"McCarthy was right."
The Internet

In a moment of existential despair and self-absorbent angst, I purchased a pack of Mexico Spirit cigarettes today.  Not Mexic-an Spirit, Mexic-o Spirit.  The first drag was brutal.  Clearly, the tobacco was cured in the men's room of a Sonoran highway truckstop.  The flavor matched my mood to perfection.  Bitter, stale, and poorly swept, like the floor of a garage.  Unlike the exotic smoking Indian logo of American Spirit cigarettes, packs of Mexico Spirit cigarettes are emblazoned with images of emphysema patients and people with rotten teeth.  The artwork matched my mood as well.

Later, I decided to watch Good Night, & Good Luck, a film directed by George Clooney which I highly recommend.  Made during the Bush years, Good Night & Good Luck tells the story of corporate TV news anchors fighting for due process and free speech during the McCarthy hearings.  The film has aged remarkably well, and begs the question:  What does George Clooney think about the battle for freedom today?  It was easy to fight for free speech during the Bush years.  I wonder where he stands now.

I've always liked George Clooney, and still do, but I'm not interested in repeating the question asked in the movie.  It speaks for itself.  Watch it at your earliest opportunity.

What does interest me is the extreme abundance of smoking in the film.  It's historically accurate, and I'm not against it.  Doctors used to peddle cigarettes in those days, not unlike how they peddle other types of deadly substances today.  Y'know, things that make cigarettes look like candy canes made of Vitamin C in comparison.  But was it Kents they were smoking in the CBS newsrooms of the 1950s, or Mexico Spirits?  Was the Mexican Tobacco Cartel responsible for bringing low-grade tobacco products into the U.S., in an attempt to undermine freedom of speech, due process, and republicanism?

I think it's a possibility.

"Since late 2017, the Tobacco Cartel (Cártel del Tabaco) has
forced cigarette vendors in at least eight Mexican states
to sell only specific brands, threatening to kill
those who do not comply."
Insightcrime.org

Since we're all into revisionism lately, and everything (and therefore nothing) is true, all you have to do is replace the word "2017" with "1953," and the phrase "at least eight Mexican states" with "retro American newsrooms," and a compelling case is made.  The Mexican Tobacco Cartels infiltrated CBS in the 1950s, and the modern henhouse TV talk show was born.  Let's have another Mexico Spirit to celebrate.

Refreshing.  Nothing like the taste of the floor of a ferret cage to turn me on to the putrid joys of homosexual communism.  Let's have another.

Corporations lie.  That kid was in a motorcycle accident.  If he was a gay, Mexico Spirit-smoking communist, he'd have his own corporate news show today!  Like the guy from AC/DC, apparently.

Anyway, since they were smoking so many delicious tobacco products in the movie, I decided to go outside and have another.  In the middle of it, while thinking about what to say in this article, it occurred to me that I was smoking a spirit.  Immediately, I put it out and threw it away.  I was going to throw half the pack away anyway (they only cost 2 or 3 bucks down here), but when I realized that they were literally spirits, I simply couldn't do it anymore.  

But it was a fun trip to 1950s Bush-era liberalism while it lasted.  Happy 4th of July!