So I’m sitting here this morning, minding my own business as everyone is getting ready to leave and as I get up to go to the garage to have a cigarette (I don’t smoke in the house), I hear a news report that Illinois Governer Blagojevich is proposing yet another tax hike on cigarettes – an additional $.75 a pack charge. There’s a story in the Chicago Sun Times on it as well.

Now, I fully understand that smoking is a disgusting habit and that if you smoke you should quit. I get it. I also get that it is no longer in vogue to be a smoker. However, I’m getting a little tired of constantly being penalized for a choice that is unpopular.

Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t be opposed to it if I got something out of it — and fixing roads and opening schools doesn’t do that for me because I already pay taxes for that. For example, requiring employers to build shelters for us lepers that need to go outside in order to smoke, so that we don’t have to stand in the only area of the property with no wind cover. Maybe we can create smoking shelters like we do for homeless people.

Or maybe we can use the funds to create our own ‘colonies’, so that we are away from the mainstream of society and we do not bother anyone. I’m sure this would reduce the occurances of ear infections, second hand cancer, and the other horrible illnesses that second hand smoke causes that I never suffered from growing up with smoking parents.

The next step of discrimination is on its way, where employers can deny employment based on whether you smoke or not.

Here’s a question. If Ron started a company in which he refused to hire anyone that did not smoke, how quickly do you think he would be dragged into court for discrimination?

This completely irritates me. If I am to be taxed for my behavior, I want the following people taxed as well, just because they bother me:

• People who still write checks in the grocery line
• People who still don’t know how to use an ATM
• People who still don’t get that they have to learn how to use a computer
• People who drive under the speed limit
• People who push their views on other people, whether they be views on smoking, religion, or what should be seen on TV or heard in music

If we tax these people, I’ll be ok with the additional cigarette tax. After all, its only fair that people be penalized for ‘bothering’ me if I have to pay for bothering them.