I don't smoke cigarettes. I quit smoking the day the doctor told me I was pregnant with my first baby. That was in 1978. I don't like the smell of it. I won't go near places where people are smoking. I am adamant about no smokers in my home or around our babies.
But I would not ever presume to tell others that they can not smoke or buy cigarettes. I can find many better uses of money than to purchase cigarettes however if one chooses to do so, that is their decision. Now I don't know how much healthier your own rolled cigarettes truly can be but if you want to do that, it should be your choice.
Today the President signed into law more regulations. There is an amendment buried in the federal transportion bill that will put owners of small businesses that use roll-your-own cigarette stores out of business tonight. There is language in this bill that changes the definition of a cigarette manufacturer to now include thousands or roll-your-own operations nationwide.
Do you ever wonder why there are so many sneaky little amendments attached to all these bills?
First, I think there should be a law that Congress can not vote on any bill without reading the bill. That would mean that bills would need to be limited in size- no more than a few pages.
Then the bills should be limited to one law per bill. No attachments and no amendments that have nothing to do with the bill being introduced.
After doing some research on this bill I discovered that:
The Senator who pushed this bill was Max Baucus from Montana.
He was given donations from Altria who is the parent company of Philip Morris.
There are NO RYO machines in Montana.
Things that make you go, hmmmm.
The tobacco companies made strange bed-fellows with the health industry to go after these roll your own small stores. The stores depend on a machine that is called, Roll-Your-Own. The people who buy these machines and tabacco save money rolling their own cigarettes and they say they are much better than the ones you buy in the store. They use all natural paper and do not add chemicals to the tobacco. One person can roll a carton of cigarettes in about three hours.
The company that makes the Roll-Your-Own machines is laying off more than 40 employees now. The stores that sell the tobacco and machines will be shutting down tonight and tomorrow. They will seek legal council to see if anything can be done.
This move backed by the major tabacco companies is aimed at boosting tax money coming into the federal government. They say they will raise 100 million dollars in taxes.
The costs of these new regulations are so high - they run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.None of the RYO machine owners can say in business so the government won't be getting that money from these companies.
Again, when government and big business get together to rig the free markets- you no longer have a free market capitalist enterprise but instead you have cronyism. That is NOT a free market. In a free market government and business do not sleep together. We have not had a free market here for the past 50 years at least.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Monday, November 2, 2009
The Truth About Our Founding Fathers
Our Founding Fathers were inspired men. Many people that want to distort history and those that wish to rewrite the history of our country claim that our founding fathers were athiests. This is simply not the case. They were inspired by divine providence and they believed in the almighty God.
The founding fathers made plenty of references to God. While many of these great men did not subscribe to organized religion of the day they nonetheless recognized that God exists and that this country and the freedom they would fight for were blessed by God.
Another misguided rumor with the goal to somehow diminish these great men is the claim that they were unlearned and ignorant. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Out of the 55 men that sat in that hot and humid room in the middle of July and August debating and discussing the new constitution, 31 of them had gone to college and were professors and Presidents of colleges. There were also many clergymen, judges and scientists along with philosophers. But there was also a good mix in with these learned men of men with street smarts and there were shoemakers. What a group of diverse men this was.
There were men among this group that understood and knew the British Constitution very well along with many who understood the Greek Democracies and Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant officer of foreign affairs. He was able to convince the French to side with the Patriots on a visit to France. There were many men in this company with great leadership skills which proved true in the fact that our first Presidents were grown out of this original group of men.
After years of service as General of the Patriots most people wanted George Washington to become King. He refused and clearly did not even with the Presidency upon himself. After serving one term as President he wanted to go back home but the people begged him to serve his second term. This was a man who could have easily allowed the people to place him upon a throne over this new country but then that would not be the new America and George Washington wanted more for this country than a crown upon his own head.
Where did many of the ideas and wisdom come forth for the making of our constitution and laws that governed our new country?
These founding fathers knew that independence and agency would be paramount to the success of this country. The foundation that they implemented began hundreds of years earlier before it became corrupted in ancient times.
The founding fathers found this foundation in the same system that God had set up for Moses after he led the Jews out of Egypt and slavery. Moses had been groomed by the Pharoah of Egypt for years before the Lord called him to be the deliverer of the enslaved Jews. It was the Pharoah that put Moses in charge of hearing the many complaints and becoming a judge over the people. Moses was mature and aged when he led his people out of Egypt. In the wilderness there were 3 million people living with a total of over 600,000 families. This was not a small tribe by any means. Moses could not possibly handle all the disputes and arguements among all these families. So he had the people elect wise men and they appointed Captains. This was a local elected leadership.
Then they formed a congress and a senate. The senate was called the counsel of the Seventy. They had 2 Vice Presidents. One presided over the Internal Affairs and the other over the military.
The entire structure of our government was based our Bible.
