Congratulations Anti-Smoking Crusaders. You Made Smoking Cool Again.

All the laws you had passed by non elected boards, all the millions in taxpayer dollars spent in education programs, posters and commercials have led to one result. For the first time in fifteen years Americans smoked more than they had the year before.

Smoking received a huge boost in the 1950s because it was seen as a "bad boy" habit. James Dean and Humphrey Bogart dangled them from their mouths. "Greasers" rolled packs in their T shirt sleeves in the movies. It was easy to look a little dangerous, just light up a cigarette.

Two percent more Americans smoked in 2008 than in 2007 according to the Center of Disease Control.

The experts call for more funding for anti-tobacco campaigns. Perhaps we need the opposite. Stop making this habit so appealing. Dancing is so much more fun in a Puritan town because it violates the mainstream "rules" of decent behavior. Stop trying to marginalize smokers through laws imposed by boards that should not have such broad powers. Let's try something else.

Stop wasting taxpayer time and money trying to make decisions for adults. Leave smoking alone and let people make their own choices and live with the consequences.

What's the Difference Between Conservatives and Liberals?

Conservatives seek to govern. Liberals seek to rule.

Conservatives believe adults ought to make their own decisions about smoking, gun ownership, and other issues. Liberals believe that the only adult choice that ought to be left to anyone is whether or not to abort a pregnancy. At that point a 12 year old ought to decide on their own.

Conservatives see guns in terms of protection. You protect your home from intruders, protect your society from an oppressive government. Liberals see them for sport only. And they want to eliminate the sport!

Conservatives want to create conditions where prosperity can take hold, develop, and create opportunities. Liberals seek to plan and tax prosperity out of existence even before it happens.

Conservatives believe clean energy comes from private investment in a variety of profitable areas, such as wind power. Liberals believe clean energy is when no energy is produced, but somehow they end up with it while everyone else conserves.

Conservatives see government as the means; it is a necessary evil. Liberals see it as the means and the end; the curbing of human desires is a good thing in itself even when those desires harm no one or only harm the individual making the choice.

Conservatives believe that the United States has a right to protect its security by acting in response to threats wherever they present themselves in the world, as Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed. Liberals believe it is all America's fault.

Conservatives believe, as Martin Luther King Jr., that men and women should be judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character. Liberals believe in reparations for wrongs done over one hundred and fifty years ago. Among those who should foot the bill are tens of millions whose ancestors were not even here.

Conservatives believe in a responsible balance between the interests of human beings and the maintenance of nature. Liberals do not mind putting thousands out of work on the off chance that a bird somewhere has been harmed.

Certainly conservatives individually will stray from their core beliefs. The world sometimes asks for, other times demands compromise. It is important to remember our standards and principles as American conservatives. We do not believe in simply sticking to everything that existed in the past. We believe that American principles are still relevant and that each generation must find its own way to conserve them.

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Party of the Common Man Update

I never want to hear a Democrat complain about tax cuts for the wealthy again. How many Democratic leaders have we uncovered among Obama appointees who individually opted out of paying their taxes. Three at last count.

The IRS owes Obama a thanks for uncovering some pretty major tax cheats. Of course they won't lose their homes or go to jail.

Where There's Not Smoke, There Are People Fired Up

Kanawha County's recent smoking ban for all restaurants and bars did not go unchallenged. Several bar owners have either threatened litigation or civil disobedience against a law they claim is unjust and harms their business. They work against the grain of the nanny state response that not only embraces the reasonable goal of helping people escape smoke, but the dangerous aim of forcing a morality on law abiding citizens.

The Legislature and county health departments agree that West Virginia must work towards becoming a smoke free society. I am not a smoker and I do not care to be around cigarette smoke for long periods (unless I am around my good friends whose company is enough fun to distract me from the smoke!) However people over the age of eighteen have the natural right to make this choice for themselves. This overt move towards prohibition only undermines the idea that individuals have the right to choose as well as the responsibility to live with the consequences.

And what about businesses? The idea of creating enclosed smoking sections was a responsible compromise. Keeping non-smokers from having to experience dangerous smoke was workable. It also recognized that individuals still had the right to choose. Jacking up taxes and eliminating public smoking areas reeks of the nanny state. New York now devotes millions of dollars in resources to combat cigarette smuggling, including paying for the incarceration of thousands. All of this resulted from extremely high taxes designed to eliminate the choice to smoke. Even those that do not smoke ought to fight for the reasonable rights of those that do.

What's next? The nanny state crowd never stops. They know what is best for you and me and will come after our unhealthy habits next. Snuff affects no one but the user, but do you think they will be left alone? Some cities have already started to legislate on the content of food served at restaurants. Others want to outlaw drive through establishments. They see obese children and blame the free market instead of schools that eliminated recess and phys-ed while making children take longer trips on the bus to go home and sit around doing increasing amounts of homework.

Are we a free society of adults that can make decisions about our lives, or are we a people that need guidance from our betters. It is not the government's business whether or not I or any other citizen are healthy. America was founded on freedom and real Americans must fight to prevent the control freaks from legislating our lifestyles.