The picture, at left, is from a friendlier and more "American" time. More American time? Yes, this photo is from when the United States was a free country. The "prime rib" of the world, the best and the brightest.
What is the US now? Chopped liver?
The US has become more like potted meat - which the character of Carl in Slingblade so aptly describes. Potted meat is a substance made of the parts that nobody else wants, all mixed together, ground into a puree and then salted and spiced beyond it's original designation as a living thing. It's glorified confinement loaf.
Confinement loaf?
Confinement loaf is a concoction of food items sometimes used in prisons as a deterrent to misbehavior. It is similar to meatloaf in texture, but has a wider variety of ingredients, including vegetables, meat, and other ingredients. Some versions may vegetarian or completely vegan. The ingredients are baked into a solid loaf-like form. In some institutions it has no fixed recipe but is simply the regular prison meal (including drink), blended and baked into a loaf.
Confinement loaf is typically intended to be exceedingly bland in taste, perhaps even unpleasant, but meets all basic human nutritional needs. Prison wardens use the food as a means of punishment for ill-behaving prisoners, in particular prisoners who throw their plates and utensils in the dining hall. They may be punished by being provided with no other form of meal for prolonged periods of time as a means of breaking the prisoners’ spirits and encouraging them to change their behavior.
What the heck does this have to do with pipe shows?
The Populists have been feeding Americans "confinement loaf" for three or four decades now. We're not talking about the occasional meal... no, dear friends, we're talking about a steady diet of it.
While the money changers, tax collectors and big business went about furthering their hidden agendas, the government (politicians) became their slaves. When the crap hit the fan, the government pointed fingers in front of the screen while all sorts of maneuvering went on behind the same screen.
Thus, smoking became the reason for all cancer. All. This doesn't explain why millions of people die of cancer every year who never smoked... but it does explain how the confinement loaf (when force-fed to the public) works.
And now smoking is banned almost everywhere. Big business tobacco lost out to big business _________ (fill in the blank). Cell phones? Oil Companies? Basically it's to whomever has the most money at the time. That's how governments eventually work - as in, which crook do you vote for? There isn't a choice, only illusion.
Tear Down That Wall
Once we've allowed our rights to be taken away, we'll have to fight to get them back. Millions have died for their rights and millions have died while suppressing the rights of others.
What good is a beer show if you can't drink beer?
A pipe and tobacco show without smoke will not exist for long. Sure, there are some people who will argue the point but let's see in five years what's happened. Will there still be a core of 150 people go to a pipe show without smoke? Possibly it will but then it won't be a show, it'll be a gathering. The support from the retailers will lag as attendance lags. It'll fold down to nothing.
You're Being Negative....
I'm biased. I grew up with my parents telling me about how great it was supposed to be. I've lived a pretty simple life. My one big event each year for the past 10+ years has been going to pipe shows. Don't give me **** about negativity. I'm a realist and I can't smoke my pipe where I damn well please at a pipe show. Oh, I can go to a "special" place and smoke..... sorry pal, it ain't the same.
Maybe we'll add more to this post, maybe not. The whole deal has me in a bit of a "funk" and moreover, our freedoms are slowly being taken away from us.
A soccer mom somewhere is feeling assured that her dear children won't die of cancer from tobacco smoke since the latest smoking ban. Meanwhile, gangs of illegal aliens smuggling heroin are walking the streets of her city. The water that her children will drink is polluted with flouride but the big company down the street is paying off to keep the pollution quiet. Their father is smoking crack in a hotel room with a prostitute, not knowing that the prostitute gave him a.i.d.s. during their previous rendezvous. Mom is calling her friend to brag about the teenager kid next door who can 'play ball' for hours while her husband is working late *giggle giggle*... while her children watch through a crack in the door.
This is an illustration of how our priorities have been changed, as a nation.
Are pipe shows a thing of the past? I certainly hope not. It may be that pipe shows with "free range smoking" will only be tolerated in/at the last bastions of true american freedom; Native American Reservations with large hotels and conference centers. Sign me up.
