This month marks my SIXTH Anniversary that I have not smoked!  Cheers! Cheers! Cheers!

If you've never smoked, You are truly blessed and truly wise!
If you do smoke, I'm praying for you that you will find a way to quit and that way will be as most DELIGHTFUL a transition you could ever have.

Don't let them fool you...smoking is NOT an 'imperfection'.  IT is of the Evil One and it destroys humans and FOULS most good things in a human.  I don't know how it has gotten this far without being called a SIN!  No, the Virgin Mary will not find this thing in you pleasing, no, you will not get more favors from Her, no, you will not be graced more than others.  Find more of Mary, not your next cig!  Here is an interesting read I want to share besides my celebration!  God Love you all and even you smokers, who so desperately want to find a way out!  

Taxpayers Still Support Tobacco Growers

The federal government recently announced a new $54 million, 12-week campaign using TV spots to encourage smokers to give up the habit, and state and federal spending on anti-smoking efforts have topped $800 million in some years.

Taxpayers may wonder, then, why the latest farm bill approved by the Senate contains support for the industry responsible for the product targeted by those anti-smoking ads — tobacco farming.

From 1995 through 2011, the federal government paid out $1.329 billion in subsidies for the tobacco industry.

Farm subsidies include commodity payments, crop insurance, marketing support, and agricultural research, and total agricultural subsidies have topped $20 billion in most recent years.

In 2011 alone, taxpayers shelled out $191,218,926 in tobacco subsidies to 58,350 recipients, according to figures provided by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

North Carolina receives the largest share of the subsidies — 39.7 percent of the total or $528 million from 1995 through 2011 — followed by Kentucky at 28.7 percent.

Tobacco subsidies are, however, dwarfed by outlays for other agricultural products. Corn subsidies amounted to more than $81 billion from 1995 through 2011 — including $4.6 billion last year — while taxpayers picked up the tab for $34.3 billion in wheat subsidies, $32 billion in cotton subsidies, $26 billion in soybean subsidies, and billions more for other crops.

Two other facts cited by the Mercatus Center: 62 percent of farms in the United States did not collect subsidy payments from 1995 through 2011, and 10 percent of farms collected 75 percent of all subsidies.

Subsidies during that period ranged from $25.8 billion in Texas to, curiously, $231,479 in the District of Columbia.

Don't let them fool you...smoking is NOT an 'imperfection'.  IT is of the Evil One and it destroys humans and FOULS most good things in a human.  I don't know how it has gotten this far without being called a SIN!  No, the Virgin Mary will not find this thing in you pleasing, no, you will not get more favors from Her, no, you will not be graced more than others.  

Find more of Mary, not your next cig!

It behooves us to avoid all deliberate faults and imperfections, if we are earnest in our intent to persevere and progress in the cultivation of an interior life that is a fitting prelude to the everlasting beatitude of Heaven. For small faults and imperfections can lead to grave venial sin, which can lead to mortal sin, and lead the soul to be enslaved by vice, and so the soul descends into perdition.

It is admirable that you humbly ascribe your perseverance to Our Blessed Mother, for she indeed has given to you such a grace and will continue to do so if you are instant and constant in prayer and devotion to her, that you may be all the more the servant of her Divine Son.

According to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Judas began to reprobate his soul when he neglected to reverence the Mother of God. It was through the Blessed Virgin's intercession that St. Peter repented and made fitting penance for his denial of Christ, but Judas was left to his own choice of hell because he himself chose not to receive graces from Jesus through Mary.

It is a dreadful thing to reject the Blessed Mother of God, for it is a sure sign of reprobation: just as true devotion to her is a signal portent of a good life of prayer here and of everlasting beatitude hereafter.