Maddness in Oz...

[Sam Gamgee]

I really don't understand the extreme hatred against tobacco. There are other things that will do harm to human body such as alcohol, caffeine, sugar, number of so called recreation drugs. But tobacco is hand picked by almost all governments as number 1 evil substance. Just doesn't make sense.

I'm not convinced it has anything to do with the harming of one's body. If you believe in evil (as I do), then it makes sense that the zeitgeist has no issue with lulling the masses to death with booze, excess sugar, ubiquitous porn, etc. But pipe-smoking is for the man who thinks, and that's a dangerous thing in this world.

Why should you or I be allowed to think for ourselves, or god (lowercase spelling on purpose) forbid, enjoy ourselves?

 

[AJL67]

The nanny state. Governments aren’t suppose to rule your life, they have very few actual responsibilities but no one stops them on their overreach so it just keeps growing and growing.

 

[Andriko]

The issue is not so much do gooders and the like, but the industry that has grown around ending tobacco use. Big Pharma made a fortune all those years with nicorette patches, now there is the vaping industry not to mention all the people making money out of health studies that lead to public campaigns. Then there are the (often publicly funded) pressure groups, petty bureaucrats in need of justification and so on.

Whatever complaints people have made and can still make about 'big tobacco', the anti tobacco lobby is just as huge and profitable, which is why I don't think tobacco will ever be quite banned, as they do actually need us to keep smoking to some extent to stay in business themselves. It's all a bit 'baptists and bootleggers'.

 

[Briar Lee]

In just my adult lifetime, smoking has been transformed from society having ashtrays in every restaurant, home, car, public building and even planes and elevators into something evil, tolerated only because prohibition might be worse.

Conversely, fifty years ago beer and liquor were highly regulated, only designated liquor stores and taverns could sell it at certain hours, and never on Sunday.

Today a dollar bottle of booze sits beside every gas station cash register, beside the lottery ticket advertisement.

And in Missouri, any adult with a clean record can buy the issued military rifle of the United States Army (minus a selector switch) and several hundred rounds of ammunition on demand, for about the price of this smart phone.

My car has 363 horsepower and will cruise at 100 miles an hour all day.

For $500 I can buy the same semiautomatic pistol every policeman carries, that holds over 15 rounds of ammunition.

In major cities in the USA, obviously mentally ill people are at most intersections carrying cardboard signs begging for money.

And when I was a kid every kid knew some other kid that had girlie magazines. Liquor stores used to sell porno magazines. Now I don’t know anyplace that sells Playboy or Penthouse.

The defenders of tobacco are lousy at preserving our favorite vice.

Probably, because we all knew better than to smoke the first time we lit up.

But in the privacy of our homes and cars, we can still smoke excellent value pipe tobacco that costs a dollar an ounce.

And straight black coffee is so cheap I’m on my second pot this morning.

At least, solid gold country music is free today on YouTube

Hank Jr was right, about some things.

 

[bullet08]

I'm not convinced it has anything to do with the harming of one's body. If you believe in evil (as I do), then it makes sense that the zeitgeist has no issue with lulling the masses to death with booze, excess sugar, ubiquitous porn, etc. But pipe-smoking is for the man who thinks, and that's a dangerous thing in this world.

Why should you or I be allowed to think for ourselves, or god (lowercase spelling on purpose) forbid, enjoy ourselves?

Problem with that idea is that pipe smokers are people who think. Don't believe everything you read on advertisments. Just by looking at the number of beginning pipe smokers' posts, good number of them seems to avoid thinking and prefer to be told what needs to be done.

 

[cigrmaster]

When I was into Cuban cigars, it was a federal crime to import them. 5 years and a 50.000.00 fine if you got caught. I had shipents snagged over the years and just got a note from US customs asking if I wanted to apeal their taking of my cigars. Of course I said no. I had retailers from all over the world willing to take their chances and ship to the US and cover the loss if snagged by customs. Hell even my attorney got letters from customs,
I have no idea what the laws in Aussie are but one of my best sources was Wal Barranow in Aussie land I had sources in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Switzerland, Spain, Gibraltar. If there is a will there is a way.

 

[warren]

The very idea that a pipe makes a thinker or, that a pipe smoker should be identified as a thinker is hilarious.

