The final medals were awarded on Sunday as the 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver came to a close.  I don’t know about you guys, but I get drawn into the games and find myself watching hour after of hour of shit I would normally never stay seated on the couch to suffer through.  I have to admit that I am hooked on Curling and watch those matches even if the teams are from countries I can’t spell let alone find on a map.  Bowling and sweeping, the perfect couples sport.  There were some great moments in this years games but I’m sure you know the highlight I’m most likely to address.  Yep, the Canadian women’s hockey team.  Which on a side bar, how huge is wining Gold in both mens and women’s hocky?  I mean it’s friggin Canada and this is it’s national past time so unless you’re a Montreal Allouetes fan, this is the biggest thing to hit the provinces since

 After defeating the United States 2-0, the Canadian women took home their third straight Olympic gold medal.  The drama came well after the medal ceremony when the crowds had left and a number of players came back onto the ice to celebrate this once in a lifetime moment.  According to AP reports, 14 players returned to the rink and toasted their win with bottles of champagne and cans of beer while others enjoyed cigars.  The IOC obviously was not pleased with the events and claimed it was not a good promotion of sport values.  I can understand the outrage over one of the players being underage and I can sympathize with the fact that it’s the Olympics and so much more is expected of these athletes than in the professional sports world, but this made news only because they were woman athletes.  Take  a look at a few key facts here, the crowd had already left so this display was not done in front of or for the fans.  They didn’t pull a Brandi Chastain and rip off their tops immediately following the win showcasing some athletically defined you know whats to all the ogling men in the stands.  The simply got caught up in the moment of reaching the highest pinnacle of achievement in their sport and let loose a little bit. 

The team of course never intended for their actions to cause a stir because they never intended that a celebration held amongst themselves, which has been repeated thousands of times before, would become front page news.  Was it the champagne and the beer?  Possibly.  I guess we don’t think that it’s very lady like to guzzle a cold one and spritz the bubbly around the locker room.  I think what really set off some people was when the gals lit up.  How could young women succumb to the vile tobacco weed?  What would make them smoke a cigar as part of their celebration for winning gold?  Was it possibly that damn near every other team that has won a championship has done the same thing for as long as sport has existed?  It doesn’t matter what sport we’re talking about either.  Think back to every World Series or Super Bowl Victory party, we anxiously wait for TV reporters to barge into locker rooms only to try and conduct interviews through a typhoon of spraying champagne and cloud of cigar smoke.  No  big deal right?  Boys will be boys and after a triumphant season it only seems fitting.  So why was this one an issue?

Because women aren’t supposed to smoke cigars and enjoy life!  Give me another reason if that’s not it.  How the hell can you justify a mens baseball team, the entire team, doing the same thing right on the field in front of thousands of fans and in front of hundreds of children no less.  What makes those actions any less despicable than a couple of gals enjoying a puro and a Molson?  It just caught me off guard a bit when after all the rhetoric about equality it seems the public really isn’t ready for it after all if something like this made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.  Women in growing numbers are enjoying cigars and pipe smoking for the same reasons men have taken to these vices.  And that my friends is a good thing.  Unfortunately public perception hasn’t embraced the face of a female hidden behind a Calabash or a Churchill yet so they still have a way to go.  There is nothing sexier than a gal that knows more about cigars than I do.

It was a great moment in sports for these young women and I think it was wonderful that they chose to celebrate with team mates the same way their male counterparts do.  The fun police and political correctness Nazi’s have put such a damper on spontaneous  celebrations such as these for fear of backlash from some highly funded anti-smoking organization making waves about inappropriate behavior not becoming role models of their stature.  WTF!  Mr. Basketball is famous for not only his hoops ability but also for being an avid cigar smoker.  No one had a problem with that.  What little kid growing up did not want to be Michael Jordan?  Every kid begged for a pair or Air Jordan’s in the hopes that those special shoes just might make their game a little better.  News Flash!  He celebrated numerous NBA Championships with cigar in hand and was still literally the “face” of professional basketball.  Have we come so far that this type of behavior is shunned or was this because we have a separate set of standards for male and female athletes?  Likely a bit of both but they had a cigar and a drink, they didn’t gut a goat at center ice and sacrifice it’s entrails to Sindey Crosby.  I guess it was okay for MJ but not okay for Meghan Agosta.

