Alright, now that it is late and nobody is paying attention to this dead thread anymore, Dr. Feel can spend some time helping you to understand a few things and work through your issues. Time for some group therapy.
I'll say this for the 86th time here on FR, but the first time to you 3. Tobacco is not health food, tofu or vegetables. That's why we already have laws that say you have to be an adult to purchase it. It's not good for you (it says so right on the pack).
The left believes that in order to stop it they need to use lies, propaganda, misinformation and social engineering. The right believes that people are responsible for their own behavior and risks.
1993 ASSIST Study (American Stop Smoking Intervention Study) : Let's start from the beginning. If you need proof that high tobacco excise taxes, smoking bans, and systematic state sponsored discrimination are designed to COERCE smokers into quitting and nothing else, just read the anti-tobacco playbook.
"Over a decade of research by the National Cancer Institute has shown that the most effective way to reduce smoking rates is to decrease public tolerance of tobacco use through changes in policy, accompanied by media and educational programs."
"Changing the public acceptance of tobacco use will require policy change, a critical ingredient of societal change."
"The recent release of the EPA report on ETS provides the necessary justification to potential opposition, i.e. restaurant owners, small business owners, and smokers for requiring workplaces to eliminate the health hazard of ETS in the workplace." .
Mayor Bloomberg Exaggerates Secondhand Smoke Risk Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.; Amercian Council on Science and Health
"Who exactly are these 1,000 New Yorkers whose deaths Mayor Bloomberg claims will be prevented by his legislation? If, as we suspect, he is referring to deaths caused by exposure to secondhand smoke in restaurants and bars, the estimate of 1,000 deaths prevented is patently absurd. Our best estimate of the number of deaths prevented is somewhere between zero and a hypothetical ten to fifteen. There is no evidence that any New Yorker — patron or employee — has ever died as a result of exposure to smoke in a bar or restaurant."
The Surgeon General's Report Blows Smoke Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.; Amercian Council on Science and Health
Bridging the Ideological Divide: An Analysis of Views on Tobacco Policy By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H., Gilbert Ross, M.D., Clifford E. Douglas, Esq., Alicia M. Lukachko, M.P.H.: In the interest of expediency, before anyone wastes our time with the inevitable "What does tobacco control have to do with left wing or right wing political ideology?", read this. The American Council on Science and Health, a group of Republican physicians featured in the Wall Street Journal recommended sites, conducted the most thorough study of political ideology as it relates to "tobacco control". The results were obvious to anyone paying attention. Don't misunderstand. They are vehemently opposed to smoking and encourage people to quit. But they disagree with the lies, hyperbole, scare tactics and social engineering that are typical of the the left's "ends justify the means" philosophy.
The Bogus 'Science' of Secondhand Smoke:It has been fashionable to ignore the weakness of "the science" on secondhand smoke, perhaps in the belief that claiming "the science is settled" will lead to policies and public attitudes that will reduce the prevalence of smoking. But such a Faustian bargain is an ominous precedent in public health and political ethics. Consider how minimally such policies as smoking bans in bars and restaurants really reduce the prevalence of smoking, and yet how odious and socially unfair such prohibitions are.
A Collection of Conservative Thought on Smoke Nazi and Health Eugenics : From Conservative writers at Tech Central, Townhall, National Review and the Wall Street Journal
They Got Smokers, Why Not the Ugly?: The man, the myth, the legend...Rush Limbaugh weighs in on the nanny state.
Them: The one group for whom liberals have no tolerance at all. : Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal.
I think it is an insufficiently commented-upon irony that cigarette prohibition and the public shaming it entails is the work of modern liberals. They're supposed to be the ones who are nonjudgmental, who live and let live, but they approach smoking like Carry Nation with her ax. Conservatives on the other hand let you smoke. They acknowledge sin and accept imperfection. Also most of them are culturally inclined toward courtesy of the old-fashioned sort.
