Conservative Fury! Senate Democrats to take away flavored Cigars

Democratic Senators, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut wrote FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg on Thursday urging her to ban flavored cigars. Brown joined by his Democratic Party colleagues Senators noted "these products pose a serious threat to public health" and "Flavored cigars are putting children's health at risk and increasing nicotine addiction and tobacco use among young people."

ROAR! You can pry my Hibiscus-Passion Fruit flavored cigarillo from my cold dead, nicotine stained fingers!

"Tobacco companies embody the adage ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,’" Senator Brown said in a statement. "From Joe Camel to tobacco candies and now flavored cigars, Big Tobacco is always trying to find new ways to hook young, impressionable customers—and those customers are our children.”

Faux News promoted this as more nanny-state regulation run wild and ran a story that The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association authored a petition asking Congressmen, Senators and FDA officials to: Please don’t regulate premium cigars like cigarettes! Of course, No such petition to Congress would be complete without this type of language: And As an adult I want to make my own choices in life and not have a bureaucrat at the FDA making those choices for me.

Damn FDA bureaucrats! If I want to sell cigars soaked in formaldehyde shouldn't I have that choice?

People see what they what to see. Conservatives have created an alternate history for themselves with which they must view every issue as a left/right dichotomy.

It is incontrovertible that Tobacco Companies appeal to the youngest demographic possible, with the exception of those which cater to a different niche or audience. Thus what Senator Brown is saying is true "Big Tobacco" is always trying "to find new ways to hook young, impressionable customers". It's merely good business to get customers attracted to your product as soon as possible.

But what this really shows is those who are offended and up-in-arms over Nanny State Over Regulation have no idea what they are angry about, if they did they would know the main market for funky flavored 6-for-a-dollar gas station cigars are marijuana smokers. You see "dope-smoking criminals" remove the tobacco from the cigar, pack the now empty leaf with weed and have thus created a blunt.

So, if this regulation had been targeted against Hookah Lounges or Head Shops the reaction from Faux and it's bevy of conservative genuflecting sycophants would have been much different.