A Tennessee Tale
Hmm. Entertaining.
Gretchen Wilson is a falling star in the world of country music. It's a fact. Also, a song isn't an advertisement; Skoal isn't paying Gretchen Wilson to plug their product. The Tennessee AG doesn't really have a legal leg to stand on as far as I'm concerned.
The kind of people who go to country music shows chew tobacco. That's the way the world works. My brother's as redneck as they come, and he smokes and chews. He got the same education in the dangers of tobacco use that I did. In my life, I've smoked two cigars, and used no smokeless tobacco. He made different choices than I did, and continues to make different choices. They're the wrong choices, but that's his right, and it's what's beautiful about America: people have the capacity and right to make both right and wrong decisions.
After all, a correct decision means nothing if you're not afforded the right to screw up. That's why capitalism (the capacity for failure, the possibility for overwhelming success) is so great, and why socialism/communism (no capacity for failure, no chance of success) is bollocks.
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- The Tennessee attorney general wants the country singer who made the song "Redneck Woman" a hit to stop "glamorizing" the use of smokeless tobacco at her concerts.
State officials said Gretchen Wilson can be seen on concert jumbo screens pulling a can of Skoal from her pocket while performing her new song, "Skoal Ring."
That may violate the 1998 settlement between states and tobacco companies forbidding tobacco ads targeting young people, Attorney General Paul Summers said.
"Many young people attend your concerts and purchase your music and T-shirts," Summers wrote in a letter he sent to Wilson Thursday. "Because your actions strongly influence the youth in your audience ... I ask you to take steps to warn young people of negative health effects of smokeless tobacco use."
Gretchen Wilson is a falling star in the world of country music. It's a fact. Also, a song isn't an advertisement; Skoal isn't paying Gretchen Wilson to plug their product. The Tennessee AG doesn't really have a legal leg to stand on as far as I'm concerned.
The kind of people who go to country music shows chew tobacco. That's the way the world works. My brother's as redneck as they come, and he smokes and chews. He got the same education in the dangers of tobacco use that I did. In my life, I've smoked two cigars, and used no smokeless tobacco. He made different choices than I did, and continues to make different choices. They're the wrong choices, but that's his right, and it's what's beautiful about America: people have the capacity and right to make both right and wrong decisions.
After all, a correct decision means nothing if you're not afforded the right to screw up. That's why capitalism (the capacity for failure, the possibility for overwhelming success) is so great, and why socialism/communism (no capacity for failure, no chance of success) is bollocks.
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