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Smoke ‘Em if You Got ‘Em, Military Edition
This, I can say without hesitation, is an outrage. From the WSJ:
When we wrote about a new Food and Drug Administration rule that seemed to forbid companies from donating cigars to U.S. soldiers, we hoped it might be a misunderstanding. Now we know the ban is deliberate.
Of course it is. For three reasons:
- Because stupid federal government.
- Because stupid and meddlesome FDA
- Because stupid is everywhere.
More outrage:
FDA’s acting supervisory congressional affairs specialist, Ramesh Menon, confirmed that the agency is banning the long-time practice of many companies to donate free cigars to soldiers. In short, the Marine or soldier on the front lines who might otherwise enjoy the consolation of a free stogie has become a casualty in the FDA’s long war to gain control over tobacco.
More lies from the Obama Administration:
In 2009 Congress provided it via the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. President Obamahailed the law for protecting children from “the harmful effects of tobacco,” but he added that the new law “will allow adults to make their own choices.” And in August the FDA imposed its new sweeping rule over all tobacco products.
It would be hard to find a man or woman in uniform who doesn’t know that smoking is risky. Then again so is combat. Meanwhile, the ban on cigar donations takes away the ability of these adults to make their own choices, contrary to President Obama’s explicit promise.
Duncan Hunter, Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, has a plan:
Mr. Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, says he’ll try to overturn the cigar-donation ban with an amendment to the next defense authorization bill. But he adds that the FDA’s overreach has given Congress good cause to take a fresh hard look at the FDA’s overall tobacco rule. Members are likely to find that it is less a genuine health measure than another government power grab.
Another reason it’s important to retain a Republican congress.
Published in General
In other news, donations of Cuban cigars will be accepted in the interest of improved relations with Havana and in recognition of the country’s human rights advances.
Yep.
Gain a Republican presidency? Not so much.
They banned smoking in the barracks around 2004 back when I was still in.
Thanks Bush.
Or even gain a Republican presidency!
It won’t work, the GOP will not suceed.
On the other hand…
My father was 18 years old when entering into the Navy in 1943. They gave him plenty of free smokes and a pack-and-one-half Camels habit that lasted until he was 51 and diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He barely lived past his 52nd birthday. I was just 16 when he passed.
There was not a major event in my life that his absence was not tearing at me. Graduations, my wedding, and especially the birth of my children. Then I got to explain to each of my four why they only had a grandma on my side of the family.
Spare me your outrage.
Space shuttle astronauts had a tradition of bringing mementos with them into orbit. One of the astronauts, who is a Native American, planned to bring items from the reservation where he was born, which included a tobacco leaf. NASA told him that tobacco was prohibited on NASA vehicles and that he had to leave the leaf behind.
It takes a certain mentality to be a bureaucrat.
EJ, I am sincerely sorry about your loss. But cigars are not cigarettes. And do you genuinely believe that the Navy is responsible for your father’s habit?
In the end we’re all responsible for ourselves. BUT – he never paid for that “starter set.” It was a gift of the tobacco companies and the federal government.
Now remind me why you think bashing Trump is a good idea.
GOPe. Agreeing with the Left’s narratives.
Servicemen used to be able to drink on any base if they were 18. That ended when I was in. The nanny state will brook no resistance anywhere, and the GOP has been largely useless in holding it back because they too often agree with it because they’re terrified of being called very bad people.
Because he’s not the antidote to stupid government.
@RobLong, enjoy your final months of creative freedom. You can always broadcast in a ship off the coast if you can find a cloaking device.
Why is it that big government is so small-minded?
Because stupid has a cumulative effect whereas genius gets diluted.
Last time I deployed I was the senior AF analyst for Iraq. I was deployed to Qatar. The senior analyst for Afghanistan got to travel there frequently and always managed to bring back a box of Cubans. Which he always sold. I am thankful for his largess. The Cubans were worth it.
Yeah, that would be horrific.
Because he’s Trump, obviously.
But it would all stop mattering if they would just leave us the eff alone. As Kilgore Trout said: Keep the hell out of my body bag!
Roger Waters – no conservative by any measure – wrote “The Fletcher Memorial Home”, where all leaders with a bent for control could be sent. “They could appear to themselves every day, on closed-circuit TV, to make sure they’re still real; it’s the only connection they feel….”