Our modern day government came from the scriptures and of a moral and religious people.
During that long hot and violent summer- our founding fathers held discussions in that hot room as the spirit of peace prevailed.
The founding fathers made plenty of references to God. While many of these great men did not subscribe to organized religion of the day they nonetheless recognized that God exists and that this country and the freedom they would fight for were blessed by God.
Another misguided rumor with the goal to somehow diminish these great men is the claim that they were unlearned and ignorant. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Out of the 55 men that sat in that hot and humid room in the middle of July and August debating and discussing the new constitution, 31 of them had gone to college and were professors and Presidents of colleges. There were also many clergymen, judges and scientists along with philosophers. But there was also a good mix in with these learned men of men with street smarts and there were shoemakers. What a group of diverse men this was.
There were men among this group that understood and knew the British Constitution very well along with many who understood the Greek Democracies and Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant officer of foreign affairs. He was able to convince the French to side with the Patriots on a visit to France. There were many men in this company with great leadership skills which proved true in the fact that our first Presidents were grown out of this original group of men.
After years of service as General of the Patriots most people wanted George Washington to become King. He refused and clearly did not even with the Presidency upon himself. After serving one term as President he wanted to go back home but the people begged him to serve his second term. This was a man who could have easily allowed the people to place him upon a throne over this new country but then that would not be the new America and George Washington wanted more for this country than a crown upon his own head.
Where did many of the ideas and wisdom come forth for the making of our constitution and laws that governed our new country?
These founding fathers knew that independence and agency would be paramount to the success of this country. The foundation that they implemented began hundreds of years earlier before it became corrupted in ancient times.
The founding fathers found this foundation in the same system that God had set up for Moses after he led the Jews out of Egypt and slavery. Moses had been groomed by the Pharoah of Egypt for years before the Lord called him to be the deliverer of the enslaved Jews. It was the Pharoah that put Moses in charge of hearing the many complaints and becoming a judge over the people. Moses was mature and aged when he led his people out of Egypt. In the wilderness there were 3 million people living with a total of over 600,000 families. This was not a small tribe by any means. Moses could not possibly handle all the disputes and arguements among all these families. So he had the people elect wise men and they appointed Captains. This was a local elected leadership.
Then they formed a congress and a senate. The senate was called the counsel of the Seventy. They had 2 Vice Presidents. One presided over the Internal Affairs and the other over the military.
The entire structure of our government was based our Bible.
Our modern day government came from the scriptures and of a moral and religious people.
During that long hot and violent summer- our founding fathers held discussions in that hot room as the spirit of peace prevailed.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Do You Know What Is In Your Children's Textbooks?
Do you know what is in your children's textbooks? Even if you homeschool you have to be careful and check the textbooks.
The progressives have been writing the text books since the early 1930's. Now we have language police to make sure that the political correctness of our society is enforced and that anything that goes against this agenda creates guilt in your children.
There are over 1.5 million homeschoolers today. The publishers know this and we as parents need to realize that there are going to be text books that appear great for homeschool but under the cover they are still filled with what the language police want our children to know.
When you look at the products, even free products that are tempting to get on-line; look beneath the cover, look beneath the fact that it is free. I have run across a lot of anti Christian sentiments in free products as well as incorrect historical references, etc.
The publishers of the text books have all these committees representing every single type of person, nationality, special needs group from the obvious to those like a group that is afraid of spiders so they don't want spiders in the books because it will scare that one small segment of society that is afraid of spiders.
The destruction of the traditional family has been Satan's plan all along. If he can destroy the family unit- he will gain control over society. One of the biggest assaults in the area of text books is on motherhood.
The textbooks no longer, thanks to the language police, may show a photo of a woman cooking in the kitchen. But that same text book can show women shoveling dirt as construction workers. So why can one be represented and not the other. So it is fine for woman to work on construction sites but degrading and too much of a stereotype to show a woman cooking in a kitchen in her home. This is very sad. Personally, I would much rather cook meals for my family instead of shoveling dirt with a shovel. I don't like outside work much and I am offended that what I like to do is not highlighted! Hmmmm, some double standards going on there. Don't you think?
Be careful! Check what your children are being indoctrinated with and then be ready to teach the the truth and the light.
The progressives have been writing the text books since the early 1930's. Now we have language police to make sure that the political correctness of our society is enforced and that anything that goes against this agenda creates guilt in your children.
There are over 1.5 million homeschoolers today. The publishers know this and we as parents need to realize that there are going to be text books that appear great for homeschool but under the cover they are still filled with what the language police want our children to know.
When you look at the products, even free products that are tempting to get on-line; look beneath the cover, look beneath the fact that it is free. I have run across a lot of anti Christian sentiments in free products as well as incorrect historical references, etc.
