Can I Bum A Smoke?

Remember when cigarette smoking was our biggest social issue?  It started when a bunch of people who chose to stop smoking, decided everyone else should also stop smoking.  This group pushed their agenda until governments had the freedom to tax smokers into poverty and employers were allowed, literally encouraged, to discriminate against this single group of people. Oh yeah, these people call themselves "progressive".  

Way back then, many people stopped smoking and just went on with their life.  They didn't try to push their agenda on their neighbors or co-workers.  They stopped smoking, went out and bought a dog or a jigsaw puzzle, and life went on...until...one person thought to himself, "if I can't smoke, nobody should".  That is when it all started  - the progressive movement.  If only his best friend or a co-worker would have punched him upside the head at that moment, life might be better today for everyone.  It's a bit like that going back in time and killing a mosquito - Newton's equal and opposite reaction, third law of physics thing.

Let's take a look back on 2016 to see how one cry baby many years ago, determined how we should live today.

• Obama spent the past 8 years calling conservatives all sorts of offensive names including, "tea baggers".  Conservatives are labeled as too sensitive for objecting to the name calling.
• Trump calls Hillary a crook for...being a crook. The left loses their minds.
• Trump makes an ignorant comment about women a decade ago and women's rights groups protest Trump for disrespecting and exploiting women.  The same women's rights groups are defending women who chose to appear on television in very compromising and sometimes, disgusting situations.
• Planned Parenthood sells baby parts for profit - and it's okay!?!?!?!
• Illegal immigrants are allowed to flood into the country unrestricted and un-vetted.  The U.S. President tells them to go ahead and vote in the November national election because they will not get caught.
• Young people across the nation are given "safe spaces" in colleges and universities; and additional "understanding" when they break the rules in the workplace, because we must be more understanding.  Poor babies.  
• Young people across the nation are shooting up workplaces, night clubs and colleges and universities; and cutting off the heads of people who do not agree with or "understand" them.
• Criminals who happen to be black are misunderstood, so they assassinate cops and we are supposed to understand that criminal lives matter.
• One third of the population is no longer in the workforce but somehow we are expected to accept that only 4.5% of the population is unemployed.  Even more frightening is how many people actually believe that unemployment is only 4.5%
• Speaking of work, those who work hard are accused of "playing the game".  People who break the work rules are considered trendy or enlightened.
• Donald Trump is elected President, promising another 4 years of progressive policies, yet progressives are protesting Trump's election and threatening the lives of Electors if they vote as they are obligated to.  Am I the only one that sees a problem here?   
• Prospering on your own is considered greedy.  Speaking against government provided prosperity is considered racist.
• Praying to God and belief in Jesus is considered hateful.  Denying God is considered tolerant and understanding.
• Honoring the U.S. Constitution and the American flag is considered offensive or aggressive.  Burning the flag and disrespecting the U.S. Constitution is considered patriotic?!?!?!
• Fidel Castro is now a hero.  Glenn Beck, Ted Cruz and other conservatives are considered UN-American.  

This list can go on for weeks but you get where I'm going.  The nation has seemingly lost it's mind and I blame it on the anti-smoking movement.  For so many years we used the smoke break to think through our problems.  

The smoke break was a time to decompress and forget about trivial irritants, like the women standing in the middle of the aisle of a grocery store, reading a label.  If you cannot figure out how to move out of the way, what do you hope to learn by reading a label?  See?  When I smoked, this would not have bothered me.

After coming to the end of one of the most bizarre years in my life, I propose that we all stop for a smoke break.  We need to reel in our sanity.  Let's face it, American Indian's have been using tobacco as medicine for years so there must be something to this dried weed.  At midnight on December 31, let us all start smoking.  Not only will this make the nation a much happier place, but this can be a New Year Resolution we can all keep.  Happy 2017!