Posted on 12/09/2013 8:23:38 PM PST by Slings and Arrows
I'm sitting at my desk, looking at a photograph of a gangrenous foot. It is a bloated thing in hues of phlegmatic gray rot, sanguine inflammation, melancholic black bile, and choleric open soresexhibiting all the humors of a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Above the photograph, in bold white capitals on a dull, matte background are the words smoking causes peripheral vascular disease. The photograph is helpfully labeled gangrene. Below the photograph, in a bland sans-serif typeface with letters an eighth of an inch high, is Marlboro Red.
This is a pack of Australian cigarettes, conforming to that nations Tobacco Plain Packaging Act. The act went into effect on December 1, 2012, and is the strictest such legislation in the world.
The act isnt very strict in its use of the word plain. I had to go through 35½ column inches of the Oxford English Dictionary before I arrived at definition 17, homely: often used euphemistically for ill-favored, ugly.
And the plain fact is Ive been a journalist for more than four decades. Ive listened to a lot of wild tales. But nothing Ive ever heardnot even in the most hyperbolical regions of the Middle East from fantastical lunatics making their farthest-fetched pronouncementscan match My mother died of foot gangrene from smoking.
If putrid tootsies are not your style, there are a variety of other government-mandated images displayed on Australian cigarette packs, such as rotted gums, diseased lungs, a blind eye, a smokers corpse, and tongue cancer. Though the tongue cancer photo doesnt really come off. It has the look of a graphic pornography extreme close-up where the close-up is so extreme that the graphic has displaced the porn.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
I could not find the great 15 60 75 tune “High Heels Are Dangerous”
Still thinking about our unsafe world, no structures over 2 stories tall, think of the lives saved building em not only that but suicide rates would plummet. Sidewalk curbs think of the scuffed rims and tires we would prevent and the bloody noses, skinned hands, and skinned knees it would eliminate. Think of the injuries and deaths we could prevent if we banned wild women who reach for your unmentionable while you’re weaving in and out of traffic at 80 mph. On further thought forget that last sentence.
Looks like LiLo’s off the ole wagon again...
What a waste; she was gorgeous before. The butts are the least of her problems.
CZJ: Train wreck. I love the article I posted ~2 months ago with the caption: “CZJ having a cigarette for breakfast.” What an unhealthy, dirty, disgusting drug addiction.
I’m convinced that more and more lifeforms need Einsatzgruppen therapy: it’s cheap, 100% effective and ensures a 0% recidivism rate.
I’m betting LiLo doesn’t make it to 40.
I agree.
Oh come on man! I remember that time........... :]
“It amazes me that in places like Ca you are criminal for smoking a ciggy in your own home, but you can smoke a doobie in the park and it is celebrated.
Two guys can smoke each others poles in the park in front of the kids and its diversity..
This country has lost its collective mind.”
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Absolutely correct in my opinion.
there is one thing california doesn’t have, tornado’s, thats about all. My girlfriend and I use to go to San Diego to spend time with her daughter. Found a great restaurant in Old Town that had margaretes that were about a quart in size, needed 2 hands to lift the glass. I had 3 and I think the food was great, but am not sure. Those drinks went down fast....the next thing I remember was I was crawling into the house via the doggie door. She had a large dog....lol
us smokers are not full citizens anymore..
Speaking as an Australian high school teacher, the pictures and plain packaging seems to be dissuading a lot of girls from smoking, but having little effect on stopping boys. But as teenage girls tend to take up smoking a lot more than boys, I actually don't think it's a bad thing.
I've no problem if an adult wants to smoke. I do think doing what we can to stop kids from taking it up is a good thing.
On the plain packaging - except for the possibility that it may be a violation of the Australian constitution, which I think should be followed, I don't have any problem with it.
I'm glad to hear that. Brings up an interesting debate about boys v. girls.
It saddens me to see a young girl doing that, it is bad for your appearance, ladies. I really think that could be an effective angle to try. The young may not fear death but they would fear being unattractive.
Sure, work the unattractive angle. Whatever stops them from trying smoking, great.
Being that I will be 75 next month, I have told my grandchildren I grew up in a free country, sorry for you guys its only semi-free. As a kid I'd go out to ride my bike and the rule was to be home by the time the street lights went on....I grew up in DETROIT. It was a beautiful city...
Ping
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