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Black Hawk Tobacco Shop
Newsletter
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Black Hawk Tobacco Shop - All Natural Native American Tobacco at a price you and your wallet will love. We sell 100% natural cigarettes. These native American made natural tobacco products use all cotton filters and the highest quality natural tobacco available in the United States.
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Issue #4 - April 15, 2005
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Topics in this Issue:
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- GeoTrust 128 bit SSL
- Toll Free 1-877-44tobacco (1-877-448-6222)
- Seneca Full Flavor Non-Filters Cigarettes @ $10,99 a carton.
- Visa and Mastercard Become Moral Authorities
- The Myth of Legal Tax Free Cigarettes
- Web Tip: Google Dictionary Function
- Tobaccofreedom.org & The Daily Reveille
- Link of the Letter: The Half Bakery
- Subscription
to Newsletter
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GeoTrust 128 bit SSL
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Like I explained last issue, the Black Hawk Tobacco Shop uses two web sites:
www.blackhawktobaccoshop.com and www.blackhawktobacco.com
Up until now, both of these sites were using the same secure encryption technology and the same certificate. This caused confusion for some people. To make it easier for people to see that we are encrypted, we have placed on each website on a seperate SSL certificate. RapidSSL is used by our original domaine: www.blackhawktobacco.com. www.blackhawktobaccoshop uses the more famous GeoTrust seal which doesn't matter because RapidSSL is also a GeoTrust company.
We the change occurred at the beginning of this month. If you happened to be online at the exact moment of the change (when the server being shut down and restarted) it is possible that you were not able to visit the website for up to six hours. This is unfortunate and we hope that we did not cause anyone too much inconvenience. We definitely do not like down time.
HTTPS versus HTTP
If you are still unsure if the Black Hawk Tobacco Shop is secure website, you can easily test us now. First, just click the GeoTrust seal. That shows it fairly clearly. Second use the secure https:// protocal instead of the unsecure http:// protocal in the address bar: https://www.blackhawktobaccosho.com.
All pages with https are secured. You will immediately notice that they are slower loading. That is because they have to be encrypted and then deencrypted before you can view them. For this reason, only the forms use encryption. All other pages are not because there is no personal data transferred between us.
You may also wonder why you get the message that the page contains secure and non-secure elements. It doesn't matter which button that you click, yes or no. This is because not all the elements on the page come from our server where the SSL certification is located.
Specifically both the Alexa seal and the GeoTrust seal are located by each individual company. This is so that we can not alter them and they retain their third party credibility. It is a safety feature. If you visit a web site any of these logos is non-functioning (you can't click them), there is a chance that the web site displaying the seal is not really secure. Always click the seal to test them. |
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| Our New Toll Free Number 1-877-44tobacco |
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We finally did it. In order to make it easier (and cheaper) for our customers to contact us, we installed a toll free number. Now you can easily call us and place an order without worrying about your phone bill.
In the past, we always said, "send us your number and we will call you at our cost". In the era of data theft, identity theft and non-stop, automated-insane-telemarketing-computer operators (not even humans anymore), people really don't like giving out their phone number. And why should they. I know I don't.
So if you would like to place an order, ask about a shipment, report a problem, make a complaint, ask a question or tell us your opinion about our service, web site or whatever, please call: 1-877-448-6222. The cost is on us.
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Call Toll Free: 1-877-44tobacco
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Seneca Full Flavor Non-Filter Kings @ $10.99 |
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This past month, we have had several people inquire about Native American non-filter cigarettes. There was more interest than ever before now.
For those people specifically, we have lowered the price of one of our non-filter cigarettes. Seneca of New York Non-Filter Kings is our special for this newsletter and costs $10.99 a carton until the next newsletter comes out.
You can only order them at this price from the below links: |
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| Special Order Form |
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What is most interesting about non-filter cigarettes, is that most people consider them more deadly than any other type of cigarette. They is one of the big ironies and biggest misconceptions about smoking. Before commercial cigarette companies started adding chemicals and using fiberglass filters, people smoked less and lived longer.
The following is quoted from an article in hypocracisy today website. We do not agree or disagree with any of their political comments made on the web site. We do think it is sometimes funny. Hell, you have to have a sense of humor these days.
"Smoking Is Hazardous To My Health?