I extend an open invite to all the women hockey players to come to our Cigar Nights and enjoy a smoke on me.  I think cigars are a perfect way to celebrate any kind of victory whether in the locker room or the boardroom.  Plus hot chicks with cigars are awesome.  Sorry, I’m still a pig and you knew it was coming.

The Cigar soldier

Since I’m really not an overly bright guy to begin with, I’ll try to keep the chemistry lesson to a minimum and just share with you cats the parts I understand.  The new study showed that the residual nicotine from tobacco smoke will cling to indoor surfaces and react with ambient nitrous acid  (common household pollutants) to form carcinogen tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs).  The exposure to TSNAs is through inhalation of dust particles or contact with the  “contaminated” surface.  The greatest threat would of course be infants and toddlers who are forced to accept their environment.  (emphasis mine)  One author of the study went so far as to state in an interview that ”opening a window or deploying a fan to ventilate the room while a cigarette burns does not eliminate the hazard of third hand smoke.  Smoking outdoors is not much of an improvement.”  Statements like those become very powerful for the anti-tobacco crowd since it easily feeds the fire (no pun intended) to continue pushing to eliminate any and all smoking.  Remember that the majority of these studies mainly focus on the effects of cigarettes and cigarette smokers, but they don’t care what you smoke since the results are interpreted in a way to lump us together in the effort to ban smoking.

There is no acceptable level of ETS or THS they are willing to accept and once studies like this gain legs it becomes even more difficult to fight the onslaught of the anti-tobacco forces.  The reason I even point out this new study to you guys is an attempt to show you the extraordinary great lengths being taken by those who oppose tobacco to prove, no matter what the cost or time frame, that tobacco is not safe to anyone and should be completely banned.  They will not give up until that end has been reached and shit like this only helps their cause.  Sense and reasoning have never been a part of the conversation while smoking bans and tax increases are levied on tobacco users so even though this study only shows “potential” risks (hell, it’s even in the name of the study; Formation of carcinogens indoors by surface-mediated reactions of nicotine with nitrous acid leading to potential thirdhand smoke hazards) you can bet they will preach these results from the mountains.  Minus the “potential” part.

The battle cry of “Anything for the children” seems to be ringing in my ears right now because that’s how the anti’s will use a study such as this to continue pushing their agenda that the effects of tobacco hurt everyone regardless of whether it’s first, second or now third hand smoke.  Before we know it we’ll see a new study that will try to show how if you smoke in your home your child could pass TSNAs to the other kids in daycare and Fourthhand smoke is now a deadly killer.  Now, I’m not saying that its right to chain smoke in front of your newborn.  As a matter of fact if you do shit like that you need to have your head examined. Let me recommend Dr. Jack Kevorkian to assist you.  Yeah, that joke means exactly what I intended it to mean.  What I think is wrong is this Nanny State that has been created where Big Brother has to protect us from ourselves.  Do some young children need to looked after and protected from cleary incompetent parents?  Sure.  Are there actually some knuckle dragging hill scroggins that still smoke in front of their newborns? You bet there are.  Are there anit-tobacco zealots that sit their child in front of a campfire for the evening while feeding the flames with empty plastic bottles, styrofoam plates and other assorted toxic trash.  Umm, yes.  I guess we only need to protect ourselves from ourselves if we enjoy tobacco. 

Sorry to rant about the bad news out there but when I look at our past time it just seems like there is so much of it.  I do have some good news I need to share withyou guys though.  We still have two more events this month for the club.  February 17th is our Appleton/Fox Valley Cigar night and of course don’t forget that on the 24th we have our VIP and Platinum Members only dinner.  If you qualify and have not yet sent me an RSVP, please do so right away so I have an accurate head count for the meal.  As for next month we’ll have our Green Bay Chapter Cigar Night on March 2nd with special guest Adam Paal from www.fireupthatcigar.com hosting a tasting clinic.  Also, look out for news on the Rocky Patel Event at Titletown Tobacco coming up soon.

