European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 5, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 18 the stars and stripes wednesday. February 5,1986 columns today s crossword sin fax is still the Correct name by Ellen Goodman there was a Lime when we used to Call hem in thai earlier and moralistic age the govern ment was encouraged to punish smokers and drinkers for their sins by slapping them with a stiff excise tax. This notional pay As you go to hell program lasted Well into the mid-20th Century with time out for prohibition. Then gradually sin began to go out of , smoking is no longer the hallmark of a Loose woman except in retrospective Virginia slims ads. Not even the salvation army describes alcoholics As sinners anymore. But there is a movement in the land to raise up the excise taxes from the half dead. One coalition of groups is lobbying to tax cigarettes at a higher rate and no another wants to up the Federal Ante on alcohol. This time they Aren t crusading to t a people for the Sake of their souls. They Are campaigning to save their bodies. Last month the National alcohol tax coalition one part women s Christian Temperance Union 10 purls medical establishment introduced its plan. It Isnoel. Hey insist the same old fashioned sin faxes " their Hopes arc labelled health the coalition makes a Good Case for an alcohol sax increase on purely economic grounds. Doubling the tax on hard alcohol would restore it to 1974 Levels when you adjust the value of the Dollar. Their other proposal would Tux the alcoholic Content of Beer and wine so that i would be on a Par with hard liquor. They estimate that the whole thing would bring in si2 billion a year to Cut the deficit. But the motive is More Subtle than the Price Lac. The modern Demon in rum is its health effects. The alcohol tuners Hope As do the cigarette taxes that raising the costs will lower the consumption especially by the Young. As Michael Jackson head of the Center for science inthe Public interest says up front we re interested in reducing drinking not stopping drinking. We re not tee Tot Alers but we Wano promote the Public health while raising lax , 1 support this argument and these new taxes. But i can t help noticing the shifting grounds on which hic new arguments rest. Today we arc less Likely to apply a moral measure to human behaviour than a health Mea sure. We have switched from damnation prevention pro Grams to sickness prevention. H is particularly Siruc of smoking and drinking but no exclusively. When was the last time that anyone accuses an overweight Friend of the sin of gluttony we May walkabout willpower the bakery May name its Best Selling dessert chocolate sin but it s the rare person who says that being fat is being bad. We say albeit piously that it s bad for is sloth any longer a sin against god. It has become a crime against your heart vessels. We no Long Erwin or lose Points for the life in the hereafter but for extending the Here and now. The new chosen people Are those who Rale High on the cardiovascular Fil Parade premarital sex has undergone a slight shift. Once we believed that god would punish those who committed the act. Now Many americans Are less anxious about the immorality than about catching a sexually transmitted have strayed a bit from smoking and drinking. But not onto altogether foreign turf. By All Means we should raise the taxes on smoking. Raise them on drinking if the Young get hit in the purse or pocketbook they May not gel hit later in the fiver or lung. Let the heaviest users make the contribution to the National debt on the Way to the Don t try to change the name of the tax. Smoking May be described As an addiction and alcoholism As disease. But these Are still sin it s just that we be changed the nature of sin. The unforgivable Misbehaviour of contemporary life is whatever makes us sick c Balm cloth nmn too Pool crude Awakening for Oil Barons by Art Buchwald there arc some people who Are laughing because theol Barons now have to Tell spare Oil at $17 � barrel. I Don t happen to be one of them. It s True that open hid every intention of clicking itto the non Oil producing countries but that does t mean we should All be acting like Chicago Bear fans. Many of the Oil producers have been humbled by the the other Day the Oil Prince. Al Glamis a Polo playing Friend of mine stopped me on fourteenth Street and asked me if i wanted to buy a genuine rolex watch. When he recognized me he Kerned embarrassed. Your i said what Are you doing Selling rolex watches on fourteenth Street where would you sell them if crude was dropping to $16 a barrel but surely you la Mill make More Money Selling Oil than watches i might except everybody has a Lien on my crude. I can t ship a barrel of it without some credit Union seizing it in a foreign port. Fortunately they Don t know about my watch Why watches i asked him. When Oil was $36 a barrel 1 bought 10,000 watches to hand out As tips to the hotel help when i travel abroad. Now it turns out the watches Are Worth More than my Oil. Don t you need that will Tell you the phase of the Moon i said i can t believe you re that broke. What about the military equipment you bought that s got to be Worth charge took it All Back when i missed to i never thought i d see a Middle East Prince Down on his did it Glamis said. The last time i was in Washington 1 slept at the White House. Now i sleeping across the in a hotel no in Lafayette Park. Do you know what is driving the Price of Oil Down it s i thought that s what drove the Price of Oil up. As 1recall it was open s greed that almost bankrupted the that was t greed. That was Supply and was t enough Oil to go around so we had to raise prices.". But does t the reason they tumbled also have to do with Supply and demand no that was lust. Everybody who was pledged to Drill so much crude cheated and caused a glut. Then because of the glut they had to produce More crud which produced More crude and then it was just glut glut asked the Prince How can you expect open to Honor their quotas when they Are in Hock up to their car for so Many of the Good things in life i would think you would keep drilling even if you got s5 a i would the Prince said Only i Don t own the insurance companies How come the insurance companies own your Oil " borrowed $100 million to build a new Airport and air conditioned Polo Why would you do that to attract tourists so my country no longer has to depend on c lot an Mem time by Eugene Sheffer across 45 ascended 1 london1 Couch 47 unclean District 5 ending is moslem 2 Genera for Van mails Bradley 8 ski lift trate 3 house12 hebrew 52 is. 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