Sunday, January 08, 2012

Of Limited Interest

"Limited interest" unless you smoke cigars, at which time there's this excerpt from an e-mail I received from cigar.com...
By now, nothing should surprise us with the way the government views our hobby. The last few years were some of the most important and influential in the long history of the cigar industry. Between taxes, smoking bans, and regulations, the government keeps trying everything in their power to regulate the cigar industry into oblivion. As enthusiasts, we carry the torch of defiance through these troubling times and we hold firm in our beliefs of our beloved hobby. But the fight is not over...

Currently, the FDA is trying to insert itself into our hobby; they proposed a bill that would dramatically alter the way we all enjoy premium cigars. Some of the regulations include banning walk-in humidors at your local tobacconist, banning any non face-to-face tobacco sales (which means mail order and internet sales), banning color advertisements for cigars, banning the words "cigar" or "tobacco" from advertisements and store fronts, and forcing manufacturers to submit blends for "testing." That's a lot of bans, huh? So what does this all mean for you? You'll have to go to "speakeasies" to pick up cigars, which you won't be allowed to view with your own eyes, only to find out the new blend you wanted isn't available yet - it's still going through "testing" with the FDA.

In short, this is a call to arms. A bill filed under the name Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act (H.R. 1639 and Senate Bill 1461) is now being proposed to protect all of us. Please use the link below to contact your local congressman and urge them to support this act. In these turbulent, economic times, the government seems more concerned with regulating your hobbies and leisure activities than getting the economy in order and balancing the budget. It's your time to speak up and get your voice heard! Use the link below and let freedom ring: Fight to Stop the FDA Click Here
There's more at the link, including a nifty little app that will send an editable message to your Congresscritters.  Which I did, of course.

―:☺:―

Back to Firefox...   I noticed some weirdness between IE9 and Blogger over the last few days and my initial reaction was to think it was just Blogger bein' Blogger, where the occasional episode of weirdness and petulant dysfunction isn't exactly unknown.  First it was the "quote" button's apparent non-function... I fixed that by editing the HTML, inserting the "blockquote" command and "end blockquote" command in the appropriate places.  Then I tried to put up a post with video from yesterday's Bruins-Canucks game and Blogger simply REFUSED to accept video from either the NHL or The Tube O' You.  I posted a couple o' drafts and wound up deleting both, mainly coz the missing video was the point of the whole post.  Today it was Blogger refusing to include the image you see above, cut and pasted from an e-mail I received from cigar.com.  IE9 also wouldn't import the link in the final quoted paragraph.  So that famous lil lightbulb went on over my head and we opened up FF, cut 'n' pasted the quoted bits above and everythang was cool.  How weird, eh?

Oh.  Mr. Gates?  You're fired.

―:☺:―

Here's that video I tried to post yesterday:


The fight in the vid above is one of the longest hockey fights I've ever seen.  The linesmen didn't intervene, mainly coz they were tied up refereeing three OTHER fights.  While it wasn't an old-fashioned bench clearing brawl it was the next best thing and there were 48 minutes in penalties handed out for that lil scrum, including a game misconduct.  That was an excellent hockey game... fisticuffs aside... featuring world-class goaltending, a penalty shot, and an outcome that was in doubt until the final horn sounded.  It was also the best game I watched yesterday, given the Beloved Wings lost a close one in Toronto.  But we don't wanna talk about THAT.

11 comments:

  1. Mr. Gates was fired from our household 2 years ago with the purchase of an iMac. Which I am still in love with. That now includes our 2 iPhones and the one iPad. We've never been happier since we became a Gates-free household. Now work? That's another story...Gates-riddled.

    The current government basically wants us to lie down and do whatever they tell us because they know best. I can't wait for January 2013 when that may begin to change.

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  2. I would imagine that Dick (where's your turban) Durbin is behind a good deal of the war on cigars. A problem this Durbin. He and some other less than stellar legislators recently pressured the Orange Bowl folks into cutting their ties with a cigar company.

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  3. Far too many laws, rules, regulations, whatever you wanna call 'em are the result of somebody passing judgment over others activities.
    If those activities infringe on my liberties, there may be some justification. Otherwise, in those words Buck loves to use, Get Off My Lawn.

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  4. Forwarding to Pepper for action. I am so fed up with being over regulated and under appreciated that I could scream.

    Blogger messes with me all the time, but there may be some IE issues, too. One time right before Christmas, I went into Safari and accomplished what I needed with a different email account. And, suddenly, since we got home after New Years, the issues seem to have resolved themselves. Hmmm.

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  5. I should blame the computer more and quit taking responsibility for errors.

    So much for the land of the free.

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  6. I don't smoke me no ceegars, but "interested" I am about the IE deal. As you know, I swapped back over to IE from FF a few days ago.

    I have not experienced the Globber posting problems one bit. But, now I get the "IE not responding" freeze up stuff, too. I'm thinking my problem with FF is the crappy old cheapo depot machine I bought before 7 came out...and not really a problem with FF. I only bought it because it was equipped with XP (was avoiding Vista), and I was (am) desperate to stay with it for reasons I've stated in the past.

    So...it's inevitable. And, when I get the new machine I'll love it...but, please God let this one last until I get Daddy's web-site updated with the 2012 price changes, and find an old copy of Dreamweaver that will run on Win7, and some fix for the database non-match with Works 8! Please!

    And, oh yeah...the cigar thing does bug the mortal hell out of me. I swear, if we don't start pushing back HARD, we won't be able to piss in private.

    Seriously...

    Heh! WV: gayness Sigh...

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  7. That now includes our 2 iPhones and the one iPad.

    Fanboi. Which is a non-gender-specific term. ;-)

    Cabbie: I wouldn't argue with you about Durbin.

    Skip: You speak the TRUTH. There are too many... waaay too many... do-gooders afoot.

    I am so fed up with being over regulated and under appreciated that I could scream.

    Me too, Moogie. Your phrase perfectly describes our current existence.

    Lou: It's perfectly OK to blame the 'puter when it's the 'puter's fault. Or the fault of an ill-behaved app.

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  8. Andy: There ARE times when I wonder if it's IE9 misbehavin' or sumthin' to do with the way it's configured. But I switched back to FF because IE9 just had too damned many glitches where Blogger is concerned. IE is faster, but I'll take the slowness of FF over IE's inability to do Blogger stuff.

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  9. ...the government seems more concerned with regulating your hobbies and leisure activities than getting the economy in order and balancing the budget...

    That says it all right there. The FDA wants to "test" cigars? That's a frightening thought, considering what a lousy job they are doing with drug and food testing.

    Back to FF, eh? ;-)

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  10. Fanboi. Which is a non-gender-specific term. ;-)

    Which ... that's OK with me. I loves me my "i-stuff". Brilliant. Can't wait to upgrade to the iPhone 4S...March 2!!!

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  11. Red: The whole damned thing is frightening to me. To think the gub'mint can shut down an entire industry while infringing on the rights of adults to do whatever the hell they want just pisses me off.

    Kris: You need an intervention.

    ReplyDelete

Just be polite... that's all I ask.