second-hand smoke may be harmful to others.  I acknowledge nicotine as a personal weakness—my greatest weakness, in fact—and realize it’s in the best interest of my health and bank account to cease and desist immediately.  But hey, I smoke.  And smoking is still legal, generally speaking.  Hell, the government loves big tobacco.  Lord knows it makes a killing from taxes slapped on cigarettes.  It’s a big hypocritical, don’t you think, to decry the evils of smoking while holding out your hand for a multimillion dollar tithe from Phillip Morris?  Do you think it’s right that the folks who built places like Cleveland Browns Stadium and Jacobs Field with sin taxes are no longer afforded so much as a 20-by-20 foot space anywhere on those properties to indulge?  Do you think it’s proper for the government to keep profiting from Big Tobacco while telling you where not to smoke—and to make you pay more if you fail to comply, whether intentionally or not?

 It doesn’t matter whether you’re a smoker; the government will be coming for you and your vice / handicap / hang-up if it hasn’t already.  They’ll find something “wrong” with you and penalize you for it.  Are you fat?  You’re going to pay soon if you’re not already.  Have a dog?  Pay up.  Want the city to collect your trash each week?  Pay, fucker.  Speeding through the school zone?  Our robot camera saw you.  Write that check, motherfucker.

 Hey—is that a cigarette you’re smoking in your car, on your morning commute, idling at a red light adjacent to a city park?  Busted. 

 These elected officials are not your friends (generally speaking).  They’re sock puppets to Big Government.  George Orwell and Aldous Huxley weren’t wrong.  You’re being watched, and surveillance—however passive it may seem—is a form of control.  Your lifestyle, right down to seemingly insignificant modicums of human behavior, is being carefully regulated so as to increase revenue at the state, local, and national levels.  Pay more for gas, more for water, more for sewage, the kid’s tuition…more for everything.  What you don’t give, they’ll take. 

 If you let them.

 Don’t be a tool.  At the very least, be mindful someone’s trying to play you.  Don’t fall for it.  Push back, and push harder, and call attention to the scene.  Our forefathers rebelled against mother England for reasons less egregious than what passes today for business.  Why are we so idle? 

 Fuck your antiseptic Brave New World where people without vices kneel in submission to the overlords in your fascist regime—on camera and on cue.  That’s not the kind of place I want to live in or have my children inherit. 

 

 

Comments (34)

  1. Professional. I just read an article that one town is banning homemade lunches unless the kid has an allergy. Fuck you Big Brother. You don’t tell my kid what to eat. I know how to make a nutritious lunch for my kid, and if some moron doesn’t that’s their problem. As for smoking I think it’s a dumb habit, but hey, that’s your choice. You can’t smoke in a public building or restaurant and I’m cool with that. But you can’t light up walking past a building? That’s bullshit. As you pointed out Orwell and Huxley were right. They just got the years wrong.

  2. Hey, They tried to pass a law in Britain that it is illegal to smoke in your own car…Also in Britain its Illegal to smoke in your own home if a guest doesn’t want you to….Totally fucked up Orwellian Britain….

  5. Remember the days when you could smoke on commercial airliners. Those were the days. I started a cigar smoking club at work, mostly because a few guys don’t have an hour to spare un interupted at home to enjoy one, so fridays we do cigars over lunch. The building management says we can’t smoke on the property. Great, now my work is kicking me off the premisis to smoke. It worked out well because it forced us to go smoke on the boardwalk by the Charles River, but it sucks. It was smoke only in designated area, then no smoking with in 20 feet of building, then no smoking on the property. I really don’t care but it’s more of why should they tell me where I can or can not do something.

  6. I remember fondly smoking on planes. Greeces carrier Olympic Airlines was one of the last to drop it. I was chonging to Thailand in 98 with them 🙂

    But I can dig not smoking inside. And kinda like going outside for a smoke now.

    But this namby pamby state where we cant even smoke outside really pisses me. Go open a can o wup-ass on ’em Abom

  8. I learned the truth about Government, the Law, and Lawyers about 8 months into 1st year Law School; though I suspected all along.

    Between the veil being lifted and the exhaustion of going to school and working 45-50hrs/wk leading to a moment of clarity..it didn’t take much to realize Lawyers and Politicians are the most Vile Humans on the planet..Abom excepted.

    Tonight..I’m going home, grilling meat, drinking alcohol and having sex before the Ministry of Love considers those things a form of dissent and individualism and has be imprisoned.

    I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
    H.L. Mencken

  9. Excellent post Abom and one I agree with entirely. This is a situations, the overreach by government on all levels, that is actually difficult to deal with with unlike most problems that are simple that Lawyers and politician make difficult.

    On one hand there is a legitimate need for government since the alternative to that is anarchy. Before the lovers of the idea of anarchy take me to task I would counter by saying go spend time, like I have, in places where the anarchy demon has run wild. Bosnia and Kosovo, a majority of Africa, Columbia, Afghanistan and Mexico. Those place are not anywhere you want to be.

    I believe there is a need for a limited but effective government one actually rooted in the Constitution. Politicians need to be prevented from buying votes via soul crushing social programs that do nothing make make matters worse but some how are presented as a “good works”. The Mercantilism and crony capitalism need to go stopped dead. The “it’s for the children” canard needs a bullet in the head.

    As Thomas Jefferson noted:

    “A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.”

    My own personal credo More liberty= less government.