Cigarettes aren't hazardous to my health. What's hazardous to my health is apparently the additives that cigarette manufacturers put into their product. I don't know what the additives are. They seem to fall under the Official Secrets act. I don't know why they are added to tobacco or why tobacco has to be so over processed to fit into a tube of paper with a fiberglass filter stuck on the end and painted to look like a cork. (Maybe the filter is more hazardous to my health than the tobacco is.)
I'm beginning to realize that everything we ingest, inhale, drink, touch, or look at is hazardous to our health. You can't even go to the beach without smearing yourself with some expensive product designed to block out the rays of the sun. (This chemical too is hazardous. It absorbs through the skin, gets into the blood stream and does unknown long term damage.)
Everything that is now found to be hazardous to my health seems to be additives that some manufacturer has processed in to an otherwise healthy product. Roast beef was healthy before farmers fed steroids to steers. Chicken was easily digested until processors plucked them, gutted them and dipped them in water that wasn't changed for a week. Cherrios were terrific until they were processed with BCHT to extend their shelf life. All this stuff was healthy, tasty and good until it got manufactured. What does that tell you? We should all go out and grow our own Cherrios hydroponically?
Maybe cigarette smoking would be less hazardous if we bought tobacco straight from the farmers, ground it up and rolled our own. My grandfather used to do that. It took a long time, so he smoked less. He died of old age when he was 86 years old. But "old age" never appears on a death certificate. The doctor probably added "smoker" to further skew the Surgeon General's statistics."
You can view this document online at: hypocrisytoday.com/smoking.htm. Please keep in mind that we do not take responsibility for anything said by anyone else, including web sites linked to us. Please have a sense of humor. |
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Visa and Mastercard: The New Moral Authorities |
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The attacks against Smokers Rights is entering a new phase. In many states, Visa and Mastercard have begun to deny their customers the right to purchase tobacco products with their credit cards. This is a bold and new form of discrimination to say the least. Apparently, neither company is particularly worried about backlash from their smoking clients. Why should they be? People will generally accept policy without complaint.
To find out more, I sent both the Visa and Mastercard Corporations the following E-Mail:
"Recently, it has come to my attention that Visa is now starting to decide what may or may not be purchased with its card. Specifically, I am referring to tobacco sales on the Internet. Smokers are now being told that Visa will not honor tobacco sales and is refusing to pay merchants. I would like to know where Visa stands on this issue. Why are you allowing pornographers and other unsavory individuals to use your credit card, but refusing smokers that same right? Do you consider smokers to be so low and disgusting, that our money is not good enough for you? What legal right do you have to make these judgments?"
Visa almost immediately replied:
"Thank you for conveying your thoughts to us. By way of explanation, Visa acceptance does not override state laws and Visa cards may only be used for legal purchases. Therefore you may wish to contact your state's attorney generals office regarding any general laws or tax laws which may prohibit the purchase of cigarettes from another area or state."
Mastercard did not reply at all.
After discussing the issue with the authorities involved, this issue, once again, seems to be directed at non-Native American companies, like eSmokes, selling taxable goods illegally. After looking at the Attorney General's web site, it also seems that eSmokes is once again the main target.
eSmokes is one of six companies being sued by the State of California and can no longer use either the Visa or Mastercard for sales. In fact, esmokes can't sell cigarettes to persons in California at all. Nor can eSmokes sell cigarettes to people in Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas or West Virginia.
In order, to be prepared for possible changes of law within California or laws relating to Native American owned businesses, we have changed our web site. If you are a new customer, you must call our toll-free number 1-877-44tobacco (1-877-448-6222) and arrange payment options with us.
We have also modified the "new customer" order forms on our web site to reflect the ambiguity of this issue.
If you are one of our regular customers, nothing has changed at all. You can continue to place orders in the way that you have arranged with us.
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The Myth of Legal Tax Free Cigarettes |
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"All transactions are initiated and concluded on Native American territory and area governed by Native American law and applicable Native American treaties."
Tax Free Cigarettes
If you ever go online to look and see about cheap, discount cigarettes (I do all the time to see what the competition is doing) and you see the phrases "tax-free cigarettes" or "legally tax free cigarettes" or "duty free cigarettes," be warned. Something is wrong. In the United States of America, there are no tax free cigarettes. In fact, nothing sold at all is legally tax free, especially cigarettes. Somebody somewhere is paying taxes or will have to pay taxes in the future.
The Black Hawk Tobacco Shop and the Sovereign Nations that produce them, pay the Federal taxes owed on the cigarettes sold in our shop. These cigarettes are not tax free. They are tax paid. These taxes are partially in the price of the cigarettes. We are paying them together.
