The Meat of the Matter

A Request to be arrested

I have been bad. This week, I broke a federal law and a state law simultaneously. I live in California, where it is illegal to smoke in bars. I don't smoke cigarettes. I do, however, smoke cigars on occasion, and on this occasion, I smoked a Cuban cigar in a California bar. Federal law, state law. Both broken. Not only that, but people think cigar smoke is foul, so I probably broke a civil code as well. Triple guilt! I should be arrested! Of course, being a former libertarian who still clings to some of his past, I am opposed to both of these laws. Was this an act of civil disobedience? No. It was an act of being too lazy to walk outside, and too tipsy to care. So call it "Convenient Civil Disobedience." Take an average joe, and throw in a little obstinance, a few gin and tonics, laziness, and a head half-full of semi-intelligent ideas, and *poof* you get Thoreau. But seriously. Did the "Trading with the Enemies Act" really hurt Castro? I'm sure the powers that signed this into law assumed that tobacco farmers--angered by their loss of American profits--would rise up against Castro. Did this happen? No, because the Cuban tobacco farmers were simply able to sell their tobacco to the rest of the world, and garner even a higher price for their tobacco on the American black market. Ho hum. Another silly law that fails. I'm off to Sedona for the weekend. Who knows what I will smoke there, or where I'll smoke it. Ciao!