An example from a formerly great city on how politicians and the bureaucracy are not staffed with the “best and the brightest” but the dimmest and the worst.
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
~President Ronald Reagan
As I’ve gotten older, my views on many things have evolved to a more libertarian outlook. If you like it and it doesn’t harm others, enjoy yourself. I personally have no objection if a state wants to decimalize marijuana. If a state wants to liberalize abortion laws, as long as it’s done by legislative process or direct decision of the voters (as opposed to judges or bureaucrats), fine.
On the subject of tobacco my views have definitely changed over the years. I am the only member of a family of seven (parents and five children) who has not smoked cigarettes (I tried one at ten years old and it was not a good experience). But I enjoy a pipe and cigars, I took both up in my 30s and 40s. You’re an adult, you know the risk (higher lung cancer risk for cigarette smokers, higher lip cancer rates for cigars and pipes), but are willing to take it, so be it.
Regulations of the people should be, to rephrase something Bill Clinton said, “legitimate, legal and rare.” As a rule I believe regulations should be at the local/state level, not the federal level. The central government gives you abortions like Roe v Wade. Or the banning of automobiles and prohibiting natural gas cooking and heating, i.e., things that work efficiently.
Now to show how the rot is so deep, the locals in certain states are showing how they need to be restrained on their abuse of the public. As one boss of mine said to me ages ago, they need “reality therapy.”
American lawmakers spend a lot of time writing legislation to keep dangerous objects — from firearms to drugs to pedophiles — away from schools. (Had any of these politicians met an actual human child, they might want to instead protect adults by banning schoolchildren from appearing anywhere outside a school.)
But now the City of Milwaukee has identified another practice so pernicious it must be kept away from the walls of our sacred K–12 institutions. The city’s planning commission has recommended a new rule barring vape shops from operating within 1,000 feet of elementary or secondary schools, libraries, playgrounds, and day-care centers. (Potential loophole: Who will protect fetuses from firing up vape pens in utero?)
The new rule applies to “tobacco” and “e-cigarette” retailers, conflating the two products as if they are somehow equally sinister. But regulating “e-cigarettes” because of their name is like prohibiting root beer because its name contains the word “beer.”
The problem with traditional cigarettes, of course, is that the nicotine they deliver rides on the back of tobacco smoke and other chemicals such as tar and arsenic, which can cause cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and a host of other horrible ailments…
…Instead, vapes deliver nicotine on a stream of water vapor, casting aside most of the dangerous carcinogens one finds in cigarettes. That’s why there’s barely any scent when someone is vaping — if you’re in the back of an Uber with an active vaper, you might not even smell it. The danger of second-hand e-cigarette vapor is effectively zero.
The only real common denominator between cigarettes and e-cigarettes is nicotine, which is a stimulant that is about as dangerous as caffeine. Doctors sometimes prescribe it to patients. Anyone can buy it over the counter in gum form. Sure, it is possible to get hooked, but the Royal Society for Public Health has declared the drug “fairly harmless…”
You would think a city just recovering from the George Floyd riots would concentrate on getting its robbery and carjacking rates down, or getting their police staffing up to handle more crime. You would be wrong. They have bigger priorities, like keeping e-cigarettes away from teenagers.
The fact is e-cigarettes are an imperfect solution to the problem of cigarette smoking. No one questions smoking is hazardous to your health (personally I will not trust the propaganda on secondhand smoke), but if this allows one to satisfy their addiction to nicotine without the harmful side ingredients, why not allow them? I know several friends and family members using them to wean themselves off cigarettes. Then why are politicians so concerned about this matter when there are critical issues at hand? Couldn’t be tax revenue, could it?
Forgive my cynicism, but when a politician says, “But it’s not about the money…” it is always first, foremost, and always about the money. I’ve said too many times to remember if the government wants people to stop smoking, fine, ban tobacco. If you don’t want kids using e-cigs, fine, ban the e-cigs.
You won’t get any politicians to say they want to ban the product, only increase the cost of the consumer using it. Could it be the medical bureaucracy and politicians know that people will still obtain tobacco products via the black market (alcohol and marijuana anyone). More to the point, I think they have tens of billions of dollars they do not want to give up from “sin” taxes.
Brings up a question, why are we taking this abuse from our inferiors? Good lord, Joe Biden needs to be reminded who is president every day, but he “thinks” he can run a multi-trillion dollar economy? One Democratic city after another (New York, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, New Orleans and yes, Milwaukee) is a disaster that people are running from as fast as they can. We need to start taking the power from politicians over abuses like this. Easiest way is to vote them out of office and never vote for them for dog catcher again. Another option is term limits (very difficult, and we will some good men and women, overall a step forward). But whatever method can be used, politicians and bureaucrats need to be restrained and quickly.
Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch
If you enjoyed this article, then please REPOST or SHARE with others; encourage them to follow AFNN. If you’d like to become a citizen contributor for AFNN, contact us at managingeditor@afnn.us Help keep us ad-free by donating here.
Truth Social: @AFNN_USA
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/afnnusa
Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/2_-GAzcXmIRjODNh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AfnnUsa
GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/AFNN_USA
CloutHub: @AFNN_USA
1 thought on “Milwaukee’s City Council Shows How Worthless It Is”