Prop 29 Lost

"VOTERS NARROWLY REJECT TOBACCO TAX" read the heading on page 4 of the Union Tribune.  I am not a smoker.  I used to be.  It is a dangerous, filthy and expensive habit.  I prefer not to be around people who are smoking.  Second-hand smoke is not healthy.  I also think  that tobacco companies tend to be interested only in their bottom line.......profit.  So, what else is new?  Proposition 29 was a California initiative to increase the tax on tobacco products to pay for cancer research.  It lost.  I did not feel very strongly about it either way.  However, I am one of those who voted against it.  I voted against it because I do not want to see an increase of taxes on anything.  Please forgive me, but sometimes I view the government as a big, big leech.  Government wastes and wastes.  It misallocates and then finds itself in trouble.  "Sin tax" tends to be an appropriate term.  However, I believe in freedom.  Although I do not agree with smoking,  I agree with freedom.  Relevant to liquor, Prohibition did not work in this country.  But reality tells me that its' repeal has not worked very well either, considering all of the deaths liquor has caused. But then again, were the deaths caused by the product or by the poor choices of people?  Products are manufactured.  They are out there.  They are neutral.  Choices, on the other hand, can be very deadly. Some are not deadly.  Therefore, I choose freedom.  That freedom can permit me to learn about the greatest choices available.  I know it is necessary to obey laws.  However, I do not want the government to be telling me how to live my life.  When the government taxes something excessively, it is then telling me that I cannot have or use that something. I would rather make that decision myself.  I believe in freedom.