The Cigar Soldier

Last month I ranted about the statewide smoking ban that officially goes into effect on July 5th of this year.  We are also well aware of the tax increase that went into effect this past April on our beloved cigars.  The bright spot is that while constantly under assault from big brother, who claims to be looking out for our well being, cigar smokers are still enjoying their cigars at levels near the famed “Cigar Boom” of the 90’s.  I know that many of you guys also enjoy kicking back with a pipe and especially with the ever increasing cost of cigars, the pipe seems like a wonderful option.  Yeah, here comes the bad news part.  On January 13th a bill was introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Rep. Llyod Dogget (D-TX) to amend the internal revenue code to increase the tax on pipe tobacco from $2.8133 per pound to an astonishing $24.78 per pound.  This increase would tax pipe tobacco at the same rate of roll your own cigarette tobacco. I’m sure those cigarette smokers we ignored are finally saying, “It’s about time you guys feel our pain”.

At what point will this madness end?  As cigar smokers we sat on our ass and watched our government shamelessly attack cigarette smokers thinking we would be safe from the onslaught of pseudo-science bullshit.  Well guys, S-Chip passed and we’re all feeling the sting of letting that happen as we pay more of our hard earned money for those precious sticks.  As cigar smokers we stood in the distance watching cigarette smokers take the brunt of the public punishment as their rights were slowly stripped away by an anti-tobacco movement that continually gains momentum with each tax and ban.  We figured that we would safe from harm in our small group of cigar enthusiasts but they eventually came after us.  Next were pipe smokers who sat back and watched both cigarette and cigar smokers turned into second class citizens all the while thinking they were immune from the whims of this administration.  Pipe smokers also anticipated that by staying off the rader they could avoid the cold hard slap of increased taxes on their products.  They also guessed wrong!  We have allowed ourselves to be categorized into groups of tobacco users instead of standing unified against these insane tax hikes.  The anti-tobacco movement does not care what form of tobacco product you chose to enjoy, they want it all gone.  All of it, gone.  It’s time we stop thinking of ourselves in terms of groups but join forces before it’s too late and we no longer have any tobacco to enjoy.  Regardless of what form of tobacco product you chose to use or your feelings of which one is safer than the other, the anti crowd lumps us all together in their never ending effort to eradicate us all.  Since we’re all fighting the same war I think it’s time we all get on the same page.

 In uncertain economic times while skilled qualified workers throughout our country continue to lose their jobs and we face unemployment’s rates close to 10% nationwide, our government (local and federal) has spent more time increasing tobacco taxes and implementing smoking bans than on creating new jobs and securing our work force for the future.  The backwards agenda of smoking bans has actually created a reverse effect by eliminating many jobs in the tobacco industry and in bars and restaurants that can no longer cater to smokers.  We are coming to point where we will no longer even be able to smoke in our own homes!  If you can’t ban the product they will just keep pushing bans on where you can use it.  In the words of that psycho crazy fitness bitch Susan Powter, “Stop the insanity!”

Time for some good news though fellas.  Our Membership dinner is scheduled for February 24th at The Vault so if you qualify, be sure  to let me know that you’ll be in attendance.  If you can’t make it, more steak for me!  It will be a great night of fine dining and cigars before the Tofu industry lobbyists gain momentum and the government over taxes red meat due to the heath issues associated with it’s consumption.  Ya never know.  Also on the calendar for this month is our Appleton/Fox Valley Cigar Night on February 17th at Appleton Souvenir & Cigar Company.  The one event I hope you guys can all make it out to is the One Year Celebration of The Vault.  Owner Jimmy C. is throwing a bash to commemorate a great first year and since he has always been a gracious host to the club and is also a Charter Member of The Brotherhood of the Leaf, come on down for live music by 12 Volt Band help make it a party to remember.

It’s going to be a long year so light em’ up boys.

The Cigar Soldier