I contributed a short article about new sin taxes and the recession to this week’s Lars Larson newsletter [pdf]. Jan from Cascade Cigar has a piece in there too. Since the newsletter is in pdf format, I’ve copied my submission below the break. The Wages of Sin Taxes People who indulge in...

Filed under: Cigars The 2009 Tobacconists' Association of America (TAA) Convention kicks off on Sunday, March 8. Tobacconists and manufacturers from around the world will converge on the CasaMagna Marriott for four days of reconnecting, deal-making and of course plenty of cigar smoking. I'm currentl...

In the seventies I experimented with a lot of tobaccos which nowadays I wouldn't touch with a dead skunk. Most of them were really nasty products from formerly respectable Dutch manufacturers whoring themselves out to the gold-chain bare hairy chest crowd. Stuff no one in their right mind (assuming ...

One of the things boys do is push boundaries. By which I mean that they engage in a pattern of behaviour calculated to extend the limits of the permissible. This despite the rules that have been set by adults. It's an addictive behaviour. Boys do it much more than little girls, hence the sexist gene...

Renee Fiallos via MyspaceQuick, what's the difference between "Real Jazz" and that impostor shit John Tesh and his cronies try to pass off? If you can't answer that question, you owe it to yourself t...

Finally, an anti-tobacco campaign that isn't preachy or insulting. Check out these gross carcinogen trading cards from Denver agency Sukle Advertising + Design! They look like a Magic: The Gathering deck that never was, or maybe a distant relative of the Garbage Pail Kids. But it's not a bad way of ...

One of the latest trends in the anti-smoking movement is campus-wide smoking bans that forbid smoking even out of doors and away from buildings. The University of Oregon may soon be jumping on that bandwagon, as an official task force of busybodies has recommended that the administration follow suit...

Here’s an op-ed penned by Hugh Holliman on why he introduced a second hand smoke bill. The Davidson Democrat introduced the measure — the “Prohibit Smoking in Public and Work Places” — on the first day of the session. I have never been a smoker, but I grew up in North Carolina ...

Filed under: Preschoolers, Weird but true, Alcohol & drugs If you've got a three-year-old child, I would think you would pretty much know where that kid is and what they're doing at all times. At least, that's the way I've always done it. Twenty-four-year-old Kelly Marie Pocock of London, howeve...

FBI lab test results are expected next week as the investigation continues into the chemical spill at a Wal-Mart store in Germantown. The FBI is trying to identify a substance found at the store last Thursday. Germantown’s chief said they’re not sure it’s the source of the fumes or...