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crazy local news highlights...
- the VA House actually passed the smoking in restaurants ban, carried mostly by northern virginia and hampton roads area. the south, the west, and richmond all voted no. We'll see how the Senate does, since that's supposed to equalize the regions a bit more and weaken NoVA's influence.
- the senate passed a ban on teenagers driving with cell phones. the AP doesn't say whether or not hands-free is permitted.
- Gee, Marion Barry's in legal trouble again over his taxes, where he's accused of not filing his taxes for several more years after his last probation agreement required him to do so. unrepentant bastard, it seems, and that's what jail is for.
- more metro construction on v-day weekend - check wtop for details if your plans including heading into town
- MD is considering raising the alcohol tax. i say go for it. in this economy, nobody would even try to notice.
- Loudoun's talking layoffs for staff
- fairfax is still mulling the idea of moving the high school start time. i'm of mixed minds here
- i'm one of those whose 8am classes were consistently poorer performing than any other, BUT
- I'm also a band guy who knows that marching band REALLY needs the time after school to practice and will lose it
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But I'm still hoping the damn thing passes.
Oh and I bet Charlottesville voted yes as it is its own little corner of liberal paradise - LOL. I'm joking but not as my co-workers who live here say they get ragged on for that all the time.
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Oh, wait. I forgot, our county is all about Math Investigations, an elementary program that teaches math in conceptionalization right now.
Oh yeah, and you gotta love Virginia. A standard high school diploma is 22 credits, a advanced diploma is 24 credits including 3 foreign language requirements and 4 different sciences. If you are an IB diploma candidate....you earn the standard diploma. Why? Because they only take "2" different sciences at the most 3. They have to take the IBMYP Chemistry or Biology as a 9th or 10th grader and then take the two year IB Biology or IB Chemistry class where they will take the 5 hour IB exam (and possibly the AP exam as well).
Patrick gets the Advanced diploma because he bowed out of the full IB diploma and has already taken 4 different sciences because he took an extra science this year as an elective.
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Of course, I also took them in the summer 'cause I wanted to get out of GT science, not 'cause i couldn't hack it, but 'cause I was sick of all the work that went into the science fair project (which was required). 4 years of mostly winning something and I was pretty much done with it.
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in my best Hilby voice, "no way! no way!"
5. "alcohol tax" i'm shocked it's taken this long for someone to go for it. apparently it hasn't been raised in 30 years. whereas gas tax and cigarette tax jumps by leaps and bounds. (cigarettes $2 at a time.) so 2 cents for akkohols in thirty years is not a big deal. according to WJZ it's going "to support drug and alcohol treatment programs, provide services to more people with disabilities, increase state payments for people who work with the disabled and bolster the general fund." well! i can support that.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/07/AR2007020702131.html
I find it highly amusing that it was supposed to keep kids off of them but kids today have the highest amount of disposible income. The reason more don't smoke is because they know it's unhealthy and it's uncool... not because of the tax hike.
The reality of the situation is that it's putting money in the coffers of the state. When they first announced the hike, I was annoyed. Now PM just sends me coupons off a carton. *shrug*
I do find it extremely assinine that the alcohol tax (roughly 5 cents per six pack) wasn't raised in 30 years and yet alcohol kills more people in this country than second-hand smoke does. Especially teenagers and young children. Kinda makes me think that we should have raised the alcohol tax instead of demonizing smokers.
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If you sit next to my mother and drink a beer, no fuss, no muss (she doesn't find the smell of beer sickening the way I do). If you sit next to my Mom and smoke, she could end up in the hospital.
2nd hand smoke kills people. It also has a HUGE impact on the quality of life of the populace (asthma in children is linked to 2nd hand smoke for example). Things like COPD while not necessarily killing you can make you wish you were dead (I've had walking pneumonia, I know how bad it can feel to not be able to breathe without coughing so hard you are gagging and fear that your throat will start bleeding).
Oh, these sites show tobacco causing more deaths than alcohol (heck more than alcohol and car crashes together)
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/30 - Tobacco 435,000; Alcohol 85,000, Motor Vehicle crashes 26,347 (not all are alcohol related I'm sure but even so the total of the two is 111,347 much less than 435,000
http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-statistics.html - 29,500 driving deaths; some of which probably include the drinker
http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=35422 - 50,000 2nd hand smoke deaths each year
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I'm always skeptical of statistics like those you've referred to - I know of quite a few accidents that were alcohol-related that never got reported as such. I also tend to believe that *if* those stats are correct, more people are still injured because of alcohol than tobacco... perhaps I should have clarified that.
I tend to think of myself as a very polite smoker - I smoke outside, try to keep my smoking away from non-smokers and try to be mindful of those around me. How many people who drink heavily can state the same thing?
And as far as deaths related to smoking? I also believe that those figures are drastically inflated; there are heart attacks and cancers that have been labelled 'smoking-related' when it's not neccessarily a proven direct connection. Simply because someone smokes doesn't mean they're going to get cancer or have a heart attack - it might increase the risk but it's not always the 'absolute direct cause'. Likewise, just because someone smokes and has a heart attack doesn't mean it's not because they weren't watching their diet or exercising. It's acceptable nowadays to pin everything on tobacco when in reality that might be a factor but not the leading one.
*shrug* Just my $.02
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The funny thing is, it is probably one of the few music venues in the area that still allows smoking. (Jammin Java, The Birchmere and The State Theatre are smoke free and DC has an indoor smoking band)
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