Let the smearing begin

First there was Fred Thompson: Another actor turned politician. Didn't stick too well since he is a politician turned actor. And he got his first part playing himself in a movie. Plus right now even the liberal press (but I repeat myself) looks back positively on Ronald Reagan.

So here's a new angle from that cesspool of progressive stew, the Huffington Post: Fred Thompson: The Philip Morris Candidate. The headline is what you're supposed to remember. That's right. A vote for Fred Thompson is a vote for cancer. For those eeeeevil tobacco industry tycoons who have little girls forced at gunpoint to smoke to get them addicted. They sit in huge chairs that you only ever see the back of -- save an arm with a big fat stogie smoldering away sticking out from one side. Those chairs are behind giant mahogany desks with huge picture windows overlooking expensive real-estate, as piles of money accumulate in their accounts while they laugh an internal, maniacal laugh.

Or so the narrative is supposed to go.

Know what? A lot of people like to smoke. They know it can be bad for them. They know it can kill them. But they like to do it. And as long as they're not blowing it in my face, I'm good with it. Although I don't call myself a smoker, I even smoke an occasional cigar or a pipe. Because I want to. Because I like the aroma and the flavor. And I live in a supposedly free country where Liberty is the by-word. Or so it used to be.

People like to smoke, and somebody has to grow the tobacco if they are going to smoke it. And like any other economic endeavor where there is demand, suppliers make money off of it. And there. is. nothing. wrong. with. that.

Nobody, but NOBODY -- forces anyone to smoke. It is a personal choice, and we all know the risks. Just as nobody forces anyone to go into a restaurant, be it a restaurant that allows smoking or a restaurant that does not.

But there are people who don't think anyone should smoke. The conservatives in that crowd still leave it up to the individual. The "progressives" in that crowd do what progessives love to do. Use government power to "solve" social behavior they have a problem with.

And they protest and campaign and bring lawsuits and argue that "Big Tobbacco" is the problem and smokers are "victims". The progressive narrative. The world is made up of "Big, Powerful Bullies" and their "victims". And they are here to make it all better.

Rich, white kids and black strippers. Big Oil and the doom of Anthropogenic Global Warming. Rich business men and their poor customers. Plant owners and their slave employees. You poor, poor, people. Just turn to our government and we'll fix it all for you. Just like Stalin. Pol Pot. Mao. Castro.

Let freedom ring.