    That smoking ban horse shit is a particularly galling way the government is stealing liberty from citizens. doesn’t the constitution grant citizens the right to freely assemble? How is it that the government can deny that right? If I want to open a bar or restaurant for people that want to smoke while eating/drinking/socializing should that not be acceptable? Non smokers don’t have to go to that bar or restaurant. An enterprising restaurateur or bar owner(that would be me again I would do this) would quickly open a restaurant or bar that caters to non-smoking patrons, that’s how it’s supposed to work. This situation pisses me off and I don’t even smoke and it makes me angry. Liberty is stolen in small sums and not vast amounts.

  10. I always wondered something about Law School, is it true that on the first day you have to enter into a contract with Ol’ Scratch the most unclean and sell your soul? How did you escape that compact Abom and Conspiracy? neither of you seem like a soulless automaton.

    • I’ve NEVER played RISK in my life, but I have a memory of me going to an adult party with my parents and coming across a dining room table covered with a RISK game and seeing “older” people playing it. I always wanted to join it but felt it was something for adults, something I was too young to understand.

      Only now do I feel those adults were geeks I would probably have a great time discussing other properties with. Which is odd considering they had some sort of connection to my now divorced parents.

  12. I used to play risk all the time as a kid with my brother. But I dont think I ever beat him once.

    He went on to become an artillery sergeant, and I became a beatnik hippy 🙂

    • I’ve always been a start with the Americas is possible, and then slowly spread and conquer. I mean you basically only have three borders, so you slowly keep spreading out. Starting with Asia is for amateurs. I still need to check out this online game, but there’s nothing more professional than a bunch of guys around a table playing RISK, and a quick game is three hours. I really hate this attention deficit generation.

  15. I used to play Epic games of RISK when I was in school. In my bachelor pad, we’d have play games for days and just leave the board set up to continue the next day. Games would go on for days between 3 or 4 people.
    You learn about someones personality if you play RISK when them enough, how they react to threats or intimidation, or what their ambitions are or if power corrupts them.

  17. Tigh, so you sit on the sidelines while everyone else slugs it out. Once they’ve killed each other, you win the game.
    There is always one Sonny Corleone in every game of RISK.

  18. Can someone explain this to me like I’m retarded, cause I still can’t get my gravatar to work.—-If you wish to change your images rating, simply hover your mouse over the image in the list at the bottom of your manage page, and you will see the rating appear in black. Click on that rating, and choose a new one from the next page. As always give it a bit of time for the new rating to take effect! —- Is this in my profile page ? The image is at the top not the bottom.

  19. Stuntcock has lived up to his name, and continues to spread his professional seed. Mrs. Stunt is due with kid number two in December. Stunt Jr. will be three then. He and Baby Binks are already betrothed.

  20. Xi…The places you mention are not functional anarcho systems…(Been all over Mexico, Peru, know some Columbians, all over Asia) what you have seen is “Chaos”.

    There is a big difference between Anarcho-Capitalism ideology, where in theory neighbors/communities freely trade and function without centralized planning; and one where strong men or groups have taken control and created a despotic and chaotic environment that rejects the rule of natural law and individual rights.

    Anarchy is not the lack of law as many presume, all individuals are governed by a set of natural and almost universal laws (you have the right to not have your self or property violated and you have the right to defend against such violation) ;it is the lack of centralized government, which is in fact “Force” and whom 99% of the time make arbitrary, one size fits all laws that have no basis in natural rights and are instead social modifiers to enforce what those in power see as the “Correct” way to live (Like telling you you can’t make a sack lunch for your kid, or smoke in the confines of your own car…)

    Myself…I love the Philippine Provinces…far away from the Corrupt Manila Government… in some cases these little towns don’t even have police or courts and instead rely on an elected type of temporary “Mayor” to act as arbitrator in disputes….they get along just fine without persistent organized “Government”. Crime is pretty low in the Provinces…because not having an all powerful armed enforcer that will take sides or steal for them…they are forced to respect each others natural rights (even if they don’t like the way their neighbor lives) if they expect to continue to live with their neighbors.

    It also allows communities to govern themselves in a way that best suits them locally….instead of a guy with a badge and a gun, and whom they do not know or have any connection to, 3000 miles away telling them how to run their affairs.

    What the US is now is a sort of National Socialism Lite..all of the Corporate-Government Collusion, economic meddling and rabid jingoism…none of that pesky citizen focused Genocide….yet. A Far cry from what Jefferson envisioned.

    Now…As for El Diablo.

    I got out after that first year..I was burnt out and disillusioned.

    When my Civ Pro professor told me Law is not about justice or right and wrong, and that a successful lawyer will keep things tied up till the other side simply runs out of time or money …that’s when I decided that cold and black though it may be..I still valued that little bit of soul I still possessed.

  26. Not a thing. There was no Late Night this Friday as it was the weekend before Easter, half the campus went home, and we closed early. Well, everyone else did. I worked my usual schedule because I get there, and leave early on Fridays and Saturdays. This week is our last Late Night of the semester as after that it’s exams, graduation, then we’re done for the summer. Maybe I’ll finish the semester off with Mr. Roboto this Friday.

    • Both. It’s no big deal though because I get seasonal unemployment for the summer. I saved most of my tax return to cover the difference, and Mrs. Binks works. While most of the dorm cafeterias are shut, my unit is open year round, but I don’t have the seniority to work. I wouldn’t want to anyway because someone has to stay home and watch the kids. I just budget wisely, and can’t put aside any savings in the summer, but it works out.

  29. I hear you Binks. Mrs. Faust is home with our 2 year old while I toil the land each day. Longer hours than I’d like but at least I know little faust is looked after. She’ll get back to work sometime, but we get by in the meantime.

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