Smokers have made a very selfish decision to smoke. Many in society, leaving aside the the health issues, don't want to leave a bar/work smelling like an ashtray. Most pipe smokers do not smell their pipe. Sure some folks enjoy the "room note." But, the stale smoke residue left behind by the smoker remains in the paint, carpet and so forth.

Just accept that your wee vice is very satisfying to you and, not so much for the majority of others. Embrace the reek, ignore the societal distaste and embrace the idea that burning up your hard earned moneys is enjoyable. Quit trying to justify smoking, sit back and light up. I don't feel the need to justify my tobacco usage. I suppose it's my innate rebelliousness.

I am impressed and a bit envious of those smokers in high tax areas who can readily afford to buy tobacco. More power to you guys!

 

[Sam Gamgee]

I stand by my theory that pipe-smokers are thinkers. The very act lends itself to contemplation, reflection, and quietness. It shuts the mouth (something most people never get very good at) and opens the mind. It doesn't automatically mean every pipe-smoker is a wise person, but he has a better chance of becoming one with the hobby.

 

[kcghost]

Whatever we are we are part of the herd, and the herd has decided we shouldn't smoke. Some herds have decided that they don't smoking AT ALL in their area and are just going to tax it death.

 

[warren]

The very act lends itself to contemplation, reflection, and quietness.

When I'm driving my chainsaw, pipe in jaw, I'm concentrating on the saw. And, trust me, driving the tractor, chainsaw or what have you isn't quiet. A theory needs some facts for a basis. A belief or opinion needs only faith. Keep the faith! If you require a pipe to think ... more power to you. But, we're writing about anecdotal observations. You may be able to speak for others but, I prefer not to.

 

[beargreasediet]

Of course smoking a pipe doesn’t make one a genius. But it isn’t 1920, pipes aren’t ubiquitous, strawberry mango vape pens arehe pipe very much represents the road less traveled at this point. Not only is there a learning curve but the initial buy-in costs more, both in terms of dollars and attention span (both are being plundered by exceedingly nefarious actors). It is

Whatever other categories they may fit into, the younger guys I see taking up the habit are more likely to engage in meaningful conversation and actually listen to their elders. Of the guys I run into who have been smoking a pipe for a while, the vast majority seem to have a bit more on the ball philosophically and intellectually than the average bear.

As for the lack of practical knowledge and tendency to overthink things, most new smokers didn’t learn how, at the age of 7, from their uncles and grandfathers. And of course there are second and third order effects in play on society in general.

Not justifying a thing, just observations…

 

[Sam Gamgee]

Whatever other categories they may fit into, the younger guys I see taking up the habit are more likely to engage in meaningful conversation and actually listen to their elders. Of the guys I run into who have been smoking a pipe for a while, the vast majority seem to have a bit more on the ball philosophically and intellectually than the average bear.

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

 

[beargreasediet]

When I'm driving my chainsaw, pipe in jaw, I'm concentrating on the saw. And, trust me, driving the tractor, chainsaw or what have you isn't quiet. A theory needs some facts for a basis. A belief or opinion needs only faith. Keep the faith! If you require a pipe to think ... more power to you. But, we're writing about anecdotal observations. You may be able to speak for others but, I prefer not to.

I’m envious. I wish I could properly perform physical tasks while smoking a pipe, without burning the piss out of my tongue, filling the stem with spit, and having to stop what I’m doing all the time for a relight. But that’s what Copenhagen is for.

Then again, perhaps my observations are shit and I’m just a moron; I’ll have to light up a pipe and contemplate the possibility.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Reference to tobacco laws'Happily, we here in the EU are able to relocate to another EU country if things go really downhill in the country where one is currently resident,

 

[GreatWhiteNorthPiper]

Sorry to hear this. And I thought Canada was bad!!!

 

[geoffs]

It's horrible and it's the same road Canada is on. I find it odd that cigars and pipe tobacco are demonized, while the government here actively sells and promotes cannabis. Try taking a walk down any major street in any major city and you're sure to smell weed. There is no doubt that usage has increased significantly since it's been made legal. I'm not sure what our government is "protecting" us from or where it got the idea that cigars and pipe tobacco are more harmful than cannabis.

 

[cigrmaster]

The very idea that a pipe makes a thinker or, that a pipe smoker should be identified as a thinker is hilarious.

