A Nationwide Ban on Smoking?

Conceivably one could have nightmarish visions of a new role for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives--that of enforcing a national smoking ban. After all, tobacco is one item that falls within the broad purview of the bureau.

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, D-New York, and Mike Huckabee, R-Arkansas, stated Tuesday that they would support a national smoking ban.

Obviously Huckabee's opposition to smoking is based upon religious conviction. Many ministers believe smoking to be sinful. Perhaps they never heard that for over a century countless Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian ministers in North Carolina not only disagreed with that assessment but supported the tobacco industry since it was the state's largest cash crop.

As for Hillary's support for such a ban, it would be hard to imagine the Democratic candidate believing anything at all to be 'sinful' except for what evil capitalists do to the planet and the poor.

Hillary's support for the ban on tobacco arises from the modern liberal mindset, which views government as the ultimate nanny and guardian of our health, our diet, our lifestyle, lest we imbecilic peons make choices that are not for our own good.

After all, only government can know what is for our own good.

The New York Post reported that Hillary is very pleased with local and state laws forbidding smoking in public. She praised New York City in particular for its stringent restrictions on smoking, and further sarcastically quipped that the nay-sayers were predicting hard times for bars and restaurants, when in actuality those businesses continued to flourish after the ban.

It is not at all difficult to determine why restaurants and bars continue to do well in NYC. The desire for food and drink is greater than the desire for tobacco.

When put up against food and booze, tobacco loses every time.

Other cities and towns have not fared so well with smoking bans. Some have even turned down proposals to ban smoking in bars and restaurants.

The thing that is particularly troublesome about the notion of a nationwide ban on public smoking is that once again the long and intrusive arm of government reaches into private lives and attempts to regulate individual choice.

And with the BATFE on the loose, looking for ways to continue to justify its existence, it would not be difficult to imagine the day when the agency would be called upon to enforce anti-tobacco laws.

Want to light one up on the street corner after a meal at a fine restaurant? Better resist that urge, or your butt's going to jail, bud!

Surely government has better things to do than to watch citizens for signs of tobacco use. But then again, since when did government ever resist the temptation to seize more power to rule over the lives of citizens?

This is precisely why the words of the Framers are just as relevant today as they were in the 18th century. They warned about this very thing.

And if we are not careful, their very worst fears will come true. As Jefferson warned, 'From time to time liberty must be preserved by the blood of tyrants and of patriots.'

The Bush Betrayal of Gun Owners

A popular political phrase that was dropped into the modern vernacular in the last 30 years of the 20th century was, 'It took Nixon to go to China.' The concept behind the phrase, of course, is that it took an avowed anti-Communist to open the door of capitalism to a Communist nation.

Had a Liberal Democrat attempted such a thing, such a summit probably would not have been successful. Critics would have decried the whole thing as a Communist love-fest initiated by Liberals who tend to be apologists for Communists to begin with.

Fast forward to the first decade of the 21st century. It has taken a gun-friendly Republican President to trample on the firearms and ammunitions industry in this country.

We would have expected this from a Liberal Democrat. We were not expecting it from the Bush Administration, and perhaps this is precisely the reason we have been thus far ill-prepared to handle the onslaught of an out-of-control, rogue arm of the Justice Department--the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Caught totally by surprise, and thus woefully unprepared for an effective and swift defense, the firearms and ammunitions industry has found itself in a fight for its very survival.

The statistics will reveal just how devastating the attacks of the ATF have been.

Since 2002, a whopping 85% of firearms manufacturers in America have been forced to close their doors for good.

Note that the alarming rate of shut-downs of gun manufacturers by the ATF coincides with the election of George W. Bush.

However, the Clinton Administration is every bit as culpable. From 1994-2005, 80% of gun dealers were forced out of business. Eight of those years were under the Clinton Administration.

Nonetheless, the Bush Administration has done absolutely nothing to stem the tide of this alarming persecution, and if anything the ATF has actually turned up the heat in the last few years.

The statistic that nails the Bush Administration is that from 2001 until 2006, the number of gun dealers who have had their licenses revoked by the ATF has risen by 6 times the number of revocations in the previous six years.

In short, the Bush Administration has been no friend to gun owners.

One of the reasons why Richard Nixon was forced out of office is not simply because he lied about covering up the Watergate Scandal but that he betrayed many of his closest friends in the Congress. Nixon in many ways represented a betrayal of the very values that put him in office.

It was Nixon who implemented a wage-and-price freeze to deal with inflation--an anathema to libertarian, free-market Republicans. Instead of focusing on winning outright in Viet Nam after he inherited Lyndon Johnson's mess, Nixon instead brought an end to the conflict and pulled out our troops, resulting in one of the most cruel and heartless blood-baths in the history of the world, perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge.

Thus, when he needed help the most, Nixon had no friends left to come to his defense over Watergate.

Like Nixon, in many ways George W. Bush has represented a betrayal of the very values that got him elected. This is not entirely true, for there have been some triumphs, such as the tax cuts.

Yet Mr. Bush suffers from the same disease that seemed to plague Nixon, i.e., talking and acting like a conservative while supporting measures that fly in the face of every known conservative principle.

The gun issue is but one example. This Administration has presided over massive government expansion and spending, meddling in local schools by the Feds through the 'No Child Left Behind Act,' failing to fight the War in Iraq to win, and of course, the immigration amnesty fiasco.

One has to wonder if Mr. Bush believes in the Second Amendment as much as he says he does. Perhaps he actually thinks that governments are the only ones who should have guns. We can only base our conclusions on what we observe.

Many Americans, this writer being one of them, had high hopes in 2001 that Mr. Bush could be another Reagan. Sadly, unless major changes are made, it appears he will be more like Nixon.

Hump Day Greetings, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007

HUMP day greetings to all of our readers this morning! Just three to go 'till the weekend!

On today's Liberty Sphere you will find the following news and commentary from the pen of D. Martyn Lloyd-Morgan. SCROLL DOWN FOR THE FULL STORIES LISTED HERE.

**'Colleges Provide Platform for Muslim Extremists'

**'More on the Ominous George Soros'--find out what the atheist billionaire Democrat operative has in common with Adolf Hitler and Karl Marx!

**'Pelosi Hires George Soros' Top Lieutenant'

**'LIBERTY ALERT! Gun Owners Target ATF'--a GOA alert to contact the President about the out-of-control Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives

Have a great day!

LIBERTY ALERT! Gun Owners Target ATF

Washington, DC (TLS). This is a special Liberty Alert. Gun Owners of America has issued a special alert concerning the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Under the watch of U.S. Attorney-General Alberto Gonzalez, the 'BATFE' has had a haphazard and arbitrary manner of setting federal policy, often at the expense of gun manufacturers and gun owners.

For example, the Congressional Research Service found in 2005 that BATFE has no written guidelines for determining what is a firearm. Lacking in any clear definition to provide guidance, the agency has implemented arbitrary and often contradictory rules. The result has been decisions that negate one another, leading to confusion on the part of manufacturers who have suffered through confiscation of their products which had been previously determined to be legal.

Thus, Gun Owners of America has issued its alert for its members to urge President George W. Bush to reign in the Bureau.

Read the entire story of the dubious practices of the BATFE, phone numbers and contact information, and a sample letter to send to President Bush here:
http://www.gunowners.org/a022207.htm