As a rule I do not purchase Cuban cigars as it is illegal to do so (although I have had a few gifted to me), and to many “aficionados” that makes me (and all other NC smokers) nothing more than “drugstore” cigar smokers. Of course I disagree with that assessment as will anyone with half a pallet that has tasted a Swisher Sweet and any one of the many great domestic cigars. Still, if you want to find the “best” domestic cigars there are some rules that will help you find them.

1. Ignore Price–there are some really good domestic sticks out there for $5 and under. There are also some really nasty sticks out there for over $5!
2. Ignore Half-Naked Women–sex sells, but not good cigars.
3. Ignore “Cuban” Nomenclature–many domestic cigars are “rolled in the fine Cuban tradition” or have a distinct “Cuban” flavor. I’m not saying some of the cigars marketed using this strategy aren’t good, but it isn’t because of anything “Cuban” about the cigar.
4. Ignore Ostentatious Packaging–sure those fancy boxes and bands are attractive, but they have no correlation to the quality of the cigar.
5. Ignore Most Cigars With Stolen Cuban Names–when America placed an embargo against Cuba many of the names used for Cuban cigars were stolen and placed on domestic cigars. As a general rule these cigars are manufactured by large companies pumping out tons of cigars that are just a notch above those drugstore smokes mentioned earlier. That isn’t to say you won’t find a few good ones, but if you stick with boutique or family owned shops you will find better smokes.

Taken from the August 2008 issue of America’s 1st Freedom.

One must wonder how far airport security has slid, given the recent detainment of a man at London’s Heathrow Airport. Brad Jayakody was stopped from boarding for wearing a “Transformers” T-shirt showing a cartoon gun. Bradley said the guard stated, “You cannot get on the plane because there is a gun on your T-shirt.”

Thank goodness he wasn’t a Ginsu salesman!

The following is taken from the August 2008 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, and it is not particularly shocking. Actually, it is something that everyone willing to look at the situation honestly has seen coming for some time. It is so stupid that it is almost embarrassing to read.

As criminal use of firearms continues to rise in Britain despite the gun ban there, criminals with knives are also causing major problems for law-abiding British citizens.

In what a Christian Science Monitor report called a “growing knife-crime culture,” [DOES THAT SOUND FAMILIAR?] British authorities are finding themselves in a losing battle to stop young people from carrying knives.

Along with stop-and-search operations on the street, the government is instituting a $6 million ad campaign to warn youths about the dangers of carrying a knife. [YES, $6 MILLION]

According to the report, Britain sees 200 to 250 stabbing murders a year, a number that has some pushing for less-lethal knives.

Dr. Mike Beckett is pushing to do away with tips on all kitchen knives in Britain.

“What people want in a kitchen knife is the edge,” he told the BBC. “The point on the end of the knife actually serves little culinary purpose, but it is the point that kills people.” [I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP..."IT IS THE POINT THAT KILLS PEOPLE." iF YOU HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT HOW IGNORANT THIS ARGUMENT IS WHEN APPLIED TO FIREARMS MAYBE THIS WILL HELP TO WAKE YOU UP...I HOPE!]

These are quotes taken from Thomas Boston’s, Human Nature In Its Fourfold State. The excerpt in full is found on the Providence Baptist Ministries website as provided by Monergism.com.

A man may bring as many buckets of water to a house that is on fire, as he is able to carry, and yet it may be consumed, and will be so, if he bring not as many as will quench the fire. Even so, although you should do what you are able, in keeping the commandments, if you fail in the least degree of obedience which the law enjoins, you are certainly ruined forever, unless you take hold of Christ, renouncing all your righteousness as filthy rags.

Objection 1: If we be under an utter inability to do any good, how can God require us to do it? Answer: God making man upright (Eccl. 7:29), gave him a power to do everything that He should require of him; this power man lost by his own fault…Now, we having, by our own fault, disabled ourselves, shall God lose His right of requiring our task, because we have thrown away the strength He gave us whereby to perform it? Has the creditor no right to require payment of his money because the debtor had squandered it away, and is not able to pay him?

But all this is needless, seeing we are utterly unable to help ourselves out of the state of sin and wrath. Answer: Give not place to that delusion, which puts asunder what God has joined, namely, the use of means and a sense of our own impotency. If ever the Spirit of God graciously influence your souls, you will become thoroughly sensible of your absolute inability, and yet enter upon a vigorous use of means. You will do for yourselves, as if you were to do all, and yet overlook all you do, as if you had done nothing. Will you do nothing for yourselves because you cannot do all? Lay down no such impious conclusion against your own souls. Do what you can; and, it may be, while you are doing what you can for yourselves, God will do for you what you cannot.