May 30, 2004

Let's make a smoke-bomb!

Call me a cynic, but I am always of suspicious when I read stories such as this one. First of all, I believe that the report is 90% bullshit to begin with. Second, it fits too neatly with a government agenda.

Smoking causes a range of diseases never before suspected, including cataracts, acute myeloid leukemia and cervical, kidney, pancreatic and stomach cancers, U.S. Surgeon-General Richard Carmona said on Thursday.

Yeah. And second-hand smoke kills thousands of people every year, too. That particular myth grows every time some anti-smoking, bully-type nanny wants to pass an anti-smoking law, even though NOBODY HAS EVER been able to prove a link between second-hand smoke and premature death. The EPA couldn't do it, so they attempted to lie about their study in a blantant power-grab, later shot to pieces by a federal judge. The World Health Organization couldn't do it, although Bejus knows they tried, in a ten-year study that proved nothing.

Still, the myth lives on.

Some groups said the government needed to get much tougher on the tobacco industry.

"At the federal level, a good place to start would be the pending proposals in Congress to give authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco just as it regulates other products," said American Heart Association chief executive officer M. Cass Wheeler.

Yep. This "report" definitely proves that we need more federal regulation. That's ALWAYS the answer to a problem, isn't it? MORE FEDERAL REGULATION, as if the federal government doesn't regulate enough aspects of our lives already.

Goddam. What DOESN'T the federal government regulate anymore? We need more of that shit like we need a spare asshole right in the middle of our foreheads. (OOPS! I shouldn't have written that last line. Some do-gooder might get the idea that federal regulations requiring a spare asshole in the middle of our foreheads might be a good way to fight obesity and save the children. We'll all be required to have asshole implants or face prosecution under either Rico statutes or Homeland Security laws.)

States should raise tobacco taxes and ban all smoking in public places, Wheeler added.

Of course. Take my money so that I can PAY THE STATE for stealing my freedom. We, as a nation of sheep, allow that kind of crap to happen every day. Personally, in MY humble opinion, the goddam state is more of a menace than tobacco EVER will be.

Excuse me for ranting so early on a Sunday morning, but I visited an old friend's site before the sun came up, and his post on this matter fanned my inner fires. I know that he doesn't smoke, but he's a gun owner and he knows a camel when he sees its nose in his tent.

Wait a minute... isn't "Camel" the name of a brand of cigarettes? We need more federal regulation banning the use of the word "camel." We might as well regulate tents while we're at it.

My aching ass. What is this country becoming?