The publishers of the text books have all these committees representing every single type of person, nationality, special needs group from the obvious to those like a group that is afraid of spiders so they don't want spiders in the books because it will scare that one small segment of society that is afraid of spiders.
The destruction of the traditional family has been Satan's plan all along. If he can destroy the family unit- he will gain control over society. One of the biggest assaults in the area of text books is on motherhood.
The textbooks no longer, thanks to the language police, may show a photo of a woman cooking in the kitchen. But that same text book can show women shoveling dirt as construction workers. So why can one be represented and not the other. So it is fine for woman to work on construction sites but degrading and too much of a stereotype to show a woman cooking in a kitchen in her home. This is very sad. Personally, I would much rather cook meals for my family instead of shoveling dirt with a shovel. I don't like outside work much and I am offended that what I like to do is not highlighted! Hmmmm, some double standards going on there. Don't you think?
Be careful! Check what your children are being indoctrinated with and then be ready to teach the the truth and the light.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The GOP Fails Us On Cap And Tax!
The house voted and passed Cap and Trade yet no one read the 1300 or so pages and then the other 300 pages that were thrown in at the last minute.
Do you know why they throw these last minute pages into bills? To buy the votes to pass the bill on the floor! They start promising each other their pork and that gets thrown together.
8 Republicans voted for this bill and turned against our liberties and fiscal responsibility.
Now we are calling and emailing our Senators telling them to vote NO on Cap and Trade in the Senate. This is nothing more than a whole lot more spending and paying off special interests along with loss of jobs and controlling us down to the light bulbs we have to use.
In Florida, Senator Mel Martinez said he had not made up his mind yet on what his vote is going to be. I wrote to him explaining the reasons why he needs to stand by us and vote no on Cap and Trade.
Apparently, he is going to vote yes. Another turncoat. Another blow to 59% of us who do not want Cap and Trade. Another vote of "who cares what the people want," because it is all about what they are going to get out of the deal. Mel is not running again for the Senate so I wonder what his motive is with his vote.
This is his email to me regarding our request for him to vote NO ON CAP AND TAX!
Do you know why they throw these last minute pages into bills? To buy the votes to pass the bill on the floor! They start promising each other their pork and that gets thrown together.
8 Republicans voted for this bill and turned against our liberties and fiscal responsibility.
Now we are calling and emailing our Senators telling them to vote NO on Cap and Trade in the Senate. This is nothing more than a whole lot more spending and paying off special interests along with loss of jobs and controlling us down to the light bulbs we have to use.
In Florida, Senator Mel Martinez said he had not made up his mind yet on what his vote is going to be. I wrote to him explaining the reasons why he needs to stand by us and vote no on Cap and Trade.
Apparently, he is going to vote yes. Another turncoat. Another blow to 59% of us who do not want Cap and Trade. Another vote of "who cares what the people want," because it is all about what they are going to get out of the deal. Mel is not running again for the Senate so I wonder what his motive is with his vote.
This is his email to me regarding our request for him to vote NO ON CAP AND TAX!
Dear Mrs. Gasset:So where does he get the idea that China and India are going to follow our example, our lead, in pollution control? In his dreams? What an insult to our intelligence to think we are really so stupid to believe that this is good for our country. No MORE SPENDING is the message the GOP must come back if they have any chance of survival in 2010.
Thank you for contacting me regarding the American Clean Energy and Security Act. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to take this opportunity to respond to your concerns.
On May 15, 2009, Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) introduced the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454). This bill would create an absolute cap on total emissions from all covered entities including the electric power, transportation, oil and gas industry, and other commercial sectors with the goal of reducing greenhouse gases. This cap would be lowered over time through 2050, and a government-created market would be established to sell and trade emission allowances. On June 26, 2009, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2454 by a vote of 219-212. H.R. 2454 now awaits further consideration in the Senate.
I believe that the threat of climate change is real, and I am working with my colleagues in the Senate to regulate and reduce greenhouse emissions. As we consider climate change legislation, we need to ensure that the laws we pass will in fact reduce carbon emissions and lessen the threat of catastrophic climate change. Additionally, we need to consider and attempt to mitigate any negative effects the new laws would have on our economy, energy prices, and Americans living on fixed incomes.
The United States cannot solve this problem alone, and similar efforts in China and India are critical to combating this threat. However, our country can provide needed leadership and technological innovation for the international community, and, as one of the world's largest energy consumers, it is time for the United States to accept this responsibility. The choices we make now in dealing with climate change may be some of the most significant environmental and economic decisions of our generation. I assure you that I am committed to passing legislation to counter the threat posed by global climate change, and I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind should H.R. 2454, or any related legislation, receive the attention of the full Senate.
Again, thank you for contacting me. If you have any additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. In addition, for more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov.
Sincerely,
Mel Martinez
United States Senator
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Faith and Doubt
Faith and doubt can not occupy the same space at the same time in your mind. They are polar opposites.
