8mm
Posted on 04/19/2008 9:49:08 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Smoking ban, fitness tests for healthier nation
By Sharri Markson
April 20, 2008 01:36am
SMOKING would be banned for everyone born next year, junk food would be taxed and everyone would be subjected to a fitness test by 2020.
By comparison, the cost of healthy food, including fruit and vegetables, would be reduced to reflect its low environmental impact and obvious health benefits.
These are just a few of the ideas from 100 of the nation's health experts who discussed the best way to combat obesity, reduce illness and promote a healthy lifestyle.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon said one idea put forward in a submission was an annual national fitness test where citizens would receive a financial incentive if they pass.
Health stream participants in the 2020 summit also discussed increasing public education about how death can be a "positive experience" to avoid patients panicking when they reach hospital emergency departments.
Health participant, Meredith Sheil, a former Westmead Children's Hospital pediatrician, said many participants had suggested a ban on cigarette sales by 2020.
"A lot of the health submissions suggested a ban on smoking by 2020," she said.
It’s scary. Otherwise intelligent people who are supposedly Conservative right wingers advocating for more government control to rid the world of what they don’t like.
Never thinking that the same Gumbint power can be turned against them.
Dumbasses.
The original point of the article was that Gubmint is paying for your healthcare, therefore it is their right and duty to intervene and reduce the costs to the taxpayer.
Welcome to Socialism and collectivism. They’re next.
LOL. Yes, this article is CLEARLY stating what will (or what some would like to) be coming. You don’t have to be a “Butt-Head” to realize it — they’re putting it in writing and in the news.
Call it schadenfreude. I’m not proud of myself, but it will be fun to see the fat asses and drunks rounded up into the boxcar.
A friend of mine once wrote “The unionists, communists and gypsies who welcomed the Nazis for ridding them of their Jew neighbors were pathetic fools.”
Karma always wins. We can either hang together or we will surely hang separately.
Much has changed since I worked for a company. Maternity care wasn't even a phrase then. What exactly does it mean?
All is not lost, though. Society has been given the go-ahead to look down upon smokers as lowlifes. In addition to their self-righteous opinions, too many of these "holier-than-thou" folks have decided they have the "right" to openly criticize one who smokes!
I challenge them to tell obese people they have to lose a lot of pounds, or that someone is too old to hold a job, etc., etc.
Has the time now come to harass those with offending garlic breath and other odors emanating from them due to what they choose to eat?
Proof that many people are pushing for fascism. The sad thing is that even supposed freedom supportive FReepers will gleefully lap this up at the feeding troughs for the herds of sheep.
Just wow. At first, I thought it was a Mike Huckabee campaign commercial transcript.
More seriously, these recommendations are screwed up, and quite possibly evil as well.
Sounds like Australia's your kind of country.
I’m socially conservative and a Libertarian. I simply don’t believe it’s government’s place to mandate social conservatism. I’ll go door to door to convince people to be socially conservative, thank you. Those who want to impose conservative social standards & mores via the state are no better than those who wish to impose liberal social standards via the state.
We should’ve voted for Al Gore in 2000. That way, we could have incandescent light bulb bans, ethanol mandates, free speech restrictions, and higher auto mileage requirements. Oh, wait...
So you’re sort of a “love it or leave it” kind of gal, eh? As in love your servitude or leave? Well, since you’re an Irish gal (profile), why don’t YOU go to Ireland, since they’ve banned smoking in workplaces, including restaurants and bars.
Yeah, my Mom smoked all the time I was growing up. I inhaled secondhand smoke on a regular basis for 18 years. I WANT MY LUNG CANCER, DAMMIT!
PP: I’m sorry about your Mom, but that misfortune is no excuse to try to run everybody else’s life.
Don't worry, your turn will come soon enough. They have plans for all of us.
Well, you are right about that. I’ll grant you that. This is still the best place to live though and I’m old enough that when it gets really bad, I’m hoping I’ll be gone.
That was the funniest dang post I’ve read in a while and thanks for the kind words about my mom.
You made your point well AND with a sense of humor.
Eric - you and I have gone back and forth on this before. I’m not a dumbass and I don’t think you are one either, but I do think you are very foolish. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death.”
Guns are a necessary reality in this evil world. Smoking has no value whatsoever. I link it right up there with pot and pot actually has some medicinal value to it.
As for secularism and Islamic modesty laws, that would be an entire cultural shift and to equate such a major shift as that with smoking is intellectually weak.
Eric - Can’t you come up with something else besides that pathetic questionnaire and those goofy pictures of you sitting on wicker settee?
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