Grand Rapids Cigar Society

Here is hoping for Good People, Good Smokes, and Good Cheer! Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

It has been a while, hasn’t it? No excuses really, just a lack of focus and input.

The gathering last night for the month of September went really well, considering the short notice and confusion. Dinner was held at Graydon’s Crossing on Plainfield. The dinner was an Oktoberfest celebration, five courses with different beers for each, and was very very good.  The host give short descriptions of all the beers and the cook described each course. For only $29.00 it was well worth it and we might have to take advantage of more opportunities like that.

Afterwards several went over to the Atrium to finish the evening and watch the last of the Tigers game (they won.) All in all, and excellent evening.

You know, the American people once went to war with the most powerful empire on the planet over idiocies just like this one:

If approved by the Legislature, state taxes on non-cigarette tobacco items would jump from 32% of wholesale price to 64% next year. Combined with the new federal tax, the average price of a one-pound bag of popular Gambler tobacco would skyrocket from $19 to $70 in Michigan.

I am beginning to wonder if we are not going to have to do it again.

The Granholm administration is attempting to double down on the SCHIP tax atrocity that was passed without a backward glance earlier this year. We are approaching the point where 75% or more of the price to the consumer for tobacco products is going to be taxes collected by the government - not profit collected by the manufacturer. Much like gasoline, by far the largest profiteer in the tobacco industry is going to be the government, not the private business.

Economics 101 is if you want to reduce or stop an activity, get the government to tax it. If the taxes are high enough, the people will stop participating - because they will not be able or willing to afford it anymore.

The bad part about this is that the government is using this money that they think they are going to be getting to balance the budget and/or make welfare handouts. When the money from the tobacco taxes dries up, the Government is going to do two things: Claim victory in the war on tobacco, and then complain about how they don’t have anymore money and need to find something else to tax into oblivion. My guess would be fat - as that appears to be the next big health bugaboo.

What they never seem to want to accept is that if they were to lower the taxes on these products, they would have more money and the people that use these products would have more money, which in turn would mean more spending, more commerce, and more taxes to the government as a result of that increased commerce.

CRA - Cigar Rights of America

Ars Technica ran a report today about a series of lawsuits in New York that will have implications for anyone who buys anything online.

The gist of the article is that, barring an appeal, Amazon and other such web presences are going to have to start charging sales tax for customers in New York - yet another reason not to live there.

The issue here was sales from stores residing in New York and selling through Amazon storefronts. Amazon was not requiring the collection of taxes, arguing that the storefront was not "in" NY. Current law reads that if the store in question does not have a Brick&Mortar presence in the state the customer resides in, they do not have to collect that state’s sales tax. NY argued that, since if the Seller is in NY, then that qualifies as a store front, and they could collect taxes. Amazon, not wanting to get burdened with the cost of collecting sales taxes, disagreed and sued. The judges, perhaps realizing that their paychecks are dependant on tax revenue, decided otherwise and threw the case out.

The long view on this is simple. If they succeed in taxing sales at this level, how long before they go back after all internet sales in the never-ending avaricious quest for more of your money. They already tried it once, and got shouted down. But how long will they continue to listen to their constituents, with all of them hurting for cash. For us, those of us that do most of our particular business over the internet are going to be looking forward to increased costs - assuming that we are still able to buy our cigars in six months. We might be engaging in a whole different level of piracy.

Dennis Prager

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

There are few personal confessions more likely to alienate many Americans than to admit to smoking. Singles ads are filled with people who will never even go on a first date with someone who smokes. I strongly suspect that more women would date a millionaire who earned his money disreputably than a millionaire who smoked.

Drinkers are far more highly regarded than smokers, as are playboys, gamblers, lawyers, politicians and almost anyone else except child molesters.

So I have no doubt that some readers who until now have held me in esteem will lose respect for me when they learn that not only do I smoke cigars and a pipe, but I love doing so, have no interest in stopping and have been happy to pass this pleasure on to my older son. In fact, we regularly have some of our best talks while we enjoy our cigars.

For the record, I never smoke cigarettes, which I happen to dislike the smell of, and which I acknowledge to be dangerous. But what I write here largely applies to cigarette smokers as well. In fact, I find anti-smoking zealots far more dangerous to society than cigarette smokers, and would much sooner date a cigarette smoker than one of the zealots.

Having said that, however, it does need to be pointed out that there is little in common between cigar (or pipe) smoking and cigarette smoking. Most important, we don’t inhale. This is not meant in the way former President Bill Clinton meant it when he said he "never inhaled." The purpose and joy of cigar and pipe smoking are to enjoy the taste of tobacco in one’s mouth. The purpose and joy of cigarette smoking are only vaguely related to the taste of tobacco.

And that leads to two other great differences between cigarette smoking and cigar (and pipe) smoking: First, there is no issue of addiction regarding cigars or pipes. I have been smoking both since I was 15 years old, and could stop tomorrow if I wanted to. Indeed, as a Jew who observes the Sabbath prohibition on kindling fire, I do not smoke for a day every week, and it is effortless. Likewise, I am frequently on the road lecturing, and often miss days at a time with absolutely no discernible effect. Second, because one does not inhale when smoking a cigar or pipe, the likelihood of lung cancer is minimal.

Yes, I am warned by doctors that I am more liable to contract mouth or lip cancer, but while physicians may see such diseases, in 40 years of smoking I have never met or heard of one person with either cancer.

Indeed, I am quite convinced that my one-a-day cigar or pipe may well have had a positive impact on my health given how much relaxation it induces. Stress kills far more people than cigars or pipes do.

It is a sign of the times that the latest James Bond film has prohibited 007 from smoking a cigar. One of the most benign practices a person can engage in was banned, but our macho hero can be shown drinking alcohol and bedding women (and without any mention of condoms!), not to mention killing people and engaging in behaviors infinitely more dangerous than cigar smoking.

We live in the Age of Stupidity. This new age has been induced by widespread college education and widespread secularism — Psalms is entirely accurate: "Wisdom begins with fear of the Lord" — which explains, for example, why only well-educated secularists came to believe that there were no innate nonphysical differences between men and women.

Nearly 100 years ago, before widespread college education and before widespread secularism, when America tried to prohibit a vice, it chose alcohol, not tobacco. It knew that there were immoral consequences to alcohol consumption — most child abuse, most spousal abuse, about half of violent crimes and most rapes are accompanied by alcohol. Nobody has ever raped because smoking a cigarette or a cigar numbed his conscience. And no one fears smoking drivers; we rightly fear drinking drivers.

Both in my hometown and on the road, I find great joy in visiting cigar stores and schmoozing with the owners and with the guys smoking there. In fact, cigar stores may be the last place men can get together without women.

Of course if you think I am really killing people due to the secondhand smoke they inhale from my cigar or pipe, I presume all discussion ends. I am then simply a killer who needs to be stopped. I find absurd the notion that more than 50,000 Americans are killed every year just by being in the presence of smokers. But if you believe it, all you need to do is open a window and enjoy yourself.

The late legendary comedian George Burns was a listener to my radio talk show. When he was around 90 years old, he invited me to his Beverly Hills home. In the course of our two hours together, he smoked two cigars and had a couple of martinis. I asked him what his doctor said about those habits. George looked at me and responded, "My doctor died."

My father is 88 years old and has been smoking a few cigars a day (in my 87-year-old mother’s presence, I might add). They are both in near-perfect health. He not only taught me the joys of cigars. He also taught me the importance of thinking for myself and how to lead an honorable life that includes as much joy as possible.

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