Smokers have made a very selfish decision to smoke. Many in society, leaving aside the the health issues, don't want to leave a bar/work smelling like an ashtray. Most pipe smokers do not smell their pipe. Sure some folks enjoy the "room note." But, the stale smoke residue left behind by the smoker remains in the paint, carpet and so forth.

Just accept that your wee vice is very satisfying to you and, not so much for the majority of others. Embrace the reek, ignore the societal distaste and embrace the idea that burning up your hard earned moneys is enjoyable. Quit trying to justify smoking, sit back and light up. I don't feel the need to justify my tobacco usage. I suppose it's my innate rebelliousness.

I am impressed and a bit envious of those smokers in high tax areas who can readily afford to buy tobacco. More power to you guys!

I am more impressed by the guys who choose to pay those hideous taxes without puking every time. I feel for you guys I really do. there should be laws for over taxing.

 

[beargreasediet]

That’s it Geoffs. This crap has nothing to do with concern for people’s health and well being. If so, we would ban most of what is on the television and more than half of what is sold as “food”. Here in western Washington we essentially subsidize fentanyl - manufactured, imported and distributed relatively cheaply without any duty whatsoever. It is of course taxed, in roundabout fashion, with the the non-user on the hook to fund homeless industrial complex. Messieurs Cloward and Piven, meet Charlie Ponzi.

Cigarettes (and the people who smoke them) have been sufficiently demonized by a clever a marketing campaign, as the “wrong sort”, hence it doesn’t really matter what happens to them. It is essentially, like the lottery, a tax on the poor. When all pipe tobacco was labeled as cigarette fodder, to close the loophole exploited by the roll your own crowd, there wasn’t any lobby muscle to push back (the cigar lobby didn’t have to outrun the bear, just the pipe smokers).

Just paid $37.00 for a tin of Cringle Flake as I wanted to try it and cannot order it. I know it ain’t Australia… yet, they probably won’t flip that switch until and unless they disarm us too - and then God help us.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

And when I was a kid every kid knew some other kid that had girlie magazines. Liquor stores used to sell porno magazines. Now I don’t know anyplace that sells Playboy or Penthouse.

Playboy stopped printing an actual magazine a couple of years ago. I found a site that has all the issues from the 1950's to the 1980's in digital format. You can see the nude pictures from each issue (this doesn't interest me, of course) but there's also many of the articles and interviews with famous people of the era. The page I've linked to is from 1976 and has an interview with James Caan.

If you click at the top right of the page it gives you the different decades to choose from. To be honest I was in two minds about whether to post the link as I know a few of our forum members are getting up there in age. I'm a bit worried about them going back to the 1950's issues to look at the naked girl of their dreams from from when they were young and maybe getting a bit too excited and having a heart attack or something. Please, if you do visit the site, do as I do and just read the articles. No peeking at Miss February 1954!

Link:

February 1976

Cover: Playmate Jill De Vries, photographed by Dwight Hooker Playmate of the Month:Laura Lyons, photographed by Dwight Hooker, centerfold by Mario CasilliLyon’s Share | Bunny-Playmate Laura L…

pipeandpjs.wordpress.com

 

[karam]

Playboy stopped printing an actual magazine a couple of years ago. I found a site that has all the issues from the 1950's to the 1980's in digital format. You can see the nude pictures from each issue (this doesn't interest me, of course) but there's also many of the articles and interviews with famous people of the era. The page I've linked to is from 1976 and has an interview with James Caan.

If you click at the top right of the page it gives you the different decades to choose from. To be honest I was in two minds about whether to post the link as I know a few of our forum members are getting up there in age. I'm a bit worried about them going back to the 1950's issues to look at the naked girl of their dreams from from when they were young and maybe getting a bit too excited and having a heart attack or something. Please, if you do visit the site, do as I do and just read the articles. No peeking at Miss February 1954!

Link:

February 1976

Cover: Playmate Jill De Vries, photographed by Dwight Hooker Playmate of the Month:Laura Lyons, photographed by Dwight Hooker, centerfold by Mario CasilliLyon’s Share | Bunny-Playmate Laura L…

pipeandpjs.wordpress.com

Fun fact about Playboy which those who have never opened one refuse to believe is that for many years Playboy actually had very good articles.