seruzawa

Right. No one knew that cigarettes were harmful. That tobacco company conspiracy fooled everyone (with an IQ lower than 60)!



Everyone has known all along that tobacco is addictive and harmful. Blaming the tobacco companies is just a method of avoiding personal responsibility and then lining up to demand free handouts.



"The sport will stand on its own, I am certain."



Talk is cheap. I doubt that you will lay out any personal financial guarantees to the racers. It's alsways easy to be generous with someone else's monay.

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"Make no mistake, Communism lost a big argument - one we know today as the 20th century."

svtech

Sounds like you're short maybe a double shot espresso and a large sugar coated, trans-fat laden doughnut. Top that off with a 64 ounce drink of you're choice.



Go pimp that Nicorette stock someplace else or you'll have issues with my dentist.

Aero_Mongoose

Cigarette companies pour a disproportionate amount of money into racing (F1, Moto GP, etc.) because they have been banned them from every other major form of advertising (TV, Radio, etc.). As a business, they need to advertise their product and probably have an advertising budget commensurate with their financial peers. They're trying to make the most effective use of that money.



I don't smoke, and I wouldn't want anyone I care about to smoke, but that's their call. Usually I feel like we need to either just make the things illegal or let them run their business already. This level of harassment and exploitive taxation feels dirty. Selling cigarettes is either wrong, or it's not.

svtech

Was that a misprint?



Did you mean to say "pubic safety"?



Certainly you've heard of the insidious ad campaigns of the condom industry while trying to pass their product on to consumers as an adjunct for "safe sex".



Latex must be banned.



Could I have just one last peanut butter sandwich before the peanut moratoriam is enacted?

svtech

How much older do you mean? I've got a Suzuki T250R that was sporty in its day and came with a Lucky-like paint scheme - kinda green and all. Bad news is that it smokes.



Gotta ban those two strokes, too.



Oops, that's already been done.

acecycleins

Why is this a surprise? You can't run a logo but you can run colours. The funny thing is that this used to happen in the liquor industry from the NASCAR guys. You remember they were just a bunch of bootleggers at one time. Then Crown Royal threw hugh money into the IROC series and the next thing you know liquor advertisers were lining up. This will work for about 2 or 3 seasons then the "gov't" will notice that the taxes aren't being collected at the same rate. After that you'll get the old "We're going to modify our law by allowing advertising only on (in this case) the bike. No billboards or other advertising but the bike is fine." Either way, I don't think that the racers will care.

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"Slack" - a state of being in which everything flows smoothly.....a frame of mind so at ease that the universe naturally cooperates.

maladg

It must be FOR THE CHILDREN....what else could it be. I suppose that a near total ban on legal ownership of firearms was too. As was the expansion of use of speed cameras - almost to the point of England was too.



Its funny to watch a country go insane from a distance. Not so funny to live thru it.



Now remember: its for the children.

christian_gates

Ridiculous. This enforced safety crap is getting completely out of hand.



cdg

longride

"I'm carrying an extra 25 pounds. I wish the government would do something about those evil, greedy fast food corporations."



They already are. NY is considering banning trans fats in foods, so everyone from McD's to your local hot dog vendor will have to change what they cook with. For the public good. of course.

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longride

It's funny, but the dangers of tobacco were well documented as far back as the 1500's, yet the health risks are still a f&cking suprise for some people. Amazing. As with the 'drug war', prostitution laws, and prohibition, we need to prove to ourselves, once again with tobacco, that you will never stop the demand for goods the public wants. Just tax the shyt more and call it a day already!

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I'm a knucklehead