I say partially because we don't always raise our prices when our costs go up. Native All Naturals increased by 65 cents a carton recently. For the last several months, we have absorbed those costs. We try to keep our prices as low as we can. We take pride in having low cigarette prices. We like it that way.
We are state and local tax exempt, however.
That is a little different. We are situated on Agua Caliente Sovereign territory. What that means is the taxing authority who has the right to collect taxes is the Agua Caliente Nation, not the State of California nor the City of Palm Springs. As is tradition amongst Native American peoples throughout the country, Native American govern-ments do not charge their people sales taxes nor property taxes.
In California, which is not the case in all the other states, the Native American tribes have no agreements with either local or state governments to collect taxes. WE ARE NOT LEGALLY OBLIGATED. Until those laws change, we will continue to follow them as they are written. If they change in the future, we will adapt to those legal conditions.
If a company tells you, "tax-free cigarettes" and does not prove to you that they are tax exempt (Native American owned on Native American land selling Native American products to Native Americans and non-Native Americans), then you are required to pay sales taxes. As eSmokes customers know, those bills can be staggering.
Duty Free Cigarettes
Never buy Duty Free Cigarettes under any condition. Duty Free cigarettes are different from tax free cigarettes. With tax free cigarettes, the taxes owed are not collected by the stores selling them. It is up to the consumer to pay the taxes owed.
Duty free cigarettes are cigarettes meant for foriegn markets. They are shipped outside of the United States and then re-imported. This is not a legal practice. In fact, it could get you in a lot of trouble.
Yesmokes.com was a leader in Duty Free cigarette sales. Operating from Switzerland, they methodically re-imported cigarettes one carton at a time. The legal outcome. Yessmokes.com has been shut down, their customers paid the bill in back taxes or unshipped cigarette orders and the domain is off-line (and appears to now be owned by Universal Web Services in Panama).
Our view. Stay informed and never, never buy duty free cigarettes.
More Cigarette Information
I have searched the Internet for good links and information about tax free cigarettes, duty free cigarettes and the Native American cigarette issue. As usual, I found more information than I could read in a month.
The best article is a piece called, "Piecing Together the State-Tribal Tax Puzzle" and is published by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSA). The article was written by Judy Zelio in
April 2005 and is complicated to say the least. It is not produced here because of its length. It is very well informed and has detailed maps showing which areas of the country have federally recognized Native American Nations conducting business with Alcohol, Tobacco and or Gambling.
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/fiscal/sttribe_tax.htm |
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Web Tip: Google Does More than Search |
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I am often suprised about how little is actuall known about the search engine giant Google. Millions of people search the web on a daily basis with Google and never click a single button other than to toogle back and forth between "Web" and "Images" or to click "Search".
For this reason, I have decided to add a new section to the newsletter: tips. Every month I will try to find a very simple feature that isn't know to most web users. Naturally, all of you web junkies out there will probably laugh at most of what I mention here. If any of you think that you know a simple feature about the web that has been overlooked, please send me an E-Mail at admin@blackhawktobaccoshop.com. I would love to hear from you.
Important Web Tips
Most people have used Google.com for Internet searchs. That is easy enough to do and millions of people do it every day. Did you also know that it can also be used as a calculator, a phonebook, an atlas, a movie guide, to find stock quotes, the weather, a spell checker and also a dictionary?
Because a tip should be quick and not an essay, I will only briefly mention one feature. The other 17 features have been easily explained by Google at:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html
Dictionary
To use Google as a dictionary simply type the word define: before any word you would like to define in the Google search bar. To find out about "Legal Tender," I searched Google with the following request: define: legal tender.
(Incidentally, credit cards are not legal tender.) |
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TobaccoFreedom.org and The Daily Reveille |
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While surfing the web this past month I came across an article in the Louisiana State University's newspaper The Daily Reveille. It was the typical anti-smoking piece from the view point of college students. The only difference between this and every other anti-smoking article was that this web site encourages reader participation. So, I added some comments.
Amazingly, they were printed. They took out any reference to the Black Hawk Tobacco Shop (that's only fair), but they mostly honored my free speech rights and printed what I wrote. That's rare in today's democracy.
If you would like to go to their site and add your own comments, feel free to do so.
