It's Come To This: Government Persecution For Selling CANDY Cigarettes

Over-reach much?

Via Yahoo News, which would not be reporting the action unless it supported the action:

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Owners of an old-school soda shop in St. Paul, Minn., are being warned to kick the habit and stop stocking novelty candy cigarettes.

City inspectors threatened a misdemeanor citation and $500 fine if Lynden's soda fountain is caught selling the fake smokes again. The Star Tribune reported Wednesday that the offering violated an ordinance barring the sale of candy smokes and cartoon character lighters.

A city spokesman says the warning came after inspectors received and looked into a complaint about the presence of the tobacco-themed products. The ordinance was enacted to discourage youngsters from picking up a real smoking habit.

Shop owner Tobi Lynden says the white candy sticks with the red tips were her best-selling candy item but she pulled them to avoid running afoul of the ordinance.


Where do I begin with this sh*t?

As a kid, I bought candy cigarettes.  Or perhaps I should say my parents bought them for me.  I liked the ones that Tobi sold - the sugar-sticks with the "flame" tips - but I also chewed the gum cigarettes (Lucky Lights were my personal fave), which were actually more fun, since before you took the wrapper off you could blow through them, pushing out some of the sugar coating, and creating a realistic puff of "smoke".

And guess once?  I never took up smoking.  Tried it once or twice, never saw the thrill.  So all of those candy cigarettes affected my adult life choices by...0%.

Just like playing with guns never led me to shoot anybody.  But when's the last time you've seen a kid with a toy gun?

At the Jersey Shore last summer, I walked into a taffy shop that sold both typed of candy cigarettes.  Elated, I bought a bunch, and handed them out at work.  The older folks got a kick out of them, having not seen them in years, and the young people loved them, playing and preening with them before eating them.

Virtually none of these people smoke, by the way.

But despite the complete lack of causality between's Tobi Lynden's candy cigarettes and the actual smoking of tobacco cigarettes, the government couldn't wait to threaten to run her out of business.  And forced her to take a step in that direction regardless, as she was bullied into removing her best-selling product from the shelves.

And why do I believe that, should we all go off the fiscal cliff on Tuesday, the St. Paul health inspectors will still have their jobs, while Ms. Lyden's taxes will skyrocket in order to keep them there?

This nation has gone insane.  Bouncing off the boulevard, through the guardrail, off the cliffs and rolling down the hills into the valley.

And by the way...Tobi looks Asian to me.  When are the Asian-Americans going to rise up in this country?  They are openly discriminated against in higher education, persecuted in business, and are not afforded the proportional racial representation in government afforded to blacks in gerry-mandered districts.

Time to fight back.  Once they can come for your candy cigarettes....they can take anything.