Since Dennis is talking about smoking...

...and the hysterical over-reactions to it, I thought this recent post from a Bostonian known as "The Snob" was particularly apropos. He provides his interpretation of the Mayor Menino's tyrannical stripping of the "modest and ancient freedoms" related to smoking.

1. Henceforth smoking shall be banned indoors, outdoors, and in all public places in between. This includes outdoor patios, where the wind blows hamburgers off tables, five feet from corners where MBTA buses belch more smoke than an Everett family reunion, lest the delicate health of the cocktail waitress be harmed.

2. Drugstores shall no longer be permitted to sell tobacco, a drug legal in all 50 states and whose commerce even the Taliban saw fit to countenance.

3. Cigarette sales on colleges are banned. However, campus bookstores may continue to stock pipes and tobacco alongside the saddle shoes, raccoon coats, and adhesive-backed suede armpatches.

4. Cigar bars are verboten, starting 5 years from today. That is: banned, outlawed, stripped of all rights, expropriated, and driven off into the wilderness to die in the snow. How thoughtful and generous our Emperor is, to give his poor subjects such advance that they may have time to select an engraving for their tombstone!

5. Two dudes can come here, rent a hotel room, get married by a justice of the peace, and consummate their nuptials upstairs--but no cigarette afterwards!

6. The penalty for selling cigarettes to minors shall be waterboarding. Illegal immigrants caught doing so will be driven straight to Logan and put on the next plane to Chile. Try sneaking across a whole continent to get back in, you, you evildoer, you!

Prager Group NEO Field Trip!

Melissa had a great idea for a Dennis Prager Group Field Trip:

The Ben Stein movie "Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed" will be playing at the Regal Cinema theatre in Middleburg Heights.

This theatre is less than a block from the I 71 exit, at Bagley Road. After the show we go for coffee nearby at the Panera Bread, 18324 Bagley Road, Middleburg Heights, OH 44130.

It looks like the movie runs from the 18th of April through the 24th. I'm available for a Friday or Saturday or Sunday (April 18, 19, or 20), so if anyone else is interested please let us know!

I was disappointed that I didn't get to see Ben Stein when he was in town recently so this is like having a second chance.

This email also serves as a reminder about this week's 2 PM Dennis Prager Discussion Group meeting at the Panera Bread cafe in the Golden Gate shopping center in Mayfield Heights (Mayfield Road (Rt 322) and I 271. That's April 13!

See you then!

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EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed
Opens April 18, 2008
Runtime: 1 hr. 30 min.
PG - thematic material, some disturbing images and brief smoking

Ben Stein follows his journey around the globe where he discovers that scientists, educators and philosophers are being persecuted in a modern day witch hunt because they dare to go against the theory of evolution. These pillars of education are being fired, ridiculed and ostracized for merely challenging Darwin’s theory; proposing that life on this planet could be a part of some intelligent design and not random chance. This thought-provoking film not only forces us to question what we have been taught but challenges us to ask--What else is being kept from us?

Read More Director: Nathan Frankowski Genres: Science & Technology, Culture & Society

After the "fall" - so to speak.

The March 9 Dennis Prager Group meeting happened, in spite of the Snowfall of 'aught 8.'

Some of us were lucky enough to be married to people who had big and powerful snow blowers, the kind that cut through 17" of fluffy stuff like a hot knife through butter! To the right is my house in North Ridgeville; notice the sharply defined snowbanks?

Then there were others (Sonino John Paul, for example) who may not be able to dig out their cars yet.

We six - we adventurous six - met at Kerry's Westlake meeting room but there should have been seven. Angie, Dan, David, Phil, Melissa and Dianne were there but Kerry was missing. Our dedicated Cincinnati, Ohio, leader, Jim Searcy, looked up her phone number and I called but there was no answer. It's funny how time changes you; in an earlier age I would have been irritated that our hostess wasn't there, but now I just worried that something bad had happened to her.

And, it had. We learned later that Kerry's mother had passed away, quite suddenly, and the burial was in southern Ohio. Kerry tried to let me know that she wouldn't be there but I never saw the email.

But, in the meantime, we six headed off to the local Applebees to have the meeting, and left a note for anyone who showed up. We're still of a mind that it could be some not-so-serious reason, after all, that kept Kerry away... maybe the time change?

Truth be told, these meetings can take place anywhere. It could have been a parking lot if it had been a lot warmer and someone brought food and drink. It's the dynamics, the ripple effect caused by a gathering of Conservatives, that leaves me exhilerated, hopeful, and always more informed than when I arrived.

If only I could roll the video tape for you instead of having to rely on a bank of dusty memory chips. The Elections and the Candidates took center stage, to be sure, but the 'key' light was on Hope, hope that Republicans take the presidency.

We each have differing concerns and levels of concerns over what will happen in the next eight months but we ultimately agreed that there should be a gathering of Dennis Prager Discussion group people on election night, '08. We have time to decide where the meeting will be but mark your calendars now for the 1st Tuesday of November, 2008.

And to Kerry, our sympathies on losing your mother.

We'll see you all next month, on April 13, at Panera's Bread at the Golden Gate Plaza, in Mayfield Heights.

Don't forget to use this blog to let us know how Dennis has been changing your thinking, or just what it's like for you living like a Conservative in a world of Liberals.

My best to you all! Keep the faith! And God Bless America!