For those of you who are busy, I will reprint it here:
'Smoking Words' fight cigarettes
Posted 04/10/2005
There has been a lot of talk about all the chemicals in second handing smoke. Have you ever asked yourself this question, "How did they get there?" Think about it. How is it possible for a tobacco plant to come loaded with all these man made chemicals like Formaldehyde, Toluene, Propylene Glycol, Acetone, Ammonia et cetera? They were put there. The commercial cigarette companies add them to make them more addictive and to increase their profit margin.
Does anyone think about this when they are yelling at the smoker? Does the government? They say that they have added all the "sin taxes" to force people to quit. Has it? No. Does the government really add the taxes for the health of the smoker? No. It doesn't. The government adds the taxes to cigarettes because cigarettes are extremely addictive (thanks to the extra chemicals and additives) and smokers will still pay the high prices.
If politicians and the anti-smoking lobby really cared about the health of the smoker, they would ban the use of chemicals in the manufacturing process. If that was done, ammonia would no longer be in second hand smoke (nor would the some 600 to 900 other chemicals and flavorings). The effect: instant health improvement, a less addictive cigarette and a lot less smoking going on.
This comment is written by a person who is currently engaged in selling people cigarettes. There is one difference however. The cigarettes we offer to people are chemical free and 100% all natural. Does that make them healthier? No. It doesn't make them healthier. It is however better than smoking cleaning products. That's what big tobacco is selling.
People feel better physically. People don't have as strong a need to smoke. And yes, many of our customers find it easier to quit. That is a great thing. The only problem is, where is the government going to find a replacement for all those lucrative cigarette taxes?
My basic view is this: Government and Big Tobacco are in bed together.
TobaccoFreedom.org
2) The advocacy group, TobaccoFreedom.org, claims, "Our organization believes it is critical that cigarette users and nonsmokers establish responsible practices for adult smoking behavior."
That seems fair enough. I don't like to go to the beach and find it strewn with cigarette butts any more than I like to see on discarded chewing gum, beer cans or worse lying about. Let's start respecting each other and being responsible. That would end half of the debate.
But that isn't why I included them here. A more interesting article is found deeper within their web site.
David Dangoor & the Tobacco Connection
I quote:
"I'll tell you want I like about the [tobacco] business. First, there are no surprises. There is nothing more to be said or discovered about the cigarette business or the industry. And there's no way to write an article that could do us any more harm than what has already been written. Second, no new company wants to get into the tobacco business. That's great. Third, we have the best partners in the world: the governments. In a lot of countries, it's incredibly important to the whole welfare state that we sell our products to collect taxes.
When you sit with a finance minister or deputy of any government to discuss taxation, he's much cruder about the financial analysis of that taxing than we are. He asks, 'how much can I put up the tax, to make sure that demand is not going to go down so much that my net intake goes down?' Amazing. So no matter how you look at the cigarette business, it's incredibly predictable, it's extremely secure as an investment vehicle -- if you can deal with the fact that some people are not going to like you."
-David E. R. Dangoor, exective vice president, Philip Morris International
Another interesting statement from Philip Morris:
In a CONFIDENTIAL Philip Morris document (May 27, 1987 p.3), industry executives state that they are not worried about government intervention.
"Cigarettes are not only taxed at the federal level but at the state and possibly local level. To the extent that government bodies tend to regard this tax as a 'cash flow' there is a degree of resistance to destroy the [tobacco] industry."
Summation
What it basically means is this:
1)
Commercial cigarettes are engineered to be addictive and the government allows it because cigarette taxes are a major source of revenue for state governments.
2) State governments are cracking down on Internet shoppers because it is easier than spending taxes wisely
You can read more about these topics in the Internet.:
www.tobaccofreedom.org
Louisiana State University's "The Daily Reveille"
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Link of the Letter: www.halfbakery.com |
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Because this tobacco and cigarette related newsletter was so long and serious, the Link of the Letter is once again a humorous, non-tobacco related web site.
The Halfbakery is a wonderful web site for everyone who has ever thought, "If I was an inventor, I would invent this...." Something new, something different and maybe even something useful.
The Halfbakery describes itself so, "The Halfbakery is a communal database of original, fictitious inventions, edited by its users. It was created by people who like to speculate, both as a form of satire and as a form of creative expression."
So for some little, funny surfing to help you digest this newsletter, I encourage you to stop by and check out those half-baked ideas.
Smoke and Enjoy!
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| The Half Bakery |
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Black Hawk Newsletter Subscription |
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If you would like to subscribe to future issues of our newsletter please send us your name and E-Mail to newsletter@blackhawktobaccoshop.com or fill out our secure on-line form: here.
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