Faith comes from God and doubt comes from the adversary.
Whenever you doubt yourself, your beliefs or the promptings of the Holy Ghost in your life; that is not from God.
When we feel the urgency from doubt creeping into our minds- we need to shun it, to tell it to leave and that we do not wish to be a party to it.
When we give into doubt, then our faith diminishes and FEAR creeps in right behind doubt.
In the bible there are about 356 verses that tell us NOT TO FEAR.
God does not want us to live in fear. Man is that he might have joy, God says. We can not live in joy when we allow doubt and fear to take space up in our minds.
Faith comes from God and doubt comes from the adversary.
Whenever you doubt yourself, your beliefs or the promptings of the Holy Ghost in your life; that is not from God.
When we feel the urgency from doubt creeping into our minds- we need to shun it, to tell it to leave and that we do not wish to be a party to it.
When we give into doubt, then our faith diminishes and FEAR creeps in right behind doubt.
In the bible there are about 356 verses that tell us NOT TO FEAR.
God does not want us to live in fear. Man is that he might have joy, God says. We can not live in joy when we allow doubt and fear to take space up in our minds.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Twitter Provides Voice For A Free Iran
We may all use Twitter for business and to keep up with our friends comings and goings.
However, the people of Iran are using Twitter for their freedom fight. What a powerful way to use Twitter.
Iranians are getting messages to us through the hashtag #iranelection. Many of us stayed up all night to support the people of Iran who are taking extreme risks to get the word out about what is going on in Iran right now.
The government has stopped foreign reporters from reporting what is going on in the streets of Iran.
One of the Tweets we got this moring about 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time was that he was going to go into the demonstrations and would not be able to Tweet. He said they are shutting down satelites, cell phone lines, texting and internet connections so that people can not get the word out to the world. He did not even know if he would be killed or not and he used these words:
"I don't know if I will get killed but I will go and fight for freedom of speech."
What a brave young man this is. We pray for all the Iranian people that they may be safe and one day be free.
There were Tweets from contacts in Iran that 12 more people were killed by police in the demonstrations.
We are very blessed to live here in the US where we still have the freedom of assembly and freedom of speech and must never take these freedoms for granted. People are willing to die for these freedoms.
I could not even sleep last night because I wanted to send supportive Tweets to the Iranian people. We want them to know that we are here to give them moral support.
If you would like to follow what is really going on in Iran, get on Twitter and look up #iranelection. Here is the Twitter page for #iranelection. When you retweet a post from Iran please remove the Tweeter name and just put RT from Iran. The police there are shutting down people sending Tweets as soon as they find them.They block their IP addresses right away so be careful. We want to keep the people as safe as possible and still spread the news. Here is the Cyberwar guide for Iran elections.
There are some great tips in the guide to help the Iranians and to keep them safe.One of the best tips is to set your profile for Tehran and Iran time zone and then Tweet away to help cover the sources in Iran.
All that is required for Evil to triumph is that good men do nothing. -Edmond Burke. (Tears Of The Sun)
However, the people of Iran are using Twitter for their freedom fight. What a powerful way to use Twitter.
Iranians are getting messages to us through the hashtag #iranelection. Many of us stayed up all night to support the people of Iran who are taking extreme risks to get the word out about what is going on in Iran right now.
The government has stopped foreign reporters from reporting what is going on in the streets of Iran.
One of the Tweets we got this moring about 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time was that he was going to go into the demonstrations and would not be able to Tweet. He said they are shutting down satelites, cell phone lines, texting and internet connections so that people can not get the word out to the world. He did not even know if he would be killed or not and he used these words:
"I don't know if I will get killed but I will go and fight for freedom of speech."
What a brave young man this is. We pray for all the Iranian people that they may be safe and one day be free.
There were Tweets from contacts in Iran that 12 more people were killed by police in the demonstrations.
We are very blessed to live here in the US where we still have the freedom of assembly and freedom of speech and must never take these freedoms for granted. People are willing to die for these freedoms.
I could not even sleep last night because I wanted to send supportive Tweets to the Iranian people. We want them to know that we are here to give them moral support.
If you would like to follow what is really going on in Iran, get on Twitter and look up #iranelection. Here is the Twitter page for #iranelection. When you retweet a post from Iran please remove the Tweeter name and just put RT from Iran. The police there are shutting down people sending Tweets as soon as they find them.They block their IP addresses right away so be careful. We want to keep the people as safe as possible and still spread the news. Here is the Cyberwar guide for Iran elections.
There are some great tips in the guide to help the Iranians and to keep them safe.One of the best tips is to set your profile for Tehran and Iran time zone and then Tweet away to help cover the sources in Iran.
All that is required for Evil to triumph is that good men do nothing. -Edmond Burke. (Tears Of The Sun)
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