He goes on to list the malefactors:
“ladies and gentlemen, please welcome reagan and haig
mr. begin and friend mrs. thatcher and paisley
mr. brezhnev and party
the ghost of mccarthy
the memories of nixon
and now adding colour a group of anonymous latin
american meat packing glitterati”
This was during the Falkland Islands crime (as Roger apparently saw it).
I don’t have a problem with his outrage – people should be passionate about things. But this seems so . . . quaint. The no-holds-any-longer-barred power gobbling of the Obama, and next the 2nd Clinton, regimes seems like Roger should be pulling his hair out.
But maybe he was onto something. The same way a healthy organism – including a society – survives infection is to isolate the infecting agent, wrap it in something safe to all, and marginalize it. Can’t we find a FMH for these people?
I feel your pain (my dad died similarly but much older)
As an ex smoker, there’s a reason people like nicotine. And while I’ve given up smoking, I will NEVER give up nicotine
a few people were outraged that my son asked for dip in his care packages. I simply told them: well, it’s your call. He finds it helpful when he’s trying to stay awake while on guard duty.
My dad started smoking in the Navy, joined the last year of WWII. He died of lung/brain cancer at age 65. But he was an adult and made his own choices. He ‘quit’ a few times but never really stopped smoking because he had constant back pain for 30 years after having had two failed back surgeries to fuse two vertebrae. He could only sleep 4-5 hours every other night for many years due to the pain but he worked until retirement. I never heard him complain during my growing up years and I was mildly shocked when he came clean about his ‘rough’ times once, only once, privately to me when I was about 25. His example is why I’ve often said, “A Man does what a Man needs to do.” And I’ve tried to live that way.
Adults don’t need the Nanny State telling them what to do!!!
I never smoked because I’ve never been able to buy everything else I wanted and tobacco was just too far down the list for me. Guess I’m cheap. But I really haven’t missed it.
A Democrat — Florida Rep. Kathy Castor — has introduced legislation to ensure charitable donations of cigars to troops are allowed. It’s HR 5955, the “Restore Charitable Contributions of Premium Cigars to the Troops Act.”
But I’m confused by the story. The FDA spokesman says, “The prohibition on charitable distribution, however, does not restrict an individual’s ability to give a gift (such as a care package) to an individual family member or friend who is in the military.” I don’t understand: Isn’t that exactly what a “prohibition on charitable distribution” means?
And what authority does the FDA have to do this? They say it’s a natural sequela to the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, but the text of the law says nothing about banning gifts of cigars, or the armed forces. Does anyone see a single word in this act that would even remotely suggest the FDA has the authority to do this? I don’t.
I think something’s been left out of the reporting here. Seriously, by what means could the FDA prevent someone, or a group of someones, from giving a gift of a cigar to someone in the Armed Forces? Is this about whether these gifts are tax-deductible? If so, I still don’t get why the FDA is involved.
Me neither! Nothing gets between me and my Nicorette.
People were “outraged” that your son asked for dip? And they said this to you?
Yes the hormone response in the brain is basically the same as cocaine and crack.
I ‘stopped’ smoking (I can totally start again any time I want), I never quit. Sometimes I miss that one glorious cigarette where you get a slight swimy feeling.
As a guess, I’d say it’s because of the “free sample” prohibition, which applies to manufacturers, distributors and retailers of tobacco products. Individuals and groups are still free to buy cigars and give them to the troops but manufacturers, distributors and retailers are prohibited from giving away free product, either to these individuals and groups or directly to the troops.
When my cousin’s boy graduated from boot camp I sent him a box of Fuente 8-5-8s. Being a good capitalist, he smoked two and sold the rest.
This outrage will not stand. I intend to throw the full weight of Ricochet’s Cigar Lounge into repealing this law.
Outrage is a bit strong. But several people asked if was “okay” with me (he was 25) and one made a point of telling me there was no way she would encourage such a unhealthy habit.
While she’s a good friend and loves me she’s always had the attitude that I obviously don’t worry quite enough about my boys as I’ve “let” them make Unhealthy career choices AND unhealthy habits
Regarding nicorette, the last time my sister and I flew to Scotland my husband pulled her aside and gave her a box of gum. He told her she had a real self interest in not letting me run out.
The answer to the question about why the FDA does this, or that, and what gives them the authority:
We do. We already have. We have fed Leviathan and no longer control what it does.
Well, when we meet you and I can step out on the verandah and have a nice long chat about this over a 4mg White Ice Mint, and then we can chase it down with 2mg of Cinnamon Surge …