It would be comical, if it were not so pathetic, to observe the educated idiots from the finance and legal segments of state governments, as they attempt to deal with tobacco. Recently, a downstate Illinois court awarded a large judgement to a plaintiff against Phillip Morris. But the real stinger here was that to appeal the finding, the court ruled that PM had to post a $12 billion bond, which was cheered by our brilliant States Attorney, Lisa Madigan. PM responded that they would face bankruptcy, which the mental pygmies zolpidemsleep then derided as nonsense, until PM said they would miss their next payment in the tobacco settlement. It then occured to everyone, particularly municipal bondholders, that the states, as a result of the tobacco settlements, were de facto owners of the very companies that they claim are killing their constituents. Unfortunately, they have figured all that filthy lucre into their flagging budgets. For my buck, this is more entertaining than most of what Hollywood churns out. BTW, there is a good editorial about this in today’s Wall Street Journal.